(N)one-and-done

There's a compelling article in today's LA Times about Brandon Jennings, a highly regarded basketball recruit from Compton who originally committed to USC, switched to Arizona, and then decided to skip college altogether.

Jennings will play for one year in Europe, and many presume that he'll then play in the NBA. He can't go directly to the NBA from high school because of a league rule that the head of the NBA player's union isn't very happy about:

"I continue to be against an age limit, I'm against limiting the options these kids have," union executive director Billy Hunter said. "It's going to be a very big issue the next time we negotiate. . . . I'm strident in my position to eliminate the age limit."

The NBA's current collective bargaining agreement with the union expires after the 2010-11 season.

Hunter said the 2005 approval of a rule that players need to be 19 and a year removed from high school graduation to be drafted came about because it was "the only sticking point to close the deal," and was inserted at the "insistence" of NBA Commissioner David Stern.

I happened to bump into Stern a couple of weeks ago during the NBA Finals and asked him what he felt about the age limit (as established in the league's collective bargaining agreement). His first reaction was glib. "Hey! I signed the deal -- I have to be happy with it!" When I asked if there was any way to improve it, he added, "Well, we asked for two years. We got one. Tune-in in three more years."

So there's the sticking point.

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