Rudy in the NY Times

Sorry for posting the story rather than the link, but the Times requires registration, and I thought that anyone who's not registered with them would appreciate the time saved.

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Rockets Coach Rudy Tomjanovich telephoned a Western Conference rival, explaining his reservations about the radical proposed rule changes in the National Basketball Association.

"He and a couple of others were on the campaign trail this week, working hard," said the rival coach, who spoke on condition that he not be identified. "It's getting ugly. This whole thing has pitted a lot of the coaches and players against management, and it shouldn't be that way."

The N.B.A. board of governors — a representative from each of the 29 teams — will vote today whether to eliminate the illegal-defense rule next season, thus allowing teams to use any defense, including the zone. To win approval, 20 votes are needed. In a straw poll two weeks ago, 22 representatives voted to pass the changes.

The other proposed changes include:

¶Instituting a defensive three-second rule, in which defenders would be allowed to stay in the lane for only three seconds unless they were within arm's length of an opponent.

¶Shortening the 10-second rule to bring the ball past midcourt to eight seconds.

¶Redefining incidental contact to cut down on touch fouls.

The changes are meant to encourage more movement and passing, while discouraging teams from steering offenses toward isolation plays, in which a majority of a team's players stand idle on the weakside to draw defenders away from the ball. That trend has been a factor in the decrease in scoring over the past decade.

"I think it's a huge mistake," Miami Coach Pat Riley said last week. "There's not going to be anybody able to drive. With these rules, you're going to be back in the 70's in scoring. You can't force pace."

"It sounds very bold, and it is," acknowledged Jerry Colangelo, the Phoenix Suns owner and chairman of the committee that submitted the recommendation two weeks ago. "But at this point, it's better than a tweak. The fact is, we don't have any fluidity in our game right now. There is less ball movement and less player movement than there's ever been."

Most opponents of the rule changes agree with Colangelo that the game has become too stagnant and that the choreography of teamwork has all but disappeared from many arenas. But they don't feel such a dramatic change will suddenly turn the game into the free-flowing style that will raise television ratings and increase fan interest.

"It would change the sport," said Tomjanovich, one of the most vocal opponents of the zone defense. "We should create a situation where great players get a chance to excel. Zones neutralize great athletic ability. People want to see guys who can soar to the basket."

Calling the committee's proposed changes a "knee-jerk reaction to complaints about the pace of the game," Riley added: "Fans like to see Vince Carter play one on one outside. That stuff is going to be history. Isolation basketball has been part of the game ever since I've been in it."

Other coaches like George Karl and Phil Jackson — weary of the increased focus on defense and the plodding halfcourt sets that have led to the game's stagnation — are fine with the changes.

"I'm totally O.K. with the zone," Jackson said. "It's going to hurt Shaq, but it's still part of what the game has to be."

Of more than two dozen players interviewed, an overwhelming number were against zone defenses.

"It will mess the game up," Portland point guard Damon Stoudamire said. "I'm not a big advocate of zone defense. That's the reason why players leave college. You're going to put a box-and-one on Vince Carter? Fans are paying money to see these games. You can't just take away what has essentially made the N.B.A. what it is: one-on-one basketball."

If the debate has polarized some in the coaching community, it has created a wedge between coaches and ownership.

Miami, Houston, the Knicks and San Antonio were among the dissenters two weeks ago when Colangelo took an unofficial tabulation. The opponents of the rule changes have privately accused Commissioner David Stern of making sure Colangelo appointed a committee that would be open to radical rule changes.

Beyond Colangelo, one of the league's senior owners who has had a longstanding relationship with Stern, others on the committee include Stu Jackson, the league's senior vice president for basketball operations, and Bob Lanier, special assistant to the commissioner. The former coaches Dick Motta and Jack Ramsay were also on the panel.

"You don't ask Lenny Wilkens, Pat Riley, Rudy Tomjanovich or Larry Brown to be on that committee?" said one veteran coach, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Most of the people on that committee have worked for the league in some capacity. What they've done is pitted the coaches against the owners."

Colangelo defended the committee and dismissed the notion that the changes were railroaded through.

"Many of the people in favor of these changes have been in the game over the last three decades," he said. "We can relate to how everything has evolved. I understand their concerns, but the fact is, many of the coaches in the league are entrenched. One of my arguments is: Each franchise now averages about six assistants per team. Let's put them to work."

That is one of the major concerns among opponents: that coaches will have more control of the game.

"People will be coming up with all kinds of crazy defenses," Tomjanovich said. "I want what's best for the N.B.A. I'm not sure these rule changes are."

He added: "This shouldn't be us against them. But I would think we could come up with rules to encourage exploiting our assets instead of stifling them. I'm not one of these guys who think the players of today aren't what they used to be. There are guys now who do things we never dreamed about. I think we've been so desensitized by all the amazing plays that we forgot that that's what people come to see."

Stern appointed Colangelo nearly two months ago to choose a committee to discuss possible changes. The committee watched old footage of N.B.A. games spliced in with new footage. One of the offensive sets was that of the Rockets, in which a player like Steve Francis was isolated on one side of the floor against his defender, while four other players emptied out on the other side of the floor.

"A typical Houston set is giving one guy the ball and sending everyone else away from him," Colangelo said. "Hardly anyone else is even involved. It's not the lack of ball movement. People wonder whatever happened to the lost art of offensive rebounding. Players are no longer in position to rebound because of some of these sets."

He added: "Everyone knows we have a problem, but no one has come up with anything better. If this thing doesn't pass, then that's it. We're not going back again."

Charlotte forward Jamal Mashburn said: "I don't see how that's going to promote scoring. You look at teams like the Lakers and the Heat. Shaq and Alonzo will be in the lane. Imagine playing against David Robinson and Tim Duncan, standing there in the middle in a 3-2 zone."

Tomjanovich said: "I respect the passion and energy of everybody involved in this, no matter what's been said. These rules will change the game. Unfortunately, I think it will slow it down."