The NBA is such a joke.

[deadsolid...shank]

The officiating in tonight’s game is just flat out embarrassing. 

[tjumper78]

knicks fan since 1988, and i stopped watching the nba a few years after the players started forming their own super-teams.  i got into the european soccer (dont tell my brit/euro friends i said the s word) about 10-11 years ago, and i am very glad i did.  

[TiScape]

You should change the title of this thread to ‘When did you stop watching the NBA?’

😆

[deadsolid...shank]

15 hours ago, TiScape said:

You should change the title of this thread to ‘When did you stop watching the NBA?’

 

 

Edited June 28, 2023 by deadsolid...shank

[TiScape]

2 hours ago, deadsolid...shank said:

 

Such a tease 😉 

 

🤣

[deadsolid...shank]

56 minutes ago, TiScape said:

Such a tease 😉 

 

🤣

😂😂

 

I got a warning for a post in this thread so I thought  I’d better just shut up. 

[jholz]

I'd be ok with basketball in general - NBA, college, whatever - if they just did away with fouls and free throws.

 

I have no answers to the question of "how they might do that"...but maybe just start allowing people to tackle each other?

[MtlJeff]

One thing i will say about the NBA that i respect is that they genuinely try. Adam Silver is very aware of what fans don't like and tries to fix things. Not many leagues are that active in doing this

 

They were aware that tanking was a problem, so they changed the lottery odds and also added the play-in tournament

 

They were aware that Jim Harden's offensive flops were egregious, so they changed rules there also. 

 

They have openly talked about players resting too much and i assume we will see rule changes here (like game minimums to make allstar teams and all NBA teams---which affect bonuses)

 

The NBA does legit care about the fans.

[MtlJeff]

11 minutes ago, jholz said:

I'd be ok with basketball in general - NBA, college, whatever - if they just did away with fouls and free throws.

 

I have no answers to the question of "how they might do that"...but maybe just start allowing people to tackle each other?

 

I don't mind the fouls, what i really don't like is the "star system" of fouls. Like if a star goes into the paint it's getting called....and especially if that is happening in the playoffs. 

 

Though, the past 5-7 years it's hard to think of too many examples

 

But series's like the 2005-2006 Heat/Mavs---were embarrassing for the league. Because it was just Dwayne Wade jumping into bodies and going to the line 23 times a game for 6 games. That isn't basketball...

 

But as mentioned, when Jimmy Harden was doing this all season, they realized this was ugly basketball and made changes

[jholz]

52 minutes ago, MtlJeff said:

 

I don't mind the fouls, what i really don't like is the "star system" of fouls. Like if a star goes into the paint it's getting called....and especially if that is happening in the playoffs. 

 

Though, the past 5-7 years it's hard to think of too many examples

 

But series's like the 2005-2006 Heat/Mavs---were embarrassing for the league. Because it was just Dwayne Wade jumping into bodies and going to the line 23 times a game for 6 games. That isn't basketball...

 

But as mentioned, when Jimmy Harden was doing this all season, they realized this was ugly basketball and made changes

 

You've got a point - certainly. The NBA is a responsive league.

 

But, to me, basketball is best when it is a flowing, continuous game with ball movement, transition play, and the etc. When played like that - it honestly rivals my favorite spectator sport - hockey - for excitement, action, and beauty. But, when both teams get into the penalty - holy crap is it torture. All the starting and stopping.

 

Ultimately, I have a hard time not agreeing with the classic joke that every basketball game should start with both teams tied at 100 and two minutes left on the clock.

[MtlJeff]

4 minutes ago, jholz said:

 

You've got a point - certainly. The NBA is a responsive league.

 

But, to me, basketball is best when it is a flowing, continuous game with ball movement, transition play, and the etc. When played like that - it honestly rivals my favorite spectator sport - hockey - for excitement, action, and beauty. But, when both teams get into the penalty - holy crap is it torture. All the starting and stopping.

 

Ultimately, I have a hard time not agreeing with the classic joke that every basketball game should start with both teams tied at 100 and two minutes left on the clock.

 

I believe some in the league office also agree with you, kinda proving my point about how they care 🙂

 

Have you read up on "the elam ending" , this was proposed by a high school teacher i believe. And the NBA has demo'd it in an allstar game.

 

The play-in tournament was a suggestion from writer/podcaster Bill Simmons. 

 

The NBA listens to fans!

[jholz]

4 minutes ago, MtlJeff said:

 

I believe some in the league office also agree with you, kinda proving my point about how they care 🙂

 

Have you read up on "the elam ending" , this was proposed by a high school teacher i believe. And the NBA has demo'd it in an allstar game.

 

The play-in tournament was a suggestion from writer/podcaster Bill Simmons. 

 

The NBA listens to fans!

