Ex-Grizzlies Star Rips Into 18YO Standard, Wishes to Open NBA Doors Wider for Basketball Stars: “Cut Out All the BS…”

The NBA stopped drafting high schoolers in 2005. Since then, a lot has been said about the new rule. While there are some people who believe that the mandatory college experience is good for an athlete, the other side of the argument has a more credible take. Recently, NBA veteran Damon Stoudamire gave his opinion on the same.

Stoudamire strongly believes that the college experience doesn’t necessarily add anything significant to an athlete’s life. After all, some of the greatest athletes of all time were high school draftees.

But does that mean we should assess everyone on LeBron James or the late great Kobe Bryant‘s scale? Maybe not. But Stoudamire believes that the positives of this requirement don’t outweigh the cons. He said, “Me personally. I think you should allow high school players to go straight to pro. Like, we the only sport…you know football don’t do it”. Football is a more physical sport where a player’s strength and endurance can be a deciding factor, so waiting there makes more sense.

“In the NBA, there’s 18 year-olds that can play. If they can play with the pros in summer, why can’t they play with them for 82 games?”, Stoudamire added. His comments are also about the time that the young athletes end up losing because of this rule. Prior to that, we saw an amazing pool of talent entering the NBA and they went on to conquer the league for years.

Apart from Kobe and LeBron, Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett, and Tracy McGrady are all high schoolers who were drafted into the NBA and they have left a lasting impact and legacy on the sport. Stoudamire said that bringing in high school talent into the NBA once again will “Cut out all the BS of college”.

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That being said it should be noted that with the sole exception of LeBron James every other high school draftee, including Kobe Bryant, struggled in their first years in the NBA Now there is no end to the argument, much like every other topic that is debated in the basketball world.

However, over the years we have had several updates that suggested that the NBA might be going back on its rule which was enforced in 2005. Shams Charania tweeted in September 2022, “Draft age eligibility from 19 to 18, return of high school-to-NBA “ which was based on the serious talks taking place in the NBA upper administration.

However, it is yet to come to fruition but in the meantime, we have had several veterans like Stoudamire who have been very vocal about going back to the old practice of drafting high school athletes in the league.

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