Injections of youth plague NBA

By Ben Miller

May 10, 2005, 12:00 AM

I have decided that I will forego my final year of eligibility as a sports writer at the UW and enter the sports writing draft. In my time here, I have written on three different beats, as the full-time writer for women's volleyball, men's tennis and women's golf, twice. I have also written some feature articles, numerous columns and some spot coverage of the women's basketball team. Sure my resume may not be huge; I have not covered either of the two major sports of football or men's basketball, but I have upside. Some newspaper will take a chance on me, without my college degree, in the first round and with some development hope I can be an all-star writer. Yeah, right. That would never fly in the real world. What newspaper is going to take a chance on a 20-year-old writer without a degree and limited credentials? Here's a hint: There aren't any. However, in the NBA, this happens all the time. Ever since Kevin Garnett made his fateful decision to skip college and enter the 1995 NBA draft, the number of high schoolers and college underclassmen entering the field have been on the rise. The words "potential" and "upside" have replaced "skill" and "ability" in the NBA vernacular on draft night. This is an alarming trend that needs to end. The NBA needs to instate an age limit not only for the sake of the players but, more importantly, for the teams drafting them. The draft used to be a tool for improving a team immediately. In the first round, teams would draft players that would be expected to make an immediate impact. Teams could improve with young, talented players. Now the draft has become a tool for teams to take a chance on unproven players and hope they blossom into superstars several years down the road. In this past draft, I watched painfully as the Seattle Sonics passed on NCAA Player of the Year Jameer Nelson for Robert Swift with the 12th overall pick. A proven senior, Nelson ended up being taken by the Orlando Magic 20th and played a solid role on the team, averaging almost nine points and three assists in limited minutes. Swift, on the other hand, spent most of the season on the injured list, even though he was not actually injured. On a Sonics team that has made a surprising run to the playoffs, a player like Nelson, who could have made an immediate impact, would have done much more for the team than Swift's time on the injured reserve. The poster child for an NBA age limit is the Chicago Bulls. In 2001, they made a splash on draft night by drafting Eddy Curry with the fifth pick and trading established double-double producer Elton Brand for second pick Tyson Chandler, both high schoolers. It was a move that they thought would bring the glory of the Michael Jordan era back, but instead it was a move that sent the franchise into years of mediocrity aand fan suffering. In fact, the Bulls finally got back to the playoffs this year, after adding three proven, college players in the first round of the draft the last two years in Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, and Kirk Hinrich. The Bulls learned their lesson that drafting players who had a chance to prove themselves in college is better than drafting kids whose only experience is in their high school gym. The rest of the NBA needs to learn this as well and put in an age limit and force 18-year olds to go to college. Now if you will excuse me, I am off to the Chicago draft camp to try and improve my stock and have a chance at being a lottery pick.

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