Why the NBA is becoming an Air Ball
Posted: Sat Jan 5, 2008 5:04 am
While the NBA enjoyed its "heyday" in the 1980's with superstars like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Julius Erving, and Isiah Thomas, the league is starting to become as enjoyable as watching Ben Wallace shoot a free throw. What has led to the demise of the game? I will list the top 5 reasons why the NBA is becoming a Ben Wallace free throw...
5.Too Many Teams! There are way too many teams in the league these days...30 to be exact. With only 16 teams making it to the playoffs, that leaves 14 teams that won't be playing in the post-season. Out of those 14 teams, half of them don't even deserve to be in the NBA, let alone to play against a JV high school basketball team. Last year, the Memphis Grizzlies were 45 games back of the Western Conference leading San Antonio Spurs... 45 games. That's more than half the total amount of games played in the season. Granted, they did tank the last month of the season in order to try to get the 1st pick in this past year's NBA draft. The NBA draft lottery works by giving the teams with the worst records the best chance of landing the first pick in the NBA draft, which encourages teams to purposely lose. Come the last month of the season, a good amount of teams are in competition to secure the worst record. What happened to the integrity of the game?
4.Relocation The Los Angeles Lakers, the New Orleans Hornets, the Memphis Grizzlies, the Utah Jazz. What do they all have in common? The team names have nothing to do with the cities that they are located in. Do you know why? BECAUSE THEY USED TO BE LOCATED IN DIFFERENT CITIES. Doesn't the Minneapolis Lakers, the Charlotte Hornets, the Vancouver Grizzlies, and the New Orleans Jazz make more sense? Franchise relocation hurts the NBA, not only with funny team names, but because it demonstrates that the NBA is ran by money hungry businessmen who care nothing about the fans beside the revenue they bring in. The Seattle Supersonics could very well become the latest example of franchise relocation with their owner threatening to move them to Oklahoma City. The city of Seattle has embraced the Supersonics for over 35 years, longer than most marriages!
3.Tim Donaghy Ever since the news of former NBA referee Tim Donaghy betting on NBA games that he officiated in came to light, the NBA is no longer as enjoyable nor as pure as it once was. Now whenever an official makes a questionable call, it makes you wonder what his motives were to make the call.
2.The Officiating This goes beyond the Tim Donaghy situation. The officials have been getting progressively worse the past few years. With all the ticky-tack fouls called recently, the games never gain any fluidity. Also, the officials give superstar treatment to certain players. It's impossible to guard certain superstar players because the officials will call a foul on their opponent for practically breathing on them. Now, in the same situation with an unproven player on offense, the officials will swallow their whistle and let the opponent play aggressive defense. All I want from the officials is consistency... and lately that has been a big problem. A big part of basketball is adjusting as the game is played. For example, if you know that the officials are calling a lot of fouls, you probably won't play quite as aggressive defense. If you were fouled the next time you took a shot and the officials didn't call it you would be very frustrated because the officials are being very inconsistent and are calling the game differently on both ends of the court. This can prevent a player from ever adjusting in a game and making it a guessing game of what you can and can't do.
1.Flopping I could have put this under the officiating, but I believe this deserves its own section. Flopping has become the biggest problem facing the NBA game today. Flopping occurs when a player tries to win an academy award by faking the extent at which the opposing player either bumps or runs into them. There is a certain amount of contact that should be allowed between the players without calling a foul and usually flops happen after this type of contact. The rules need to be changed in order to punish the player taking the flop instead of rewarding them and until this happens, the NBA game is being diminished as players are trying harder to win an academy award than trying to play good defense.
5.Too Many Teams! There are way too many teams in the league these days...30 to be exact. With only 16 teams making it to the playoffs, that leaves 14 teams that won't be playing in the post-season. Out of those 14 teams, half of them don't even deserve to be in the NBA, let alone to play against a JV high school basketball team. Last year, the Memphis Grizzlies were 45 games back of the Western Conference leading San Antonio Spurs... 45 games. That's more than half the total amount of games played in the season. Granted, they did tank the last month of the season in order to try to get the 1st pick in this past year's NBA draft. The NBA draft lottery works by giving the teams with the worst records the best chance of landing the first pick in the NBA draft, which encourages teams to purposely lose. Come the last month of the season, a good amount of teams are in competition to secure the worst record. What happened to the integrity of the game?
4.Relocation The Los Angeles Lakers, the New Orleans Hornets, the Memphis Grizzlies, the Utah Jazz. What do they all have in common? The team names have nothing to do with the cities that they are located in. Do you know why? BECAUSE THEY USED TO BE LOCATED IN DIFFERENT CITIES. Doesn't the Minneapolis Lakers, the Charlotte Hornets, the Vancouver Grizzlies, and the New Orleans Jazz make more sense? Franchise relocation hurts the NBA, not only with funny team names, but because it demonstrates that the NBA is ran by money hungry businessmen who care nothing about the fans beside the revenue they bring in. The Seattle Supersonics could very well become the latest example of franchise relocation with their owner threatening to move them to Oklahoma City. The city of Seattle has embraced the Supersonics for over 35 years, longer than most marriages!
3.Tim Donaghy Ever since the news of former NBA referee Tim Donaghy betting on NBA games that he officiated in came to light, the NBA is no longer as enjoyable nor as pure as it once was. Now whenever an official makes a questionable call, it makes you wonder what his motives were to make the call.
2.The Officiating This goes beyond the Tim Donaghy situation. The officials have been getting progressively worse the past few years. With all the ticky-tack fouls called recently, the games never gain any fluidity. Also, the officials give superstar treatment to certain players. It's impossible to guard certain superstar players because the officials will call a foul on their opponent for practically breathing on them. Now, in the same situation with an unproven player on offense, the officials will swallow their whistle and let the opponent play aggressive defense. All I want from the officials is consistency... and lately that has been a big problem. A big part of basketball is adjusting as the game is played. For example, if you know that the officials are calling a lot of fouls, you probably won't play quite as aggressive defense. If you were fouled the next time you took a shot and the officials didn't call it you would be very frustrated because the officials are being very inconsistent and are calling the game differently on both ends of the court. This can prevent a player from ever adjusting in a game and making it a guessing game of what you can and can't do.
1.Flopping I could have put this under the officiating, but I believe this deserves its own section. Flopping has become the biggest problem facing the NBA game today. Flopping occurs when a player tries to win an academy award by faking the extent at which the opposing player either bumps or runs into them. There is a certain amount of contact that should be allowed between the players without calling a foul and usually flops happen after this type of contact. The rules need to be changed in order to punish the player taking the flop instead of rewarding them and until this happens, the NBA game is being diminished as players are trying harder to win an academy award than trying to play good defense.