This is the Stattmann Baby!!  Time to Scatt a little bit.

It seems everyone got out of sorts this week when it was suggested there might be a racial component to the idea of a minimum age in the NBA.

The arguments centered around the young black athletes coming into the NBA right out of high school.  Were they too young?  Didn’t they need an education first?  And my favorite: “Nobody needs that much money!”

NASCAR says it’s the second most popular sport in the land and, to its credit, has in place an 18 year old age limit in Cup, Busch and Trucks.

But racing in general has the tradition that age is more important than education.  Eight-year-old professional drivers are becoming less rare these days.

Personally, I wondered why few people this week thought the same education-first issues weren’t as important amongst the largely white racing driver world.  If 18-year-old pros are too young in the NBA, why aren’t eight-year-old pros too young in motor racing?

Actually, I’ve heard some Cup guys who are proud that they got their grade school education out of the way so they can “go racin’!  Make ‘em some money!”

But if an all-pro NBA player says the same thing, he’s dumb, greedy and ill informed!

Explain to me the difference…

Peace.