Banks and auto makers crumbling, world in financial crisis and war, but Congressman Steve Cohen is worried about the NBA age restriction

The sad part is that I agree with him, the age restriction is silly and realistically the college basketball system should compensate it’s players since it monetizes them so heavily. That being said, the government has no business trying to get involved in the National Basketball League’s collective bargaining agreement.

Cohen, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, called the requirement "an unfair restriction on the rights of these young men to pursue their intended career."

I tell you, it’s getting scary. Any of my friends and family will tell you that I am not a government conspiracist. I used to believe that they functioned in a rational manner on things of public interest. These days, public interest is not what it used to be.

The NBA is the shepherd of a league with tremendous financial power. It employs young men who find themselves not only wealthy, but in a position to bear significant influence on our children. I don’t think that the NBA wanting a year or two more to mature these young men before they hand them millions of dollars and put them on TV in front of millions of people around the world is unreasonable.

That’s where the logic seems to break down. Cohen is looking at this like these kids are grocery store stock clerks or waiters. It’s becoming common for teams to draft kids on potential alone, in the lottery. That means that potentially you could take a kid who just barely left high school, that our government doesn’t even trust enough to drink, and give him almost four million dollars a year, a pulpit and a microphone. A phrase comes to mind, “idiot with means.”

Now I don’t want to come across like I think these are inner city kids who don’t have any intelligence or common sense, but I know that’s the case some of the times. For every Grant Hill there is a Ron Artest. For every Steve Nash there is a Chris “Birdman” Anderson. It’s just math.

I always thought that as a congressman, Steve Cohen’s responsibility was to his constituents. Sure Tennessee has an NBA team, the Memphis Grizzlies, but on a good day they might employ 200 people (including event staff) which in my math doesn’t even equal 1% of the population of Tennessee. If I was a resident, I would be pissed off that my representative is trying to push hearings and potentially legislation to allow 18 year old kids to become millionaires while Spring Hill is fighting for it’s life with GM in Washington DC right now trying to back out of a promise to invest billions in the plant in it’s community.

Congressman urges NBA to drop age restriction

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• It’s time for David Stern to start running the NBA like a business.