Many people have been watching FIBA basketball during the Olympics and World Championships and of course NBA basketball. The rules and court dimensions have significant differences. See Rules of the Game Personally I find FIBA basketball to be more in the spirit of true fundamental basketball than NBA basketball. I wonder if anyone else thinks so?
International basketball and NBA are essentially two different sports. The Euro league teams are catching up quickly. I hope one day NBA champion will play Euro champion for the title of basketball champion of the world.
I agree...... to a point. The best teams, and usually the Championship winners, all play with great defense, solid fundamentals, and good on-court chemistry. Look at the most recent past winners: Mia, SAS, Det, LAL, Chi, and Hou. They were each good teams with true fundamentals. I think it's also true that there is too much commercializing on young star players, and less on the teams that have a shot at winning the title. Teams like Det or SA may be boring to watch, but they get results. Instead, the NBA is promoting "superstar" players like Anthony, Marbury, Francis, etc., who despite all being good players, aren't guys you'd build a franchise around if you're serious about winning. When I watch international ball, or NCAA for that matter, there is more playing for pride and love of the game.
I think the FIBA game is more encouraging of team play whereas the NBA is big on the 1 on 1 stuff. some of the rules in the FIBA game are trash though. For example being able to take the ball off the rim on the defensive end!! thats just cheating in my book.
Watching the games, I think the reason is really simple. FIBA refs call travelling and make an attempt to really see the foul instead of assuming that the agressor gets fouled. That way, it takes real skill to create individually and encourages teamwork. By not calling travelling and automatically assuming that the agressor gets fouled, the NBA encourages individual creativity over teamwork.
Why, because FIBA teams play with peach baskets, 9 men to a side, and 15 minute halves like Dr. Naismith intended? I don't think so. The most direct lineal descendant of "original" basketball is NCAA basketball. Being the "true fundamental basketball" is a matter of personal preference; if you want to watch european basketball nobody's going to stop you - but there's nothing "true" er or more "fundamental"ly about trapezoidal lanes or taking the ball off the rim -- or vice versa.
Might be interesting. And from the same mold as soccer where the euro champ (champions league) plays the winner of whatever leauge comes out of the the americas cup.
I totally agree. Everyone is putting a lot of effort into legitimatizing international ball. I don't care about international ball (that doesn't involve USA). The talent isn't even close the NBA and the competition isn't close to being as entertaining as NCAA. The court size is stupid too. They may as well go all out and use a woman's size ball just to make it more "different".
I wish they would get the international refs to ref the NBA games using the NBA rules, especially if they used the '90s rulebook.
I like the NBA game more than FIBA game but I think the NBA should incorporate FIBA's zone rules. No 3 second violation on defense and no no-charge zone under the basket.
I have a question about international basketball. Is it true that the FIBA ball is an inch in diameter bigger than the nba ball?
I think it's 1/2" smaller and uses 12 panels instead of 8, next year's ball is supposed to be exactly like it.
Agreed. Some people just use their own preferences to define what is pure and fundamental basketball. For example, I like how some people think allowing zone defense in the NBA somehow contaminates the purity of "real" defense in basketball. I always laugh at the football purists who are against instant replay by arguing that mistakes of referee judgment are "part of the game."
After all Americans invented basketball, and have been delveloping and playing the way it is now in NBA. Basketball was spread to the rest of world partly bacause of US missionaries. So rest of world learned how to play basketball from Americans. If fundamental means original, then nobody beats US basketball in that sense. If fundamental means the way basketball ought to be played, that's open in the air for debate at least.
while i agree they don't automatically reward the aggressor as much as the NBA (which is kinda nice) i wouldn't go so far as to say they attempt to really see the foul. FIBA refs are just completely terrible in relation to nba refs. at least with NBA refs most of the "mistakes" can be attributed to the need to cater to stars or big markets, FIBA refs just plain suck. someone will get clotheslined with out a call and then we go to the other end and they'll call a foul on no contact. or a random travel that didn't happen, or make some terrible out of bounds call. it's like once every 3 or 4 minutes they just have to throw in some completely heinous call to keep everyone on their toes.
