NBA commissioner Adam Silver is talking about removing the 19-year-old age limit rule after FBI investigations are revealing widespread NCAA corruption scandals.
In 2005, the NBA implemented the “one-and-done” rule where a player needed to be 19 years old or one year removed from high school graduation in order to enter the league.
According to ESPN reporter Brian Windhorst, the league has talked with the players union and other interested parties. The league is also looking at revamping G-League salaries, according to ESPN.
Currently, the G-League’s max salary is $26,000.
According to Windhorst, Silver is planning to make the G-League more competitive versus overseas salaries, potentially following a similar model to Australia.
The Australian National Basketball League next season will allocate one roster spot for a draft-eligible player, where the league, not the individual team, will pay a guaranteed $78,000 to that player.
With overseas leagues and the NBA making plans to give a raise to younger players, the NCAA might lose its grip on recruiting the nation’s top players. NCAA President Mark Emmert has said in the past he does not believe players should go to college for one year, and might get his wish in the form of the best players not attending college at all.
Foregoing his freshman year in the NCAA, Terrance Ferguson spent one year in Australia, before being drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2017 in the first round. Brandon Jennings and Emmanuel Mudiay also played overseas and earned as much as $1 million while waiting to be eligible for the NBA, where they both were eventually drafted in the first round.
Detroit Pistons coach Steve Van Gundy criticized the NCAA earlier this year, calling the NCAA “one of the worst organizations” in sports and the one-and-done rule as “racist.”
Along with the FBI investigations, the NCAA now has to deal with the possibility of the NBA paying players to take their talents off college campuses.