Cuban: Extend draft requirement to three years in college

This just in: Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban agrees with NBA commissioner David Stern.

The two, who have disagreed about plenty over the years, concur that the rule requiring U.S. players to be at least 19 and a year removed from high school to play in the NBA should be extended.

Their mutual desire: to get rid of the one-and-done trend that dots draft lotteries with players who played only one year in college.

Stern said Tuesday that he'd like to add a year to the rule, but, according to ESPN Dallas, Cuban wants to take it a step further: He’d like to require that players wait three years after their high school class graduates to become draft-eligible.

"I just think there's every good reason to do it, which is obviously why we didn't do it," Cuban said sarcastically, adding that fans of the NCAA champion Kentucky Wildcats, who have thrived in the one-and-done era, are the only people who like the current concept, ESPN Dallas reported.

The sticking point is that any change would have to be negotiated into the league’s collective bargaining agreement, and draft eligibility wasn’t a priority in the negotiations that ate into this regular season before they were settled. At this point, ESPN Dallas noted, the union has agreed only to form a committee to discuss changes.

Cuban told the website that he believes that requiring a three-year wait to declare for the NBA draft would prevent players from making poor decisions that affect the rest of their lives, as well as help rid the sport of corrupt player agents who talk unprepared players into declaring for the draft.

"I just think there's a lot more kids that get ruined coming out early or going to school trying to be developed to come out early than actually make it," Cuban told ESPN Dallas. "For every Kobe (Bryant) or (Kevin) Garnett or Carmelo (Anthony) or LeBron (James), there's 100 Lenny Cookes."

Lenny Cooke was a New York high school star who, before the current age requirement, declared for the 2002 draft, wasn't selected and never played in the NBA.

"Then you say, what about the kids that aren't college material or whatever?" Cuban said. "I think then we just put them in the D-League for three years and then they become draft-eligible with their class.

"They could go to Europe if they want, like (current Bucks player) Brandon Jennings (did). That'd be fine. There is nothing that I would like better than to throw our problems on (basketball's international governing body) FIBA. Then we'd get some of our money's worth with them."

There are NBA stars who came into the league straight from high school, before the age limit was instituted in 2005, as well as those since who spent only one season in college. There have also been busts chosen in the lottery who entered the league under the same circumstances, but that’s not Cuban’s point.

"It's not even so much about lottery busts," Cuban said. "It's about kids' lives that we're ruining. Even if you're a first-round pick and you have three years of guaranteed money—or two years now of guaranteed money—then what? Because if you're a bust and it turns out you just can't play in the NBA, your 'Rocks for Jocks' one year of (college) schooling isn't going to get you real far.

"I just don't think it takes into consideration the kids enough. Obviously, I think there's significant benefit for the NBA. It's not my decision to make, but that's my opinion on it."