The measure of a game

There’s been some discussion about the need to increase the dimensions of the pro basketball court used by the NBA. This supposedly came from the imagination of an American newspaper writer, reasoning that players have gotten bigger and more athletic in the past decade since the original 94 feet by 50 feet dimensions were set. Strangely, the idea picked up some steam and caught the attention of the NBA itself, albeit without any concrete steps taken in that direction.

On the face of it, this discussion already took place about 20 years ago, when a minor groundswell of support came up for raising the rim to 11 feet. Needless to say, the shorter players balked at the suggestion. Those players who couldn’t dunk would be further isolated from the goal, and the additional foot would leave more room for their shots to be swatted away for taller players. And seriously, it would have resulted in more injuries and undercutting, since players would force themselves to jump higher to reach the ring. It did not seem feasible then or now.

In the last 20 years, the NBA has agreed (under a lot of public pressure) to participate in open basketball which FIBA first announced in 1990. Prior to that, the US was sending teams composed of college players, with diminishing results. After all, these amateurs were mostly teenagers playing against seasoned semi-professional or professional rivals from Europe and other parts of the world. In some countries, players can turn pro as young as 14, putting the US at a serious disadvantage. The NBA then came to the rescue like, as Karl Malone said “a big brother seeing the kid brother getting beaten up”.

From that point on, the NBA has made adjustments and sacrifices for the sake of its national interest in the sport. Then,  it was rapidly expanding into new markets, and courting players and audiences in Europe and Latin America. Asia was next, with China the sleeping giant. This was just a few years removed from when the Atlanta Hawks, following in the footsteps of US Pres. Richard Nixon’s “ping-pong diplomacy” did clinics in China. Players there still shot lay-ups within two feet of the basket at the time. The concept of dunking the ball was alien to them, a decadent show of one-upmanship inacceptable in their culture.

Since then, NBA has grown by leaps and bounds, and dozens of foreign players are now legitimate superstars in the league, familiar to American audiences. The invincibility of the American player has been debunked by losses in the World Championships and the Olympic Games. Non-American NBA players are no longer awed by their American counterparts, primarily because they see them regularly and study them to become more effective. Part of the mystique is gone, and this is a mixed blessing. In other words, the NBA has both gained and lost, but what it has lost is something it may never get back, a fearsome, elevated reputation of invulnerability that took decades to establish.

There have been many constants, too. The dimensions of the court is one of them. If you recall, original basketball courts had the “keyhole” area in front of the rim, which was widened to 12 feet because giants like George Mikan just needed the ball lobbed to them and were allowed to be within three feet of the basket. Easy pickings. That was the last major change in the actual dimensions of the court, the revival of the three-point line was more of a reintroduction or addition, not a change in actual measure.

What will happen if they enlarge the playing area? That may benefit teams on offense, since they will have more room to operate, and will be able to screen shooters better. There will be more room for players attacking the basket to operate. They will be able to stretch defenses and pick and roll with more space. In the case of switches, a player with a speed advantage will probably be able to get to the basket more easily, since the big man who will be coming over will have more ground to gain.

Now, let’s look at the proposed four-point line. In the late 1980’s and 1990’s, a few countries – most notably South Korea – added an innovation during national team practices. Every fourth three-point shot onward was counted as four points, this resulted in a hail of treys, and the ensuing habit informed their international exposure. Players like Hue Jae gained reputations as deadly shooters. It was the only way Koreans could keep up with taller foreign teams. Now, they are growing their own behemoths.

The four-point shot will simply become an appendage, and accessory, which will be used in cases where teams are making up huge margins in the dying minutes of a period. If I may suggest, the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association had its own innovations which may be more applicable. When a player was fouled and sent to the free throw line, he had the option of taking an unmolested three-point shot or a “free three”. This made sense, because free throw shooters average 50 to 70 percent, and three-point shooters about 30 to 35 percent. In a few instances, it took big chinks out of leads by a superior team.

Another reward was a three-point lay-up. If one team was able to score within four seconds (usually after a made basket by the other team), the basket was good for four points. This pumped up the intensity of the game, and forced leading teams to keep defending deeper into the fourth quarter. More importantly, these rules did not require any fundamental changes in the basic rules or dimensions of the game.

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