The sad irony of the De'Sean Butler story has me pondering the NBA's age requirement and wondering if the best solution is to raise it or get rid of it all together.

I'm not going to pretend like I know a ton about De'Sean Butler, I read pretty much everything there is online about him when the Spurs picked him up last season and watched the ESPN Outside the Lines piece about him, hopefully titled "Operation Comeback," but lets face it this is pretty much the end of his NBA career. If after an extended off season and all of last year to recuperate De'Sean still can't overcome his injury, its not likely he ever will.

For those who don't know, De'Sean was a Senior, leading West Virginia in the 2010 Final Four, when he was badly injured during the second half of what would have likely been his last (or at least second to last) game of his award-winning college basketball career. Projected to be a lottery pick before that game, his life and career was totally changed by one injury.

I didn't follow De'Sean's college career closely so I don't know how important it was to him to get his degree, or if he was simply waiting for the best draft market. But in my mind I can't stop wondering what would have happened had he gone pro a year earlier. It's impossible to say if he still would have suffered a career ending injury that day, if he would have merely delayed the calamity or avoided it all together. But if he had gone pro as soon as he could, he would have at least gotten a pay day to help cushion his transition to a new career. On the other hand, he could have gotten injured or washed out either way, at least this way he has a degree.

What do y'all think?