Three (Simple) Ways to Make the NBA Watchable Again
The NBA is a joke. There, I said it. The second most entertaining league to watch (before the UFC was a thing) has become an embarrassment right before our very eyes. Everyone seems too busy with all of the other content at their finger tips for it to matter that much. Which is probably a blessing. But I miss quality basketball. More importantly, it doesn’t have to be this way.
The NBA is warped with issues: non-competitive games, horrendous officiating, too many stoppages (especially late), lack of parity, too many regular season games, too many playoff games, the list goes on. There are three simple things the NBA should do, but is not smart enough to do, that will make it watchable again.
- Change the 24 second shot clock to 32. Yes, I bet the typical sports pundits never thought of this one. Because they’re too simple minded to understand that more possessions, more points doesn’t equate to a higher quality game. By the time a team gets the ball across half court, there are about 16 seconds left to run an offense. Not much time to get to your second let alone third option. It’s widely known the NBA is way too much 1–on-1 basketball, but we are blatantly incentivizing it with this structure. The flex, maybe the most famous offense in basketball, used to be a set many teams would run to force teams to defend various cuts and screens while patiently waiting for the defense to breakdown. The NBA structure doesn’t allow this. They simply are begging for as many possessions and points as possible, while eliminating any possibility of quality team offense.
2. Call traveling. I may be dating myself here, but walks used to be a thing. For good reason, because one, let alone two, extra steps gives a player a significant advantage over the defense. Growing up in travel, high school and even college, it seemed if you even thought about taking an extra step without the ball on the ground a whistle was blown. Now we are creating new ways to travel and seemingly adding a half step to the rule book every year that goes by. To be clear however, traveling is the most blatant downfall of today’s officials, but it doesn’t stop there. Officiating as a whole is atrocious and fans and players alike no longer know what is a foul and what isn’t. The league is in dire need of consistency and less whistles blown overall.
3. Shorten the games as well as the season. 10 minute quarters, 50 game season, best of three in the postseason... Ever wonder why the NFL wins? Football is a great sport to watch but thats not the only reason. If that was the case, leagues like the AFL, XFL and AAF wouldn’t have such a hard time getting fans to watch. The NFL has built in an element to their league not seen by the other biggest Professional sports leagues: urgency. Everything matters in the NFL. Week 1 or Week 16. 1st Quarter or 4th Quarter. Even the postseason has its own extra urgent angle in its win-or-go-home playoff scenario. The NBA is the opposite. Watch the first three quarters of an NBA game? There are so many runs and lead changes because of the countless number of possessions it really is irrelevant until the final quarter. Go see a random game in November? You may miss your favorite player as he is taking the night off for “load management.” It really doesn’t matter in the scheme of 82 games. Who cares right? The NBA has 0 urgency and the product shows.
Unfortunately, I don’t have high hopes that any of these changes will be implemented. The league’s mindset tends to gravitate towards more points, more dunks, more entertainment. It’s more of a WWE mentality rather than a focus on the fundamental sport we all know and love. The positive is these changes are very simple and easy to implement. Basketball will be loved regardless but fans deserve better. Maybe the ratings will plummet so low they are forced to do something drastic. Here’s hoping.
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Finally, enjoy one more mind-blowing NBA non-call just because…
