NBA commissioner David Stern said yesterday that although he believes a 20-year-old minimum age for players would be an improvement, it is not the highest priority.

The league's minimum age is 19. Stern said he has no plans to reopen the NBA's collective bargaining agreement to make a change.

That’s great news because a minimum age of 19 is foolish enough.

In 2005, the player’s union agreed to raise the age to 19 in an exchange for an increase in the NBA’s salary cap.

Why?

It has nothing to do with the success rate, on or off the court, of the individuals that have chosen to declare for the NBA draft at 18.

From 1975 to 2005, 41 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, Andrew Bynum, Gerald Green, C.J. Miles, Monta Ellis and Amir Johnson. [Read]