NBA Reaps Payoff from Making HS Kids Wait

Last year, the NBA instituted a rule change that meant that high schoolers could no longer make the jump straight to the pros. Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, from the 2006 draft on, players must be at least one year out of HS before they can play in the NBA. This meant that guys like Greg Oden and Kevin Durant would spend a year in college.

This year, those two became not just the poster boys for college basketball with their spectacular play, they've demonstrated how the NBA's new rule actually helps the league. Should they turn pro this year (and I have to think it's likely), Durant and Oden are expected to be the top two picks in the draft.

They would enter the draft not just as spectacularly talented basketball players, but by virtue of their time in college, they would enter as immediately marketable superstars. Both are nice, hard-working, mature kids who haven't just polished their game a little, they've developed national name recognition and legions of fans.

Instead of being prospects not well known by the mainstream, Oden and Durant are going to be able to sell a lot of seats and jerseys and put their team's games on TV. So the league gets more money, the kids get to ease their transition to the pros. So far, so good. Here's hoping O.J. Mayo doesn't screw that up (either by injury or with his ego) next year.