Adam Silver is Changing his Tune on the One-and-Done Rule

by:Nick Roush06/02/17

@RoushKSR

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver made an odd statement earlier this week about the NBA's minimum age requirement, a.k.a the one-and-done rule. The rule has drawn criticism and praise since it was adopted in the 2006 collective bargaining agreement.  Silver once considered raising the age requirement another year to make it a "two-and-done" policy, but now he's reconsidering his position.

“We all agreed we need to make a change,” Silver said, speaking on behalf of the owners and the players' union. “It’s one of those issues we need to come together and study. … My sense is, It’s not working for anyone.”

It's worked pretty well for Kentucky.  Silver used some other well-phrased language in a pre-Finals press conference to justify his reasoning.

“It’s not working, certainly from the college coaches and athletic directors I hear from,” Silver said. “They’re not happy with the current system. And I know our teams aren’t happy, either, in part because they don’t necessarily think that the players are coming into the league are getting the kind of training that they would expect to see among the top draft picks in the league.”

This comes a day after Silver sounded a bit uninformed in an interview with Colin Cowherd.  The following statement sounds like his beliefs are based simply off of the Ben Simmons documentary.

"Even the so-called one-and-done players, I don't think it's fair to characterize them as going to one year of school," Silver said Wednesday. "What's happening now, even at the best schools, they enroll in those universities -- some great universities -- and they attend those universities until either they don't make the tournament, and the last game therefore of their freshman season, or to whenever they lose or win in the NCAA Tournament, that becomes their last day. So in essence it's a half-and-done, in a way."

That's just not the case.  In 2016 Calipari's Cats posted a perfect APR score and earlier this year were notified they were in the top ten percent of all college basketball programs.  In order to receive a high APR score, players must complete their semester of schooling before going to the NBA, completely contradicting Silver's statement. Silver did not provide an immediate alternative to changing the one-and-done rule.  He said they are looking at a rule that would allow 18-year olds to enter the D-League, but the rule cannot be eliminated until the most recent collective bargaining agreement expires in seven years. [The Washington Post]

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