 

Huh, no. That one certainly got past me - but then I'm not a particular basketball fan. At fist glance, I figured it had to do something with clutch late game field goals - which I know you have some experience with...

 

In any event, it's an intriguing idea. Something more like a pickup game - and these folks https://thetournament.com/tbt/elam-ending/

do a good job of describing the torture and (often futility) of the last few minutes of a basketball game.

 

Now, if we can open up room for more guys like Muggsy Bogues and Allen Iverson to get on the court - the game might pull me back.

[deadsolid...shank]

It’s a pipe dream that will never happen, but I would love to see the rim moved to 11’. I think the players have outgrown the game’s original dimensions.  When some people can basically just reach up and dunk without having to jump. But that 10’ is just too much part of game”s origin. Mush like the 100 yards for a football field. 
 

But two things that could happen (even though they won’t. Widen the lane by three feet. And that can be done, they’ve done it before. And take that 3 point line back at least a couple of feet. Wider lane  and less  emphasis on the 3 pointer will bring back cutting and picks off the ball. 
 

But I’m old and I like that style of ball much better. I could watch tapes of the old Princeton offense all day long. Such pure basketball to me. 

[MK7Golf21]

17 hours ago, MtlJeff said:

One thing i will say about the NBA that i respect is that they genuinely try. Adam Silver is very aware of what fans don't like and tries to fix things. Not many leagues are that active in doing this

 

They were aware that tanking was a problem, so they changed the lottery odds and also added the play-in tournament

 

They were aware that Jim Harden's offensive flops were egregious, so they changed rules there also. 

 

They have openly talked about players resting too much and i assume we will see rule changes here (like game minimums to make allstar teams and all NBA teams---which affect bonuses)

 

The NBA does legit care about the fans.

 

I don't know, they play a ton of games on the schedule, multiple games in a week for months on end at the highest level. This is how the corporations get their $$$. Playing that much high intensity sport for months on end, not to mention all the travel, and it is going to cause injuries and there are a ton of them in the nba. 

Edited June 29, 2023 by MK7Golf21

[MtlJeff]

3 minutes ago, MK7Golf21 said:

 

I don't know, they play a ton of games on the schedule, multiple games in a week for months on end at the highest level. This is how the corporations get their $$$. Playing that much high intensity sport for months on end, not to mention all the travel, and it is going to cause injuries and there are a ton of them in the nba. 

 

They've talked about shortening the season to ~60-65 games. Problem is the players don't want to take less money. 

 

The NFL 17th game was 100% a money grab. And of course NBA owners and players like money too, but they are trying, they got rid of many of the back to backs for example

 

There was some real talk of shortening the season though i think the union just wanted the owners to eat the whole financial loss

[ode1]

Tweet "travel"....🤔 What about the last 20

[TiScape]

Resurrecting this thread bcs it seems the appropriate place for my lil take here. Was watching the highlights of the Lakers/6ers game from last night. The Lakers got absolutely obliterated. Losing by a whopping 44 points! Embiid totally shut down Davis. As soon as the final horn blows Anthony Davis and Joel Embiid are dappin’ each other up, hugging and laughing. My initial feeling was like what the…?! I know I know, it’s just a game, gotta stay even keeled etc etc. But you get absolutely embarrassed like that, you can’t be mad/pissed for a few hours and then hit the reset??? Man, I’m feeling old… Won’t be long before I’m on the ‘I stopped watching the NBA in….’ list! 
🤣

[third-times-a-charm]

Basketball became a joke as soon as the rules changed to allow players to manufacture fouls by exaggerating movements - flopping around and faking things, etc.

[TiScape]

25 minutes ago, third-times-a-charm said:

Basketball became a joke as soon as the rules changed to allow players to manufacture fouls by exaggerating movements - flopping around and faking things, etc.

Soccer anyone? ⚽️ 

[third-times-a-charm]

37 minutes ago, TiScape said:

Soccer anyone? ⚽️ 

Yes thats also included in the joke category.

[mshills]

1 hour ago, TiScape said:

Resurrecting this thread bcs it seems the appropriate place for my lil take here. Was watching the highlights of the Lakers/6ers game from last night. The Lakers got absolutely obliterated. Losing by a whopping 44 points! Embiid totally shut down Davis. As soon as the final horn blows Anthony Davis and Joel Embiid are dappin’ each other up, hugging and laughing. My initial feeling was like what the…?! I know I know, it’s just a game, gotta stay even keeled etc etc. But you get absolutely embarrassed like that, you can’t be mad/pissed for a few hours and then hit the reset??? Man, I’m feeling old… Won’t be long before I’m on the ‘I stopped watching the NBA in….’ list! 
🤣

 

That was terrible basketball -- I watched some of that game and then decided to focus on reading my book because the game was out of hand.  But I want to say it's not indicative of the league as a whole.  The NBA is as fun to watch as it's ever been and the level of play right now is incredible, love me some NBA basketball!

