Pump it up: in light of last week's Supreme Court decisions in favor of the NFL, a basketball lover hopes his game will seize the opportunity to save itself.(Know It All)(National Football League )

Final Four week was busy, as you might expect, for those gentlemen who make their living as NBA scouts. It began in Oklahoma City with practices for the McDonald's All American Game. It ended with the Nike Hoop Summit in San Antonio matching U.S. prep stars against their international counterparts.

UConn? Duke? Georgia Tech? What a quaint notion that Emeka Okafor might matter as much as a gaudily talented high schooler.

NBA scouts spent the winter chasing teenagers as if pitching class rings or yearbook pictures. They were in Peoria watching 6-7 point guard Shaun Livingston. They were in Brooklyn watching 5-10 playmaker Sebastian Telfair. They were in Atlanta watching 6-11 power forward Dwight Howard. As many as 10 high schoolers could be on the early entry list, in part because the scouts' omnipresence served as an enticement.

The league's blind lust for raw talent--talent it demonstrates no proclivity to train properly--damages the game at all levels. Elite prep players are easy targets for unscrupulous agents. College programs rapidly lose not just star players but, more damaging, those who might become stars. In the NBA, scoring skill has declined so profoundly only two teams averaged more than 100 points this season; five averaged fewer than 90.

The game needs a savior, and it might be Maurice Clarett. The NFL's so-far successful defense against Clarett's lawsuit could wind up giving the NBA the legal traction necessary to establish a more restrictive draft policy.

NBA commissioner David Stern has intermittently proposed an age restriction for ...