This article originally appeared on April 9, 2008

Following reports that the NBA and NCAA were possibly teaming up to increase the league?s age limit by forcing players to stay in college an additional year, NBA Commissioner David Stern said yesterday that although he would like to see the NBA's age limit raised from 19 to 20, it is not the highest priority.

The league's age policy, which requires players to be at least 19 years old and one year removed from high school before becoming eligible to play in the NBA, was instituted in 2005 through negotiations with the players union. The players union agreed to the change in exchange for an increase in the share of basketball related income.

Stern reiterated that he is open to increasing the age limit to 20, but also stated that he has no plans to re-open the NBA's collective bargaining agreement to institute a major rules change.

That?s good news, because a minimum age of 19 is foolish enough.

Allow me to explain. From 1975 to 2005, 43 high school players were drafted into the NBA.

Darryl Dawkins, Bill Willoughby, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O?Neal, Taj McDavid, Tracy McGrady, Al Harrington, Rashard Lewis, Korleone Young, Ellis Richardson, Jonathan Bender, Leon Smith, Darius Miles, DeShawn Stevenson, Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry, DeSagana Diop, Ousmane Cisse, Tony Key, Amare Stoudemire, DeAngelo Collins, Lenny Cooke, LeBron James, Travis Outlaw, Ndudi Ebbi, Kendrick Perkins, James Lang, Dwight Howard, Shaun Livingston, Sebastian Telfair, Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, J.R. Smith, Dorell Wright, Martell Webster, Andrew Bynum, Gerald Green, C.J. Miles, Monta Ellis, Louis Williams, and Amir Johnson.

Of the 43 players drafted out of high school, only 10 have failed to play three or more seasons in the league.

Taj McDavid, Ellis Richardson, Tony Key, DeAngelo Collins, and Lenny Cooke went undrafted. Taj wasn?t even recruited by a Division I school. Korleone Young, Ousmane Cisse, and James Lang were second round draft picks. That means only two preps-to-pro players -- Leon Smith and Ndudi Ebbi -- failed to remain in the league after being selected in the first round.

Proponents of the NBA?s age limit like to argue that for every LeBron James there?s three or four Korleone Youngs, but as you can see ? that?s simply not true.

Two of the five players voted to the All-NBA first team last season -- Kobe Bryant and Amare Stoudemire -- were drafted at age 18. Kevin Garnett, Bryant, and James have dominated the MVP conversation this season, with KG having won the award back in 2004. In addition, Bryant, James, Garnett, Stoudemire, and Howard are all deserving of being named to the All-NBA first team this season.

And it doesn?t stop there.

Tracy McGrady and Jermaine O?Neal are perennial All-Stars, Tyson Chandler and Kendrick Perkins start for the Eastern and Western Conference?s best teams by record, and Al Harrington, Rashard Lewis (he of the freshly inked six-year $110 million dollar contract), Jonathan Bender (pre-injury), Darius Miles (pre-injury), DeShawn Stevenson, Al Jefferson (one of the centerpieces in the deal that brought Kevin Garnett to Boston), Josh Smith, DeSagana Diop, J.R. Smith, C.J. Miles, and Amir Johnson have established themselves as solid pros.

Eddy Curry, Kwame Brown, and Sebastian Telfair have failed to live up to expectations thus far, but the numbers don?t lie. High school players have a 77% success rate of making it in the NBA. That?s an incredibly high ratio, higher than players with one, two, three, or four years of college. Furthermore, a significant number of those players have gone on to establish themselves as the very best players in the league, and that shouldn't come as a surprise considering the NBA has the best coaches, the best training staffs, the best facilities,  and the season is longer.

Kobe Bryant didn?t put up awe-inspiring numbers early in his career, but he undoubtedly benefited from the little bit of playing time and practice with pros. NBA players are trained to play in the NBA -- not in college, making them better prepared at an earlier age for a career at the game?s highest level.

Monta Ellis, a second round draft pick out of high school in 2005, won the 2006-2007 Most Improved Player Award.  Andrew Bynum was on pace to win the award this season before he suffered a near-season ending injury.

But don't take my word for it, listen to Mike Dunleavy, son of a long-time NBA head coach Mike Dunleavy Sr., and former three-year starter at Duke University, one of the best college basketball programs in the nation.

"It sounds silly to say the college game isn't good for guys, but there may be some truth to it," Dunleavy said. "If you're good enough to play 10 to 15 minutes a night and practice every day, you'll get dramatically better being in the NBA compared to staying in school."

And let?s not forget that many of the NBA?s top foreign born players -- Yao Ming, Pau Gasol, Manu Ginobili, Mehmet Okur, Leandro Barbosa, Nene, Andrei Kirilenko, Peja Stojakovic, and Hedo Turkoglu, to name a few -- were professional basketball players before the age of 18. Want to know what last seasons?s regular season and Finals MVP have in common? Neither player attended a four-year university. Both Dirk Nowitzki and Tony Parker were professional basketball players at the age of 16.

Given the success rate of player who have entered the NBA and/or played professional abroad at or before the age of 18, whose interests are the powers that be trying to protect?

The NBA?s?  The NCAA?s?  College basketball fans?

Because it certainly isn?t the young men who dream of playing in the NBA.

Brandon Hoffman is a contributing writer for RealGM. To read more from Brandon, check out his blog at BallerBlogger.com. You can also email him at ballerblogger@yahoo.com.