Posted on 01/11/2015 8:23:45 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
The most common debunking of the game with slam-dunking is that everything happens in the final two minutes.
And while I agree with the sentiment of this statement, I do not accept that this is the fundamental ailment from which basketball suffers.
The main problem with basketball (thank you for asking) is that it’s too easy for the players to score. And this is not what Benjamin Basketball intended when he invented the sport back in the 1890s.
Okay, his name wasn’t really Benjamin Basketball (sadly)—it was Dr. James Naismith. B
(Excerpt) Read more at bbcamerica.com ...
One difference is that human beings are much bigger and faster than in Naismith’s day. Moving the basket up to 11 feet (or more) would make it harder to score, especially from the inside, and bring in a little more balance with the outside game.
Basketball = Squeak...squeak...whistle. Yuk!
To you and others its boring but to a lot of people who pay to watch it in person or watch it on TV its massively popular. Now i will note that College Basketball has gone down in quality because of the AAU street style ball they teach in highschool but the college game is still solidly good. The one thing that many people may not like about collegiate or pro is that with so many games a team has time and chances to correct itself and a few loses in a row doesn’t kill the team and so a regular season isn’t so crucial whereas football, every game matters
Correction: Three steps and two hops. They drive from mid-court and the ball never touches the ground.
Baseball for me thanks.
My feeling has always been to give each team 100 points and two minutes to play and you wouldn't notice any difference.
I Hate ‘rounball ‘. It was almost acceptable before the fundamentals were trashed. It is played professionally for a large part by thugs.
Don’t know if the Brits are right or not. Don’t care.
I watched a game on TV in 1987, NBA vs Soviet All Stars, in Moscow. Three refs, two NBA, one Soviet. The Soviet guy called travel on about every other possession, by the NBA. The NBA guys cried like little babies, to the NBA refs.
Finally, after about five minutes, there was a time out. The NBA refs cornered the Soviet guy. Not sure what they said, but it must have been along the lines of “We don’t call traveling”. I think the Soviet guy must have swallowed his whistle.
I agree about the floppage in soccer and basketball. But at least you aren’t going to see chest pounding, hulk rage poses and celebratory gyrations 40 times a game like in football and basketball. I certainly didn’t dig the fruity running around crazy crap after a goal in the WC but at least they didn’t break it out constantly.
I think the sports with the most casual US fans are probably football and basketball, there’s a lot of folks out there that at least seem to love the decline in defense and rise in offense in those sports.
Freegards
I, too, find fault with basketball (monotony, save for playoffs). Imho, it ‘is’ too easy for some players to score (e.g., Lakers’ Shaquile). In particular, taller players gain advantage in this sport by directly affecting the game (scoring)...an advantage not directly analogous in any other sport I can think of.
The solution is quite elegant and returns the game to one of skill & athleticism as opposed to the tallest player getting to the basket first:
Raise the height of the baskets proportional to the height of the tallest players. Review annually.
Frankly, I could care less. Just an observation made 2 decades ago and roundly criticized by sports nuts in my circle.
I hate the tattoo culture, too. I don’t understand it, but many people under roughly 40 are now covered in tattoos and have things shoved in their noses and through their ear lobes. But that’s not about basketball, that’s post-Christian pagan America.
I’m from Hoops City, Memphis, Tennessee. Basketball is a year-round part of the conversation here. It’s a huge deal on every level and lots of fun. I have season tickets for the Memphis Tigers as well as the Memphis Grizzlies. I used to also have Tennessee Titans ticket but gave them up in part because I wasn’t enjoying it. I still enjoy football, but I prefer the college game to the NFL.
By the way, baseball remains my favorite sport and the St. Louis Cardinals remain my favorite team, but my wife and kids don’t care a thing about baseball. They will occasionally humor me and go to Busch Stadium in St. Louis, but I have to bribe them with trips to Six Flags and whatnot.
Basketball is way more fun to play than watch - when I was a young buck, that is.
You are both correct.
Have the “confused Brit” explain why it’s so easy to score in Cricket.
1. The small size of the basketball court encourages scoring.
2. Current basketball rules--especially the banning of hand-checking in the NBA since 2004--has resulted in a lot of scoring because point guards and forwards don't worry so much about being physically beaten up going to the basket.
3. With the ban on hand-checking, NBA has become more and more like FIBA rules basketball played in most of the world, which emphasizes ball movement to get the best shot.
In soccer, the sheer size of the soccer pitch--just slightly larger than an NFL field--makes scoring quite difficult. That's why even at the highest professional levels like the Barclays Premier League in England, 1-0 and scoreless games are fairly common.
If the Brits want to watch a sport with way more scoring, there's always Rugby League/Union and cricket.
Imagine a hockey player getting a penalty shot and just having the open net in front of him. Or imagine a batter in baseball being allowed to walk up to the plate and be able to just hit the ball out of his hand instead of having it pitched to him. It's about the same thing.
A radical change in the rules is necessary to eliminate this ugly play. For example, you could make a rule that any offensive player making contact with the hoop or net with his hands is given a foul and the ball gets turned over to the other team. This will force the players to actually shoot the ball into the net (or lay it up from below). You touch the hoop or net however and a foul is immediately called on you.
It will likely never happen but that is what is needed.
Moving the basket up to 11 feet (or more)
Always thought it was a “neat idea” :)
Ask Wilt Chamberlin.
If anyone ever cared to make soccer interesting — they would cut the length of the “pitch” in half.
Almost every rule and regulation in basketball is designed to take away the advantage a tall player has.
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