Let the Kids Join the NBA

As a fan of a variety of sports events, I occasionally come across rules and regulations barring either teams or individual sportsmen from action that just makes no sense to me. One of those is the age limit that sports leagues of various kinds place on when entry is allowed. This story in the NYT records the fact that a congressman in the US has decided to question the National Basketball Association for placing an age limit of 18 years and an additional college year on athletes who may be drafted to play for the franchises.

As the story states the congressman's reasonable agreement (I find it convincing) is that this not only disproportionately affects athletes of color, but that it is an arbitrary and preposterous requirement altogether. I am unsure what serious harm would come from suspending college education in order to play for the basketball franchises. In addition, Congressman Steve Cohen notes that a number of current players who were not subjected to this rule have built successful NBA careers.

Thinking about the principles of economics that may apply, I think that the unreasonable nature of these rules come from the fact that successful sports leagues are often outright by monopolies. The NBA insists upon such a rule and is unashamedly considering its extension because there is no real alternative for the potential draftees. Secondly, for a majority of the students, the opportunity costs that attach to being in college for the extra year or so is pretty high. Therefore, these athletes are making rational decisions to forgo college altogether in order to make the best of a sports career. This is especially important when considered against the fact that a sports career usually takes about one and a half decade of high income before its tapers off really quickly. Thus young athletes are calculating that they should join the leagues early in order to establish their credentials and maximize their incomes during the short window of time.

To my mind therefore, the athletes in the league should look at the excellence that has been demonstrated by Le Bron and Kobe among others and raise their voices against this anti-competitive rule. It is possible though that the athletes that have gained entry are also concerned about competition from the youngsters and are therefore bound to accept the poor reasons given for maintaining such rules. If education is so important to David Stern and the NBA, then perhaps they should cut a proportion of their profits and invest that in more education for the larger proportion of youngsters who do not make it to the league. Anyone who makes it to the league will most probably be able to afford that upon retirement should it be necessary. Very few youngsters manage to make it into the league in the first instance hence the possibility that a large proportion of students would forgo college education just does not rise.