NBA commissioner Adam Silver on age minimum: ‘My personal view is that we’re ready to make that change’

NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed media members in a press conference in Las Vegas during Summer League on Tuesday, and of everything he said, the two points that stuck were moving the beginning of free agency up from the 12:01 a.m. ET — a tradition that has held for years — as well as reducing the NBA’s age minimum from 19 years old back down to 18.

As it concerned free agency, Silver seemed accepting of the idea that free agency really doesn’t need to start at midnight.

“In terms of when free agency begins, I’ve not only heard from my friends in the media, but as I get older and the people I grew up in the NBA get older, I think we’re all tired of all-nighters,” he said. “What I’ve heard from, again, several of my colleagues at teams are does this really need to be at midnight? I think that’s something that we’d need to find agreement on with the Players Association. But I think we could change for next year.

“It’s one of those things that everybody looks at each other and says why has it always been that way? It’s unclear. It’s just always been at midnight. But putting aside the impact on the working media, I think there is so much interest in it. Clearly, if it were happening at a more reasonable time, it would be better for coverage.

“But, again, I think also is it maybe was kind of fun in the old days scheduling the meetings at midnight or something else. But I think we’re past that. I expect a change for next season.”

Silver also said his personal view was that the NBA’ 19-year-old age minimum is ready for a update. It’s not something he can just snap his fingers and change: the age minimum was negotiated into the last collective bargaining agreement and has to be re-negotiated with the NBA Players Union to become basketball law. But Silver seemed to have the idea of a younger, more active NBA sometime in the near future.

“The sense was we should be engaging with the Players Association on the minimum age to come into the NBA. We presented the pros and cons on going from 19 to 18. In conjunction with that presentation, we discussed a lot about the development of younger players prior to them coming into the professional ranks,” he said. “We’ve had several discussions with both the NCAA and USA Basketball about engaging with them, with players beginning roughly at 14 years old, and especially with those elite players who we know statistically have a high likelihood when they’re identified at that age of being top-tier players coming into the league.

“So I think the next step will be to sit down with the Players Association. Of course, it has to be collectively bargained if we’re going to lower the age. That’s something we’ll begin to discuss with them.”

“My personal view is that we’re ready to make that change. That it won’t come immediately. When I’ve weighed the pros and cons, given that Condoleezza Rice and her commission has recommended to the NBA that those one-and-done players now come directly into the league, and in essence the college community is saying we do not want those players anymore, that sort of tips the scale in my mind that we should be taking a serious look at lowering our age to 18.”