The State of Basketball

Watching the Warriors last week reminded me of how off base the NBA has gone. The Warriors had the ball in the a tied game with seconds left in the fourth quarter. Stephen Jackson gets the ball. After a couple seconds of him doing nothing go by, he attempts to take a shot over Bowen. Did I say over? And did I say attempt to take a shot? That is not what happened at all. Instead of trying to score the people are supposed to score in the NBA, Jackson dug his way into the body of Bowen and through the ball to the area of the basket trying to get to the line. His effort did not pay off.

However, I have seen many things like this happen; the shooter jumps forward into the defender while shooting trying to get to the line. This pays off about 75% of the time. When I think of the word foul, I think of a someone who makes too much contact with someone on the other team. So my question is; who initiates the contact in this situation? Every time I see something like this happen I want to make a call to David Stern telling him fix this atrocious behavior that has become so popular.

This same logic applies similarly to other situation that occur in basketball. In my mind, the defensive player has the same right to the basketball as the offensive player. The defensive player also has the same right to be on any given part of the floor as the offensive player. The game loses its integrity when an offensive player drives right through the defensive player and drawing a foul. How ludicrous is this? I honestly don't understand why this rule is in place. Set or not, the defensive player has every right to be where he is, as long he isn't jumping into the offensive players way. I understand that this is well within the rules so I am not calling out the offense. I am, however, calling for a change in the rules.

Point three: drawing charges is also something that blows my mind. When you have a guy coming full force into the lane, sure, go ahead and don't move and get your charge call. That isn't what bothers me. What bothers me is the defense using this rule to as if it is a skill one picks up. I've seen Shaq be the victim of this many times. Let's face it, the man is slow as hell. If he is has to drive to the basket, the defense could easily get in front of him to draw the charge, and it happens 50% of the time. What happened to playing basketball? Officials should use some common sense and give the fouls to those that deserve them.

Point 4: intentional fouling. Again, lets play basketball. If you are beat at the end of the game, instead of intentional fouling, play basketball. Have some respect.

In soccer, if a player flops, he gets a yellow card. I propose we do the same thing in basketball. T up the coward who decided he wasn't good enough to play his opponent.

-Mark P