First of all, it's not quite a 'debate', seeing that the age limit been in effect for two drafts now. But with the unexpected news of the Portland Trailblazers suddenly losing Greg Oden for an entire season, this is worth rethinking.
It's interesting how the age limit was supposed to be David Stern and the owners' way to prevent this very thing from happening. By making kids go to college for a year would expose all there is to know about said kids' weaknesses, so as to ease the minds and pockets of the payroll department. Now that Greg Oden happened, is the age limit worth anything?
From the players side of things: no, it's not worth anything because they are being restricted from earning a salary. However, I heard college life could be fun.
On the owners and NBA side of the spectrum: "hypothetically, yes!", and the thought is to protect their franchises from unknown entities, because they want a sure thing. Well, G.O. was their "sure" thing ...
So how will future Drafts turn out in light of Optimus Prime not being able to transform into an immediate NBA player? I'm not too sure really. If you take out the age limit, will more injury prone players be selected? But if you leave the age limit in and draft another Oden-situation (thinking you know the whole story, but ultimately, not), wouldn't you be kicking yourself in the head that you missed out on at least one year from the young stud?
