I think David Stern needs to look at his league strongly in the offseason and ask himself if he is doing what is best for basketball. Officiating quality is at an all time low, rules are being changed to favour one position yet they are detrimental to others and flopping is running wild. If you were commish for a day, what would you do to ensure that the quality of Basketball in the NBA was as high as possible? I think these simple things could go a long way: :: Make referees responsible for their actions. If a referee makes a bad call, he needs to be held accountable. I also think replays should be introduced as they have been recently in tennis, perhaps coaches can have 3 "challenges" per half that they can use if they feel they have been wronged. :: Star treatment out the window. Call the game down the middle, if its a foul, call it. No matter who it is. :: Assign technical fouls to floppers. :: Re-establish the seeding system, although Stern is working on this as we speak. :: This one is a biggy but i think it has some merit. All players need to be evaluated by peers,coaches, officials and selected media in a points system. The points system rates them based on scoring, rebounding, team defense, individual D, shooting etc. These need to be used for free-agent contracts to determine how much a player can make so as to prevent teams being forced to overpay to keep minimal talent. This will also encourage players to work on their weaknesses and increase the amount of $$ they can receive for their next contract. :: Add an evaluation every three seasons during a players contract with an out clause for the team and player for which this rating system can be used. :: Allow coaches to select the twelve man roster for all-star weekend, but allow the fans to select the starting line-up. Thats all i have for now, anybody else have suggestions?
they are held accountable. we just don't see it. they can't fine the guys or anything but i'm sure they get penalized for bad calls and don't get to do big games if they are rated low. replay would be cool, but 2 challenges per game is all. 3 per half would be terrible for the flow of the game (that's a possible 12 challenges for both teams in the game). while that would be cool, i don't think it'll ever be gotten rid of. lets face it, even if the refs don't consciously help the stars, they'll always get the benefit of the doubt. there are so many 50/50 calls in an nba game, if it involves a guy like duncan and he misses the layup, you assume he was fouled. if adonal foyle misses it, you assume he wasn't. that would be great. or at least regular fouls. if you knew you could get penalized for flopping and hurt your team, i bet it would be reduced by a lot, and quickly. while that would be ideal, how do you treat a young up and coming player who just hasn't got the playing time? and how do you have a free market at that point b/c no team would be able to outbid anyone else. while i wouldn't use the rating system, i think this would be a good thing. players union would never go for it, but i like it. teams get hampered by crappy contracts for way too long. one mistake (even a big one) shouldn't submarine the franchise for half a decade. plus, it would let the players who deserve the money get what is freed up (which should make the players union happy). make charges even harder to draw. as in being completely set before the guy starts to jump. still too much sliding in just as the guy takes off and has no chance to avoid it. ease up a little on the flagrant fouls. i like the idea in general of getting away from just killing people when they drive in, but we've gone too far the other way. now just hard fouls intended to make sure the guy doesn't get an and 1 can get a flagrant. stop giving steve nash the mvp award .
In response to the up-and coming player question, i suppose players with less than 3 years could be put on a different scale to others. The idea is to have a maximum amount of money to a player only when they achieve a high rating on the points system. In the end no team could outbid anyone else, it's up to the player. I suppose its flawed, and the only end result would probably be a lock-out And one more :: Don't let Isiah Thomas anywhere near a basketball team.
1- Maybe, but basketball is very fast paced unlike Tennis and football which has it. But there are stoppages so it might be ok 2-Hard to do, define star treatment? 3-No need for technical, but do call fouls 4-agreed 5-Too subjective, some players will be consider to be better that they are just because of certain bias and some will get screwed. Point system will guarantee every player would look for his in a game. good bye team game. Lastly, on the salary situation, I would really just like all contracts to have a player's option every other year and a team option in the years without player's option. Players like Sam wont get screwed cause he messed up on his last contract. On the other hand, teams like Hawks wont get stuck with Joe Johnson's cotract.
