Interesting, but back in the 80's, when hard fouls were much more commonplace, the game was very fast-paced and flowed much better than it has any time in the last 5-7 years. And...you are definitely not the only one sick of broken fast breaks.
what? now you're saying that actually in HS they are allowed more fouls per minute than in the nba (they play 32 minute games, at least lebron's team always did, one foul per 6.4 minutes) and bobrek already showed that college and the pros have the same amount of fouls per minute allowed. how is the nba getting special treatment? they appear to be getting equal treatment with college and unfavorable treatment as compared to high school. as far as star treatment, i agree with it to an extent. jordan like/shaq like/kobe like treatment is stupid. but sometimes letting a touch foul slide for a star is good. i don't wanna see them on the bench b/c they sorta went over the back of someone even though the ball went out and the other team still got it. as for the baseball analogy above. barry bonds doesn't get as many strikes called on him (it's like ted williams, if he watches a pitch, it must be a ball) and randy johnson, roger clemens, greg maddux, etc definitely get special treatment when it comes to hitting the corners. they get a few extra inches sometimes on the corners.
Okay that was just bad math by me, 8 x 4 = 36. . . . . Lay off its finals. Lets see if you can pick up what I am laying down here. At the Highschool level players are allowed 5 fouls in 32 minutes. They go up to the next level. College. Now if you play college basketball you are in about the top 10 percent of highschool players. In 40 minutes you still only get 5 fouls, so despit playing 8 minutes more a game you still get . . . . 5 fouls. Now they make the jump again to the pros, this is like the top 1 percent of college basketball, these guys have more talent, skill, and athletic ability than any of those highschool and College basketball players, yet when the amount of time is , once again, bumped up another 8 minutes they are given one foul. I dont get it, why do the better athletes get the special treatment? Go look at a box score, the majority of the time a player fouls out intentionally, by that i mean trying to stop the clock or stop an easy score. Its not like there is a greater acumulation of fouls during the game. I am just sick of the NBA trying to "speed up the game" "Protect our stars" or "create a better oportunity to score". I mean if these guys cant average over 90 points a game in 16 MORE MINUTES than highschools that average close to 70 a game, rules are not going to fix that problem. IF anything getting back to the basics would improve the game, Calling 5 seconds closely gaurded, or only allowing 5 fouls per game, there would be less fouling, bring in the 1in1 fouls shot, or maybe get real crazy and call the "ticky tack stuff" such as charges, lane violations, and blocking. Sure these are called but not nearly enough, but dont worry the NBA players will figure it out, or spend a lot of time on the pine. What is it really going to hurt if the best players are on the bench but the overall play of the game improves. These guys are the best players in the World lets stop trying to give them an advantage that they do not need.
it might make everything look better, but good luck getting it enforced and reversing about a decade and a half long trend toward ever more physical basketball. i think 6 fouls is fine personally. i think if you dropped it to 5, you would have way too many people who got their first on some BS call and then second just diving for a loose ball or something worrying the rest of the game about committing any sort of foul (not just the intentional stop a layup ones i don't like) and it would take away from the game and their aggressiveness. who wants to see teams hampered by foul trouble all game long when allowing one more alleviates that problem. i don't, but that's just me.
In HS and college, zone defenses can help alleviate foul trouble. In the NBA, no team can play a true zone.
I know a lot of teams that never play zone, just straight up man to man D. Yet they can stay out of foul trouble. There are more variations to help side man than most people think. Sometimes people just need to back off when they have thier 3rd foul in the second quarter. That was the purpose of fouls, to limit illegal contact.
