Female Basketball Stars Hate Age Rules, Too

Epiphanny Prince, who briefly made people care about high school girls basketball when she scored 2,493 points in a game, now plans to leave Rutgers early and play abroad, just like the boys. We got next! In Krakow!

Prince, 21 years old and a junior guard, will forgo her senior year and play somewhere in Europe, following the example of high schoolers Brandon Jennings and Jeremy Tyler. At issue, of course, is the WNBA's age rule, which is even more burdensome and arbitrary than the NBA's. As The New York Times notes:

The W.N.B.A. requires players to be at least 22, to have completed their college eligibility, to have graduated from a four-year college or to be four years removed from high school. Prince turns 22 in January and she plans to graduate from Rutgers before the draft.

Prince will likely earn more money in Europe than she would be covered for under a program that allows "exceptional" N.C.A.A. athletes to buy insurance to protect themselves in the event of catastrophic injury or illness during their college careers.

I'm dying to know what magical thing happens to a woman at 22 — and not at, say, 18 — that prepares her to play basketball for money. But let's not ask such questions, not when there's some good old-fashioned paternalistic clucking to be done about the value of a college education, the glories of amateurism, etc. Take it away, William Rhoden.

Rutgers Basketball Star to Turn Pro in Europe [The New York Times]