Hoop Teens: From High School to NBA riches?

Admittedly, I haven’t had the time to post on this blog as frequently as I would have liked over the past month. With one month to go in my project though, I’m going to crank it up.

One newsworthy item over the past month was a Congressman who wrote to the NBA and the players’ association, urging them to end the league’s age limit. Representative Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said in the letters that the age limit “is an unfair restriction on the rights of these young men to pursue their intended career…”

Cohen (AP photo via The Memphis Commercial Appeal) wants the policy repealed in the NBA’s next collective bargaining agreement. The current agreement runs through 2011. It’s no coincidence that Memphis is in Cohen’s district, and the Congressman even admitted to USA Today that that was a contributing factor.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., wants to see the NBA repeal its age limit.

The University of Memphis Tigers may be forced by the NCAA to vacate their 38-2 season in 2007-08 because of allegations that one-and-done star and reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose cheated on his SAT. In the fallout, coach John Calipari left for Kentucky and took virtually all of his top recruits with him. What’s left is a basketball program in shambles. A similar situation is happening at USC, where current Memphis Grizzlies forward O.J. Mayo, another one-and-done player, is alleged to have accepted gifts and cash from a sports agency while in school

Cohen told USA Today that the college game is best served by students who pursue their degrees. “The one-and-done kids, they’re not interested in their degrees. They’re not interested in the school. They have to perform there because the NBA doesn’t want to pay for their living.”