This Is Why There Is An Age Limit

This morning news broke that Jeremy Tyler, an 18 year-old American playing professional basketball in Israel, has quit his team in mid-season. Tyler made headlines last year by foregoing his final year of high school to sign professionally overseas because he didn't want to go to college and the NBA has an age limit that permits anyone under the age of 19 from declaring for the NBA draft. He figured rather than finishing high school he could make some money for a couple years and signed in Israel, which has one of the better International leagues. Brandon Jennings, now of the Milwaukee Bucks, did almost the same thing a year earlier, though he at least finished high school before heading over for a year of professional basketball in Italy.

Jennings had trouble adjusting to the European style of play and couldn't get any playing time. However, he still had enough raw talent that he was selected high in the first round of the NBA draft (though, not as high as he probably would have been if he had played a year in the NCAAs with scouts being able to watch him all the time - no way he slips to #9 if NBA GMs got a do-over on the draft tomorrow.) Also, Jennings, to his credit, said the time in Europe taught him a valuable lesson about money, living on his own and being able to play basketball for a living. So while the on-court experience was a wash, the off-court time was used as a learning tool. [Sidebar: This is where I would point out that he would also learn these kinds of lessons in college.]

In Tyler's case it also hadn't been going well, as he also couldn't get consistent playing time because, as it turns out, being 6'10" and dunking on other high school kids doesn't necessarily make you a professional basketball player. But instead of sucking it up and using his time abroad to learn about being a professional he decided to sulk and ultimately walked away from his team at halftime of one game as a way of protesting his lack of playing time (as if that would ever, ever have worked). See, this is why I think having an NBA age limit is a fantastic thing. Playing in the NBA is a privilege, not a right. Everyone wants to talk about how unfair it is that these kids can't immediately go from high school to the NBA anymore, but it helps no one for a kid who isn't ready to be a professional to sit on the end of a bench for 3 years and never see the court. Yeah, he'll make good money for one contract, but what happens when he's out of the league at 21 because he's averaging 1.4 points a game? Is his rookie contract expected to last him for the rest of his life? For every LeBron James there is a Leon Smith, which no one seems to remember.

Clearly this kid has maturity issues, but what would you expect from a 17 year-old? However, I highly doubt his maturity issues would have been cleared up if he had been allowed to go straight to the NBA, had millions of dollars at his disposal, still only managed 2 points a game and now had the increased pressure of being labelled an NBA draft bust weighing down on him. Instead of watching March Madness and dreaming of taking a program to the Final Four he's going to have to spend another year abroad because he has given up his amateur status in an effort to make some quick money. Here's hoping his next team continues to show him some tough love, only next season he handles it a little bit better.