What is the minimum age for NBA players?

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is hopeful that the age limit for NBA plays will be lowered from 19 to 18 during the next collective bargaining agreement, saying that it was “the right thing to do.” Silver had once been a proponent of increasing the NBA age limit from 18 to 19, and now he wants to revert to the original number.

The league made the requirement higher in 2005, making it difficult for players to turn pro straight out of high school.

Silver’s change of heart

“I think there’s an opportunity (to change it),” said Silver during the Summer League news conference.

“It’s (based on) larger conversations than just whether we go from 19 to 18, but I’m on record: When I balance all of these various considerations, I think that would be the right thing to do and I am hopeful that that’s a change we make in this next collective bargaining cycle, which will happen in the next couple years.”

The commissioner believes that it would be good for both the players and the NBA if the two parties interacted while the athletes are still young, so as to help them develop not just their abilities in basketball but in life skills as well.

Even as Silver announced his stance on age, there is no timeline at the moment as to when it will be implemented. Both the league and the National Basketball Players Association have to agree for the age requirement to be changed.

The current CBA will stay in effect until the end of the 2023-24 season, but the two sides have started talks that could potentially end up in opting out of the current agreement. If they agree to do so, the CBA could be made to expire next summer.