Knowledge is power. The NBPA is being cynical and divisive by trying to co-opt legitimate social issues for their benefit in their battle between wealthy players and wealthier owners.
The danger here is that not only is this issue a distraction but, by channeling real issues for their fake complaint, if their phony issue is discredited, it discredits legitimate ones as well.
The NHL has been given as an example of a league that has a more player-friendly drafting system and, according to the NBPA, this is because the league is almost entirely white.
Yet the reality is vastly different, the very white NHL has a far more player unfriendly CBA than the NBA.
For those unfamiliar with the NHL, all players are draft eligible at age 18 and the primary source of players is from junior hockey (which is for players ages 15-20 and has it's own draft, usually forcing players to live away from home with a host family); players from high school, college and overseas leagues can also be drafted. High school players generally go on to play college hockey for one or more years.
Any drafted player can play in the NHL although most either stay in junior hockey for a year or two or play in the development league, the AHL (which has an average salary of $85k/year). Players from junior teams who are under 20 must either play in the NHL or on their junior team; they cannot play in the AHL. Furthermore, if a junior player starts the year on his junior team, he must finish the season before he can join the NHL. Finally, a junior player may play up to 9 games for his NHL team to start the season and still be returned to junior (he would be paid NHL salary for the 9 games but not the rest of the season).
According to Quanthockey, 14 of the 526 NHL rookies from 2010-2014 played at age 18. They don't differentiate between players who played a full season or only a few games at the start or end of the junior season. But, over 97% of NHL players debuted at 19 or later, with 22 being the most common age for an NHL debut. The data is on this page:
http://www.quanthockey.com/Distributions/RookieAgeDistribution.phpNHL free agency also works differently than in the NBA. The most common way to become an unrestricted free agent is through the 27/7 rule, which means a player is 27 years old or has accrued 7 years of NHL experience. Another way is to be age 25 or older with less than 80 games of NHL experience (i.e. a career minor leaguer). Restricted free agency is much less player movement friendly in the NHL; the team that owns a player’s rights not only has the right to match but also is entitled to draft pick compensation depending on the AAV of the contract (up to 4 first round picks!).
So, while the occasional player, such as Sidney Crosby, can play in the NHL at age 18, receive an NHL salary and accrue service towards free agency, the reality is that nearly all players are forced to play in junior hockey and/or a developmental league, at a pittance of a salary, until their NHL team deems them ready to play, which is often well after their NBA counterparts have starting playing pro ball. Even first round picks in the NHL often play in developmental leagues, while that is quite rare for their NBA counterparts and there is no mechanism to force a team to promote a player to the NHL.
If the NBA owners submitted an NHL-type draft and developmental contract for the next CBA, the NBPA would laugh.
“I pretty much played the last three games with a broken hand,” James said as he sat there with a softcast on the right hand.
