Right, so how many bad ideas had Stern created and tried to shove it down his constituencies but it didn’t work? Synthetic leather ball? Check. Shortening the three point line? Check. Age limit? Check. The idea of not talking back to the referees? Check. A new goaltending rule? Wait what?
“Well I’m going to urge the owners — and it’s not very radical but we were talking about it for awhile — to adopt the international rule on basket interference. That is to say, once the ball hits the rim it’s in play. Because I think that it’s too hard to call. I think that we don’t want to stop the game every time to see if it’s the right call, but the camera that looks down on the basket can tell the story if the refs have gotten it right. And it’s just impossible to call to make whether the ball’s touching the rim, on the rim, off the rim or the like. And I think that would make the game faster, better, and less controversial. And I think we’re going to be putting in more — I forget the exact number — just more replay opportunities because we really want to get it right. So those are the biggest things. I also think we’re going to be talking about cutting out a timeout or two to move the game along. The last period, even in a close game, shouldn’t begin to approach an hour.”Yes, brothers, that’s what David Stern just said, Cutting timeouts aren’t really a problem because teams have to adapt to that anyway, they are trained to run their sets with or without calling a timeout, it just means they have to know when to use timeouts correctly and not go Chris Webber all over again.
But changing the goaltending rules? Common. There’s a reason why NBA scores are always in the 80-90s region and European games tend to float around 60. Those international rules are the ones making the game go slower, because teams are more willing to turn it into slugfest and duke it out rather than launch one from outside, because with this crazy rule in place, Serge Ibaka could just jump all the way and pull down a Kobe Bryant jumpshot as if it was a rebound.
And because the Kominsioner, wants to make the game faster, that doesn’t mean implementing this rule would make it faster, it would make the game take a turn for the worse. Players would not be shooting the ball as good, and Josh Childress would probably head back to Europe. But the point is, it is just downright crazy to implement this, how long did the players need to get use to the new “no talking back at referees” rule? It would take a century for these players to adjust the way they play because they are good at that, and now Stern is trying to make them be something they are not, technically being worse.[
David Stern is just crazy. I know he globalized the game and stuff, but this is just crazy, what’s next? Draw graffiti on the court just like any other European arenas? It’s the NBA mate, what’s the matter with you? I really hope this rule doesn’t go through and the NBA is still a democratic organization where free speech is judge like how it should.
Room Service Dime 