NBPA head Roberts 'adamantly opposed' to changing age minimum

Add the idea of raising the rookie age minimum to the growing list of issues that new NBPA executive director Michele Roberts disagrees with commissioner Adam Silver on.

Silver has made it no secret that he thinks the NBA would be better served by players being two years removed from high school before entering the league, a matter that seems both a positive and negative from a player perspective. According to Roberts, though, there's no gray area on the union side, and raising the age limit might be a non-starter.

As she told Chris Mannix from Sports Illustrated in an article published Wednesday:

I’m adamantly opposed to (raising the age minimum). I’ve been practicing law for 30 years. One of the beauties of being in that job is that I can practice until I lose my mind or die. That is not the case with athletes. You have a limited life to make money as a basketball player. Anything that limits those opportunities is distressing to me. I view (the age minimum) as just another device that serves to limit a players' ability to make a living.

Her argument that an age minimum limits player earning isn't necessarily a fact, considering total player salaries are tied to basketball-related income. In other words, the age minimum may change who gets how much money and when, but the total amount of money going to players wouldn't be impacted.

Still, there are arguments to be made against raising the minimum, like limiting the maximum that each player can earn in a career.

Roberts continued to pull no punches in discussing her opinion of the current collective bargaining agreement. This kind of public back-and-forth is completely expected between the sides, but it's coming incredibly early - the two sides can't opt out of the current CBA until 2017 - and with heavy tone. That's a negotiating strategy as much as anything, but it could portend a contentious 2017 summer.