[TiScape]

1 hour ago, mshills said:

 

That was terrible basketball -- I watched some of that game and then decided to focus on reading my book because the game was out of hand.  But I want to say it's not indicative of the league as a whole.  The NBA is as fun to watch as it's ever been and the level of play right now is incredible, love me some NBA basketball!

I agree MS. I still enjoy it. Will say I typically don’t really focus on it ‘til FB has wound down. 

[dashanks]

On 6/12/2023 at 10:51 PM, deadsolid...shank said:

The officiating in tonight’s game is just flat out embarrassing. 

Gotta be a really hard job when there is such a difference between the rules and the reality.

[deadsolid...shank]

2 hours ago, dashanks said:

Gotta be a really hard job when there is such a difference between the rules and the reality.

And different rules for different players. 

[MtlJeff]

I stand by my comments here. I think the NBA genuinely tries and is a good product. 

 

I love the NFL but I don't think they are as concerned about the product as they are about just printing money. 

 

I do believe the NBA as much as any league cares about the fan experience 

[MikeW2]

2 hours ago, MtlJeff said:

I stand by my comments here. I think the NBA genuinely tries and is a good product. 

 

I love the NFL but I don't think they are as concerned about the product as they are about just printing money. 

 

I do believe the NBA as much as any league cares about the fan experience 

You may be correct but that doesn't mean they put out the best product they could.  Been watching, playing, coaching, scouting, reffing, and training for about 40 years now and while so many things are better individually it has come at the cost of the collective experience. Just my .02

[MtlJeff]

10 minutes ago, MikeW2 said:

You may be correct but that doesn't mean they put out the best product they could.  Been watching, playing, coaching, scouting, reffing, and training for about 40 years now and while so many things are better individually it has come at the cost of the collective experience. Just my .02

 

What would you do differently, realistically speaking? Considering both business and employee relations etc

 

Not being sarcastic at all.... genuine question

 

I do think the NBA tries....what would you do differently?

[MikeW2]

1 hour ago, MtlJeff said:

 

What would you do differently, realistically speaking? Considering both business and employee relations etc

 

Not being sarcastic at all.... genuine question

 

I do think the NBA tries....what would you do differently?

Many things…

On court

-move 3 point line back to the hash mark with it slightly arcing across the court eliminating the corner 3 thusly bringing back mid range and post up importance.

-re-institute the rules and how they were implemented in the 80’s also completely eliminate that flagrant 1/2 crap and you get tossed for flopping.

 

I wholeheartedly believe these two things return both the artistry and physicality that was present when the NBA as a product started to explode and has been missing from the game.

 

Coaching

-far too much stagnation on offense, really not a fan of iso ball and how often teams allow their best player to “take the air out of the ball”. Today’s coaches micromanage everything on every play which again in my opinion takes away from the artistry of the game.  To combat this, off the ball players that are just hanging out in one spot can be called for 3 seconds and not just in the paint. Forces coaches to implement offense that utilizes all 5.

 

Administrative

-don’t have an exact answer but the referees need better training or the process of screening needs to improve. Way too often they have been inserted into the narrative of the game and that needs to stop.

-eliminate video replay, needlessly disrupts flow of game and viewing experience. There should be a human element at all times and as much as I dislike refs I feel this both undermines them and gives them a crutch.

 

League

-I’d contract at least 2 teams (I know this one is unrealistic)

-that idiotic play into the playoffs would be gone day one of my reign

-go back to 2 divisions per conference adjusting weighted schedule to the realigned division or alternatively keep schedule weighted as is but come playoff time you play out of your division 

-playoff first round best of 3

-eliminate the spacing between games come playoff time, there is no need for 2/3 days off between games especially when you’re not yet traveling.

 

TV

-minimize the commercial breaks or shorten the existing ones totally disruptive of viewing experience and game flow.

-stop using “name” players on broadcasts simply because they were “name” players. There are plenty of former players that aren’t necessarily as popular as some of the current analysts but much better suited to conveying the intricacies of the game to the viewer.

 

These are just off the top,off my head and I know that a lot of this is me yelling “get off my lawn” but I truly believe all make for a better product. And I do agree that they do do things to improve their product, like the new minimum number of games for award eligibility is a good example. Just think they could do better.

 

[MikeW2]

Oh two more things…

 

all teams that don’t make the playoffs have an equal chance at winning the lottery. Now you all should play hard to try and qualify.

 

-every game one team has to wear white uniforms. I’m colorblind and have real difficulty watching games where both teams are wearing their dark uniforms 😂

[Masterhacker]

It's been worthless since the 90s