Back in the 1980's and early 90's I would regularly watch college and pro basketball. I would yell at the TV just like I always have when watching hockey. But as the years have gone by I have been watching less and less basketball. The last game I recall attending was a T-Wolves game back in the late 90's. I just don't care about it like I used too.So what's the deal? I think it's a bunch of different things... For one thing, it just seems to me that there is no flow to games anymore. There are so many stoppages and timeouts that it has come to a point where it drives me crazy. Including media timeouts, a college game can have up to 18 total timeouts. Come on!!!! It's only a 40 minute game! Do you really need that many timeouts? When you then add fouls and personnel changes, the game just ends up having no flow. At least that is how I see it.
The reffing of the game also bugs me... Now I yell at the hockey refs just like everyone else, but when I compare them to basketball refs it's just not close. These guys are terrible. One of the main reasons I stopped watching BBall was the phantom fouls. You know those fouls that get called when there was no contact between players. It just looked like there was contact so the ref blew his whistle. What the hell is that?
So what would bring me back to basketball? I think a few rule changes could go a long way.
First, cut back the timeouts. 2 per half is plenty.Change on the fly. I know this sounds strange and would never happen, but I think it could really add a cool dynamic to the game. A player could go to a designated spot on the sideline and be replaced by another player while the game is going on. Just like hockey players switch during play.
Allow a bit more physical play. Now I don't mean checking or anything along those lines. But how about allowing more hand work prevent the constant fouls being called. So if a player going for the ball gets hand contact instead of the ball, it would be allowed. There is nothing more frustrating than watching someone go to the net, go up for the shot and an opposing player slightly touches his hand instead of the ball gets called for a foul. That type of thing should be let go.
In the last 2 minutes when a team is behind and fouling on purpose to try to get the ball back. Call it what it actually is, an "intentional foul". So the other team shoots and gets the ball back. This is the only way to speed up the last 2 minutes of a game that can take up to 15 minutes to complete.
None of those suggestions will ever happen. So I guess I am done watching basketball.... You may think that I am just a hockey guy that hates basketball, but that's just not true. I think it's fun to play because none of the B.S. I described above is not part of the game when playing with friends. It's just played as a pure game and is a lot of fun. Too bad that is not the case when it comes to the "organized" basketball.
