DOES AGE MATTER IN THE NBA? PART 3

Over the past two days, I broke down the production of players by when they were drafted. Going a step further, I split the stories between players drafted before and after the 19-year-old limit was implemented. Here are the charts that show their performances side by side: Read more

DOES AGE MATTER IN THE NBA? PART 2

Yesterday we looked at the first-round picks from 1999 to 2005, so today we’ll look at the period between 2006 and 2008 when the league imposed a 19-year-old eligibility limit for the draft and see how players in this era fared. Let’s get right to it. Read more

DOES AGE MATTER IN THE NBA?

For the past three years, many pundits have questioned the NBA’s decision to impose a 19-year-old age limit on potential draftees. Supporters of the rule don’t feel those who make the preps-to-pros jump are mature enough to handle the rigors that come with being a professional, citing  Leon Smith and Ndudi Ebi as classic examples for the implementation of the limit. Many (including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban) actually believe the age limit should be raised to 20 or 22. Critics of the rule, meanwhile, point to all the best players in the league, most of whom came straight out of high school. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, and Dwight Howard all skipped college and developed themselves into perennial MVP candidates. Read more