Three years ago, NBA member clubs and the National Basketball Players Association ("NBPA") got together and added a rule to their collective bargaining agreement that requires all prospective NBA players to wait a full year after graduating high school before entering the league draft.

The NBA's age / education requirement benefits just about everybody, except prospective NBA entrants and the league's fans. Under the rule, individual club owners get to scout young players for at least one additional year before deciding who to draft. Fringe veterans avoid competing for jobs against 18-year olds with raw talent. And, even the NCAA gets to squeeze a year's profit out of young men with no interest in otherwise attending college, such as Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley, and O.J. Mayo. (It is no wonder the NCAA filed an amicus brief in support of the NFL age/education requirements in the Clarett case).

Last week, however, one prospective college freshman, Brandon Jennings -- a young man from a poor family in Compton, CA -- decided that rather than provide free labor to the NCAA, he would seek to sign an overseas contract with a professional basketball team based in either Israel, Italy or Spain. Jennings also expects to sign a lucrative sneaker contract with a major American company in the near future -- something not allowed of college basketball players under the NCAA Principle of Amateurism.

If Jennings plays well abroad, he may be able to turn the future of the NBA's age / education requirement on its head. If he becomes a star, the NBA runs the risk that one of the more affluent international basketball clubs may begin to sign premier American talent to long-term contracts directly out of high school -- a result that may encourage some NBA owners to want to scrap the age/education requirement altogether. At the same time, Jennings makes NBPA executive director Billy Hunter look foolish, if not morally flexible, for agreeing to an age / education requirement that forces young adults like Jennings to fly over 5,000 miles just to practice their trade.

In a complete about face from his 2005 decision to accept an age/education requirement, Hunter last week told the Los Angeles Times that "I'm against [an age limit]. It's going to be a very big issue the next time we negotiate." Hunter's change of heart is critical, because, without the union's support, a court would likely find any NBA age/education requirement violates antitrust law.

As you may remember, the NBA did not have an age/education requirement from 1971 until 2005. That's why during this period players such as Darryl Dawkins, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Rashard Lewis and Kobe Bryant entered the league draft directly from high school -- an opportunity that is now denied to young players such as Jennings.

Read more, after the jump.

Yesterday, at 4 p.m. Pacific time, Judge Marsha Pechman was supposed to issue her ruling in City of Seattle v. Professional Basketball Club, LLC, regarding whether the City of Seattle could specifically enforce its lease agreement and require the Sonics basketball team to play in KeyArena through the 2009-10 season. After waiting more than an hour for Pechman's ruling, however, it was finally announced that the parties had privately settled the matter.

According to several published reports, the City of Seattle agreed to allow Clay Bennett's ownership group to get out of their lease, opening the door for the Sonics to immediately move to Bennett's hometown of Oklahoma City, OK. In exchange, Bennett will have to pay the city $45 million in immediate damages, as well as potentially an additional $30 million in future damages, if the Washington legislature authorizes at least $75 million in public funding to renovate KeyArena and the City of Seattle still does not obtain a new NBA franchise by 2013.

Bennett's ownership group will also have to leave the Sonics name and colors behind in Seattle -- something the group probably does not mind in the least.

An assessment of the settlement, below the fold.