Money Players

Hard times on Wall Street trickling down to hardcourt

[Here's is an extended article from my November Basketball Times column. For subscription information, check out BT's website.]

If you’ve followed our worldwide economic meltdown or if you’ve opened your last month’s brokerage statement (ouch!), the news is bleak. Fear is an appropriate response, although panic is exacerbating the situation. Yes, the economy is mired in a monumental economic downturn, but as my grandmother, a child of the Great Depression, used to say, “As long as we have our health and our family, tomorrow will be a good day.” How will economic downturn impact our basketball economy?

Basketball Times article

Starting in the August issue, I became a Basketball Times regular contributor. It is an honor to be associated with a publication that includes such stellar basketball writers as John Akers, Dick "Hoops" Weiss, Bob Ryan, Chris Rivers and Dick Vitale. My BT column is an opportunity to delve deeper into the issues we cover here on the Money Players Blog.

Below is an excerpt from my first article that includes what I think could be a step in the right direction on the "one and done" issue ...

NBA's age limit creating red, blue differences of opinion

By Marc Isenberg

The “one and done” debate has raged since 2006, when the NBA—in agreement with the NBA players union—began requiring players who enter the NBA Draft to be 19-years old and one year removed from high school. 

It’s become basketball’s “red state, blue state” issue, where reasonable minds differ with seemingly no middle ground.

When it comes to solutions, people either want additional age restrictions or want these restrictions removed entirely. From the NBA’s perspective, the age restriction makes sense…but it pushes other, more serious problems down to the college level: what to do about players who don’t want to be in school, plus various amateur and agent issues.