The Grand Plan to Save Youth Basketball -- What's Next? Where Do We Go From Here?

It's a shame false rumors about a deal to increase the NBA's minimum age requirement for entry to the draft gained more attention last week than the real reason for college-pro collaboration: the formation of a plan to "rescue" American youth basketball. Reps from the NBA, NCAA, AAU, USA Basketball, and the shoe companies got together to say "we need to do something," which as Baltimore Sun columnist David Steele notes is a good first step. But it's really not clear where this is going, as Steele writes.

Too bad no one on that stage suggested blowing up the entire system and starting over from scratch. Practically speaking, that's impossible, and it actually wouldn't be fair to those entities within the system who try to do the right thing from within. ... No segment is wholly good or wholly bad, nor is any idea or any concept. That goes for the NCAA and its one-sided system, the shoe companies and their virtual bankrolling of kids as early as middle school, and the NBA and its ever-changing attempts to gauge public approval.

It's all an unwieldy mess, and something had to be done to bring some structure to it all.

Short of blowing it all up, someone's got to take the conch and be the leader on this. David Stern's NBA is a good candidate, though Stern has always seemed wary of tussling with shoe companies (he'd rather fight with his players and the media). The NCAA has limited practical opportunity to expand its power here -- their regulations already levy hefty punishments on players and programs who don't play by the strict rules. (Lest we forget the debate over LeBron James's moot NCAA eligibility.) AAU is too huge and dispersed to prevent the occasional (or "frequent," unfortunately) abuse, and USA Basketball can't conceivably get too mucked up in sub-star ranks of teen hoops.

The best solution might be this whole raising-the-age-limit thing, as distasteful and backwards as it seems. The NCAA, again, is strict. Forcing kids into two years of college theoretically forces the players to abide by those strict compensation/gift rules longer, and raises the penalty for players who run afoul (or are lead afoul). The NCAA also needs to crack down on glorified street agents who lead star high schoolers to certain programs. Worldwide Wes is one thing. Other pipelines aren't so clean.