Not necessarily. If you leave individual stats out of it, but somehow rate them on how they play. If a player is being held back money wise because they feel he isn't a good enough perimeter shooter--isn't that more incentive for the player to work on his shot during the offseason? Ditto rebounding, team/man defense. It stops players from getting lazy. Once again, its flawed but it could work if it is arranged the right way.
Explain why Dick Bavetta is still officiating then. He's a terrible official. Absolutely terrible. Can't officiate Big men worth a damn, which is astonishing considering Bavetta's age and how he was around before NBA rules were made to screw over post players. He falls for flops all the time. He calls ticky tack **** to alter the flow of games. A terrible and disgraceful official. Yet there he is, doing all the important games of the playoffs.
Man why you trying to protect the teams so much? guaranteed contracts are one of the things making the game good keeps the players from being cut on a whim or for 'cap reasons' etc Non Guaranteed contracts is why the NFL sucks Rocket River
My list: 1. Fine Mark Cuban for $4 billion. 2. Take the guarenteed contract thing to court with the Union. Fight it to the death. If the case is lost in the Supreme Court, challenge Billy Hunter for a duel to settle it once and for all, and put the actual event on TNT, with Chuck and Kenny commentating. 3. Shoot Kobe. 3. Sorry, can't help it. Let's try it again. Relocate the Lakers to Des Moines, Iowa. 4. Fine Mark Cuban for another $3 billion. 5. Immediately expel all drug users, wife beaters and players whose first names are Kobe. 6. Master Degree requirement for all players. 7. On top of the dress code, make a language code. Fine whoever that uses the phrases "You know what I mean?", "ain't nobody...", "I ain't getting no respect", "we have to execute", "match their intensity"... 8. If two players get a double technical during an ingame altercation, require them to fight during the half time in the middle of the court. 15 minutes limit and one has to leave on a stretcher. 9. Require the league MVP to be a Rockets player. 10. Fine Cuban for another $5 billion.
my first priority would be to relax the rules that puts players that drive into the paint, jump in the air, contort their body to touch the defender, make some stupid pained expression and get 2 free throws from the charity line. basically get basketball back to just before we got to the whole isolation offense mess.
Get the "drawing a foul" crap out. Warn and then T-up the floopers. Allow 2 challenges per team per game. Eliminate the restriction area. Allow players, coaches, media, and fans to vote for best officials.
One) Stop calling one season by two years. The 'two thousand six - two thousand seven champion' is way too cumbersome. Just call it the 2007 season. You can buy a 2007 car in about September 2006. Football doesn't have any problem with the season being in one year and the superbowl in another. Just call it one year, either year, and move on. (PS - thanks for the chance to rant, that one really bothers me). Two) As to the seeding situation. The team that wins the most games gets to pick their opponent. If they want to pick the weakling number 16 (pick from either converence - really, why not) that is their right. If they prefer to play number 12 because they think they match up well, let them. Detroit wants to call out Miami in the first round because they think Shaq is playing into shape to peak in the finals and not ready right now, let them. You want to pick your natural rival (LA v LA, NY v NJ), your right. Pick a good drawing team, whatever, you earned the right to pick your opponent. I think that would be cool. three) they have to do something about the jump ball. I don't know what,maybe drop it from the ceiling!! four) dramatically cut down the number of time outs. Talk about boring. No TO's in OT. Just put your best five on the floor and play for five minutes. Absolutely no consecutive time outs at the end of the game. I HATE seeing a great back and forth game suddenly take ten minutes to play the last 30 seconds. I'm sorry, but that just takes an exciting game and makes it boring. It is one thing if it is your own team and you have to watch, but for example last night I was watching the Dallas SA game. Great game, back and forth, neither team could get a lead in the fourth quarter. About ten timeouts later, it went to OT and I was watching a sit com rerun, because I got sick and tired of the adds. Oh yea, last thing. Preseason games are free, which is still overpriced. I really can't believe that the NBA chooses to take their best customers (season ticket holders) and f*** them so hard by making them pay full price for what is so clearly not a full game.
i agree with pat and the preseason ticket prices. they are absolutely absurd. find a way to somehow reduce the prices for those or even make them free; especially for those who cant afford to go to rockets games during the season...
