Stern needs to allow guys to enter the league and stop being so paternalistic. These schools are wasting valuable scholarship opportunities. You shouldn’t short change legitimate student-athletes that are in school to get an ordinary job for essentially a professional sports draft boarding school.

The college game also enhances a player’s fan base by the time he comes into the NBA. The NCAA creates a player’s national identity and gives him exposure more so than high school or AAU. Some college fans will follow players and their teams. I followed Kansas City Kings because Phil Ford played for them.. Yes that does date me.

Lastly it lowers the risk in the draft process. Teams can evaluate players as they are playing against better competition than in high school. Agents will hide their HS players not puttng them in competive situations before the draft making it difficult for a team to evaulate his talent, skills and readiness.

Yes it is about money but few of you are seeing it from David Stern’s angle.

I don’t think the NBA could go back to a system based in college experience, as any attempt to do so would be torn down in court.

Also, I think Stern is also interested in keeping kids in college so that they can build a name for themselves that is passed on to the NBA.

However, I do think the owners and the GM should pay any high school kid minimum wage. No matter when he is drafted or how great he is. That’s how it works in the real world. It’s impossible to get a job without a college degree unless you are willing to work for minimum wage with no benefits. Welcome to the real world kids, The world that most of your fans are living in.

NBA should do what most companies out in the real world does. Value and reward a college graduate. 4 Years of Basketball education must be worth something. A College graduate are more suited to represent the franchise and have learned to take responsibility. With so many of the court duties in the NBA today I think a college kid has more to offer than a kid straight out of high school.

the prob i see with what former_baller38 Said says is that in most drafts, the best player or players go to the the 14-17 draft picks thus the worst teams in the league (clippers) stay the worst, ok my example (clippers) was a terrible one, but the idea of the draft being structured the way it is , was to increase parody and give teams like Milwaukee when they drafted lew alcindor, the chance to compete with teams already at the top. (granted there is no accounting for poor management (clippers)).
and i can’t see the NBA paying for an expanded d-league. i agree it would be a tremendous improvement over what we have now, but there’s too much money against the idea (ncaa, nba).

i would like to see something akin to what some soccer leagues do. i agree expand the rosters and expand the d-league, but also take the bottom three teams of the nba and send them down to the d-league and make them earn their way back into the league. the top three d-league teams can join the league. that would stop the tanking of games at the end of the season for draft picks ’cause d-league means an end to season tickets and an end to tv money.

In the rest of the world, you come up through your club system, with the end goal being to play with the senior team in the top league in your area. You have multiple levels and places to grow and play at whatever your level happens to be and also opportunities to play and train with the levels above you.

if you are special you get to the top level faster - see where Ricky Rubio is playing today. If you are a slow developer you are in the system longer and you ma be much older when you get to the top level - but if you have it, you will eventually make it. Unlike in the college system where you have until you are roughly 22 to make it.

Either way - when you make the top level you have shown that you can produce at the levels below you and you have mixed in with the levels above you already.

The USA system does not have any of this in any meaningful way. NBA is separate from NCAA which is separate from High School which is separate from AAU and other basketball and also USA Basketball.

There is two ways to go about this - and Stern has chosen one that he believes he may be able to work with easier. One extra year in college or in maturity can go a long, long way in ensuring you are minimizing your risk of giving a few million bucks to someone who wont work out. It is not perfect however, but the longer you can hold off doing, hopefully the more likely it is the decision in a draft and contract are justified. Several ‘would have been drafted’ prep-stars didn’t come out after their freshman seasons because their draft stock dropped - and this is exactly what Stern is looking for.

The other way is a massive revamping and expansion of the D-League system, and allowing players to be drafted cheaply and spend as long as needed at this level. Allow NBA teams to carry squads of 30+ players including full D-League squads - basically a proper minor league system. Including allowing trading players out of this system and bringing them up and down at will and as needed.That is a LOT of work and money, but there is truly no reason it wouldn’t work and also it may damage NCAA basketball if it lets teams go bak to drafting younger players.

Just my 2c