It didn’t take the new commissioner of the NBA long to stand up and show the world that he indeed has a mind of his own and that plans for future upgrades in the NBA are already well underway.
Adam Silver was speaking at a business convention last week when he revealed that he is open to the idea of ‘subsidies’ for student basketball athletes in college in order to ease their circumstances and allow for the increase to the NBA’s minimum age requirement he’s been pushing for since taking office in February.
One of the major changes that Mr. Silver would like to see is the controversial ‘one and done’ for college basketball players. Silver wants the young players to have at least two years of college before going on to the professional ranks. Currently the minimum age to enter the NBA is 19 years old. Adam Silver would like to see that raised to 20 and he has some pretty good reasons why.
The new NBA commissioner told reporters that his office might consider ‘subsidizing’ college athletes in order to encourage them to stay in college for one more year and that might just do the trick. Various players who have made the jump to the pros early on have stated later that they might well have stayed in school for another year if they didn’t have to scuffle for money all the time.
This point recently received national attention when the star player on the National Championship Uconn Huskies basketball team, Shabazz Napier told reporters that there were times when he and other members of the team were going hungry. Someone needs to fix that and Silver might just be the guy.
In order to raise the age limit for entering the NBA to 20 years old, the commissioner’s office must first get the approval from the National Basketball Players Association as part of the collective bargaining agreement. Silver has already stated his willingness to work with the NCAA and the NBPA to give student athletes a better deal.
Mr. Silver said, “Rather than focusing on a salary and thinking of them as employees, I would go to their basic necessities. I think if Shabazz Napier is saying he is going hungry, my God, it seems hard to believe, but there should be ample food for the players.”
This move by Adam Silver came as somewhat of a surprise as the NBA has always kept their distance from anything to do with the NCAA, but his new ideas may well come to pass and we will see better days ahead for college athletes.
