I didn't even think of this... Recruiting American talent under the legal NBA age limit will be another niche for Europe. Crap! Stern get a clue!
I think the age limit in the NBA is a joke that ignores the real problem at hand:
It's time for the NBA to develop a real minor league system that allows every big league team a legit farm team and expand the draft to 3 rounds...
Personally, I would follow the Celtics minor league team(and being a Lowell resident I would root for us to get it ).
Although I agree about the minor league system (and I am pretty sure Stern would agree with you as well), I don't think Stern is worried about young guys going to Europe for a year or two. He sees it as just another minor league for kids to develop in (just like college), while the owners don't have to pay their salaries.
All this hurts is college basketball, and Stern couldn't care less about that, he is just concerned with having players come into the league, and be able to make bigger impacts sooner. Over the last few years, there have been way too many underdeveloped players taking up roster space, and taking home large paychecks, instead of developing on someone elses dime in college, or over seas.
This is actually a great thing for the NBA, because it allows some of these young players to learn to play against other professionals. Don't kid yourself, 99% of these uber-talented stars will not stay in Europe, unless they don't have a choice. They grew up wanting to play in the NBA, and they will come back as soon as they can. But the age limit helps to make many of them more prepared to help their teams immediately when they are drafted.
I know this will hurt a little bit in that we would miss an extra year or two of the very rare players like Lebron who ARE ready to play in the NBA at 18. But on the whole, it should ultimately increase the quality of play in the NBA, because it will minimize the number of roster spots that are taken up by young guys who didn't have enough time to develop before declaring, but were still drafted high.