I would ban the following people from the NBA: Jeff Van Gundy - for making basetball utterly unwatchable. Avery Johnson - for being so freakin ugly and annoying. Josh Howard - for being uglier then Avery Johnson! Dirk Flopozki - for being in the wrong league. b**** belongs in the WNBA. Ryan Bowen - or does he automatically fall out of the league if his loverboy Gundy is banned?
If I were a comm for a day ~ tights for everyone and no shorts allowed -- +bonus+ -- flopping is mandatory.
If I were Commissioner, I'd get elected on Friday, get assassinated on Saturday, and buried on Sunday. But on that Friday, assuming the CBA was torn up and began anew, I would: 1. Stiffen the penalties for drug use, and disclose what substance was being abused (I really want to know about the Birdman!). 2. Assess a technical foul to the team for flopping on defense, much like a defensive 3 second call. I think it's foolish to give technical fouls for any action that could possibly be construed as unintentional. While most hate offensive flopping even more than defensive flopping, I believe that it's impossible for the referees to make the correct call enough of the time to be justified. 3. Do not allow a defender to place two hands on the back of a posting player at any time. Much like the hand-check on the perimeter, such an action should result in an automatic foul. 4. Reseed after each round of the playoffs, as well as make the first round a best of 5 series (and no days without basketball on TV until the Finals, unless a series ends prematurely; the empty Thursday we had last week was unforgivable. 5. Give George Shinn whatever got into Donald Sterling, and make him pay to keep talent in New Orleans, and not be the worst owner in professional sports (any guy who looks at Hurricane Katrina as a positive is gonna top the list). 6. Train NBA refs to throw jump balls properly, and to assess a technical foul to the team if the players begin their jump before the ball reaches the apex of its flight. There is no physical way that Derek Fisher can outjump Yao Ming if they are playing legally; right now, NBA refs might as well go back to the posession arrow, considering some of the atrocious tosses I've seen. 7. Give the 1994-1995 back to back champion Houston Rockets their proper due, instead of pretending they didn't exist because they came in Jordan's era. I just saw a promo for the finals last night; pretty piece of editing, showing classics such as Magic's Showtime, Isaiah's Bad Boys, Jordan's Bulls, Duncan and Robinson holding the trophy, and Kobe, still sporting the 'fro. Look at that! Every franchise that's won a championship during my lifetime! Oh, except for Hakeem and his Rockets! Boston should have a gripe as well; it's like leaving off the Yankees from a World Series intro; like it or not, the two are the premier franchises in their respective sports when it comes to winning it all. Even the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield doesn't give the Rockets their proper shine; while they've got TVs playing highlights of all the different decades in basketball, when they get to the 90s, they've got the Bad Boys, Jordan's two three-peats, and...a message about how the Houston Rockets were able to capitalize on Jordan's absence to win two titles, with one move by Hakeem to highlight two championships. Ah well, it's fun being the underdog I suppose...and if I were commissioner, the Rockets would probably get so much love they'd be as hated as the Cavaliers now...
I don't think this star treatment is that big of a deal, I mean, think about it... Star players usually get fouled a lot, that's true, but the best players are always the hardest to stop so that does make sense. Star players are usually the ones taking the most shots and the most important shots, so they will get fouled more than everyone else and they'll get fouled during the most important moments of the game. Here are some of the rules I'd change... 1. Allow a true zone defense. 2. Get rid of the restricted area under the basket. 3. No wrestling in the low post. 4. I agree, less timeouts. 5. Make contracts shorter, but still 100% guaranteed.
I would change the following. Forget the divisions. There is only a western and an eastern conference. Every team plays each team once at home and once on the road. The best eight teams from the west and the east head to the playoffs. Seedings 1st vs. 8th, 2nd vs. 7th, etc. as it has been. This is the fairest possible thing ever. I would cheer up so badly if this would happen. It would shorten the season and therefore maybe the injuries would be less. More playoffs in relative to season games. amen.
