Even before Mayo scandal, one-and-done rule was bad

by Ian O'Connor

Updated: May 15, 2008, 12:56 PM EST 266 comments

Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley and O.J. Mayo are expected to go 1-2-3 in the first round, according to NBAdraft.net, which predicts that seven of the top eight picks will be prospects who left the college game after their freshman seasons. Some of these prospects only attended college because a man they'd never met told them they had to.

Stern didn't care that some of his greatest NBA assets were kids who entered his draft out of high school, jumping straight from the prom to the pros. He figured the installment of an age requirement of 19 and a mandate that players remain ineligible for the draft until one year after their high school classes graduate were good for business.

And what's good for NBA business was going to be good for NBA hopefuls, whether they liked it or not.

Yet no matter how giddy Stern appears when reaching for those ping-pong balls that might lift the Heat and Grizzlies from the muck of their own incompetence, his minimum-age rule still stinks as much as the Knicks.

Mayo is only the latest reason why. If the shooting guard was, in effect, a paid performer during his 15-minute stay at USC, as an Outside the Lines report alleges, Mayo and his benefactors made a mockery of Stern's education initiative.

The result? USC faces another NCAA investigation to pair up with its Reggie Bush mess, Mayo potentially loses a considerable piece of his good name, and big-time college athletics again looks and smells like a place without any redeeming social value.

But guess what? Stern isn't losing any sleep over it. USC's loss is the NBA's gain. For all the noble causes he claimed to be honoring by cutting the high school prom kings off at their knees, Stern's age minimum was only meant to serve Stern's bottom line.

The commissioner said he wanted to protect kids from themselves when he really only wanted to protect general managers from themselves. Stern said he wanted high school players to have at least another year to develop before entering his league when he really only wanted his farm system — also known as college basketball — to develop and market those players for the NBA fan base, free of charge.

The players' union never should've caved on this one. It never should've traded a high school graduate's right to apply for employment — not a right to employment, but a right to apply for employment — in exchange for another season of guaranteed wages and benefits for veterans holding fast to the final hours of their careers.

The most responsible and mature NBA stars of the older and younger generations, Kevin Garnett and LeBron James, entered the league straight out of high school. Stern can't get either player on TV enough because Garnett and James are driven and likable athletes who clearly get it.

Ditto for Tracy McGrady and Dwight Howard, who never stepped foot on campus. There are many examples of players who became model NBA citizens without attending college, and many examples of players who made the jump from high school and crashed and burned.

The same holds true for prospects who played one, two, three or four seasons of college ball. Stern's suggestion that a few years of higher education ultimately makes for a better employee doesn't hold up when measured against this fact: Ron Artest and Latrell Sprewell were responsible for the two ugliest incidents of Stern's reign, and they spent a combined six years in college.

It's the person, not the person's transcript (or lack thereof). So when the collective bargaining agreement expires in three years, the union needs to erase the age requirement from the contract the way a coach erases an inbounds play from his grease board.

High school graduates can play professional baseball, hockey, tennis and golf. They can apply for jobs in any and all Fortune 500 companies.

But until they're a year removed from caps and gowns, guards and forwards can't apply for jobs in the NBA. How, exactly, is this fair? And who appointed Stern the moral compass for America's youth?

Sure, Michael Beasley could've taken a big-money deal in Europe rather than play his one-and-done season at Kansas State. But most American kids want to play American ball. And why should the Beasleys of the world be forced leave the country in pursuit of a free marketplace that's supposed to define this one?

A lot of things can go wrong in a kid's life in one year, the one year of pre-draft purgatory Stern requires. A serious knee injury in the ACC or Big East can cost a prospect millions in the draft. Worse yet, his family can be victimized by some grave misfortune.

Basketball finds more than its fair share of talent from places like the Coney Island projects I visited for a book on the Brooklyn prodigy, Sebastian Telfair. As Telfair's senior season at Lincoln High was winding down, two of his acquaintances were murdered right outside his apartment door.

Telfair skipped college, made his millions through adidas and several NBA franchises, and remains gainfully employed in the league despite a disappointing early career and an alarming series of incidents involving guns. Stern might use him as a perfect example of why college is a necessary step in the molding of a productive NBA employee.

But what would the commissioner tell a kid whose family suffered a traumatic experience during his one year of post-high school exile when the financial rewards of turning pro right away might've prevented or eased that experience?

Stern hopes he never has to answer that question. Meanwhile, he believes his age requirement has allowed for a more mature league, and one that has helped repair the disconnect between his product and his customers.

In fact, Stern would love to raise the age minimum to 20. Never mind that some players don't belong in college, or that some players simply don't want or need college.

Stern is sending them there, anyway, so all those O.J. Mayos out there can get their free exposure at the heaviest possible price.