Sports Law: March 2008 Archives

David Stern has announced his intention to raise the minimum eligibility age for NBA players to 20 years. Stern may not realize that the three players in the race for MVP this year—Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, and Lebron James—all entered the league straight out of high school. Instead, Stern argues the league will improve if the best players in the land sometimes will have to ply their trade for free on the NCAA farm for two years. The facts just don’t support this old argument, however. Our friend and colleague Michael McCann has demonstrated in his article “Illegal Defense: The Irrational Economics of Banning High School Players from the NBA Draft” that NBA players drafted out of high school have for the most part been ideal citizens and superior contributors to their teams. Still Stern plans to ask the player’s union to agree to exclude 18 and 19 year olds from the opportunity to earn a living doing what they do best.

The union hopefully will not give in to Stern's demand. Even if they do, the rule will surely be challenged both in the halls of congress and the halls of justice. Notwithstanding the Second Circuit's ruling in Clarett, such a rule still would unquestionably primarily affect those outside the bargaining unit and concern matters other than wages, hours or conditions of employment, two of the three requirements for protection under the labor exemption to the antitrust laws. Stay tuned.