Adam Silver in favor of lowering NBA's age limit / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: AP Photo/John Minchillo-SCANPIX Credit AP Photo/John Minchillo-SCANPIX

Speaking to reporters in Las Vegas, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he believes the league will soon eliminate its age limit and allow 18-year-olds to declare for the draft.

"I think there's an opportunity [to change the limit]," Silver told reporters, via ESPN. 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."

This isn't the first time the idea of changing the age limit has come up in recent years, including negotiations between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association a few years ago that ultimately broke down.

The NBA changed its age limit from 18 to 19 in 2005, after a run of high-school-to-NBA prospects that included Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and Tracy McGrady, in addition to LeBron James and Dwight Howard, in the 10 years before that.

Now, players have to spend at least a year out of high school before entering the NBA draft. That's resulted in athletes opting to play professionally overseas or in the G League instead.

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