By Justin Powell
ProBasketballNews.com
As a longtime college basketball fan with years of experience covering the game at that level, I admit this is the first season I’ve considered myself a big fan of the NBA.
There are so many great players in the league right now who are fun to watch -- Kobe, LeBron, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Steve Nash -- I think the league is heading back to as good a place as its been since Michael Jordan donned a Bulls jersey.
But there still are some things bugging me about the league -- things that make me think the college game still is superior.
Most of these things can be fixed easily.
Here are biggest criticism of the league, and
suggestions for what to do about them:
* Officiating. This is an important one.
I used to be a high school referee, so I know how
hard the job is, and I don’t like criticizing officials.
But I’m not criticizing any one person here -- I’m
criticizing the way NBA officials are told to call
games.
Watching a college game followed by an NBA,
you notice the officiating between the two is
night and day. I know the NBA game is tougher
to call -- the athletes are bigger and faster, and
the game moves at a quicker pace. At the same time, it’s not so different that the disparity in skill levels should result in such a big change.
The biggest thing college officials do is let the kids play a little bit. They’re allowed to play physical defense. College officials still call plenty of fouls, they just don’t call as many meaningless, ticky-tack fouls that disrupt the game. They let the game get into more of a flow.
Even more important, college officials never blow their whistle two seconds after a foul, depending on whether or not a shot went in. You see that in the NBA all the time, which drives me crazy.
As an official, you either see a foul on a play or you don’t. Whether the ball goes through the hoop shouldn’t affect your decision.
College officials also don’t give in to the flop calls nearly as often. Maybe watching on TV makes it a lot easier to see, but I think there are about two or three clearly visible flops in every game that get called as offensive fouls. NBA players continue to flop because officials continue to give them the calls.
College officials also don’t protect players the same way NBA officials do. Sure, it can be frustrating to see your star player get in foul trouble, but I think it’s even more frustrating to watch a guy like Kobe Bryant do things on the defensive end that would draw a whistle if they were done by nearly every other player in the league.
I also hate the defensive three-second rule. If a team wants to clog the lane, let it clog the lane. It makes no sense to have a rulebook that allows zone defense but doesn’t allow a player to stand in the lane for three seconds.
Let teams play defense however they want -- the onus is on the offense to figure out a way to beat that defense.
NBA officials and administrators need to look at the way college crews call a game, and then alter the rules a little to get closer to what we’re seeing on that level.
* Music during the game.
While teams are playing, do we really have to listen to Fergie, Gwen Stefani, or some organist playing “If You’re Happy and You Know It”? (Yes, I heard all three of those during a recent day channel-surfing various games).
What’s the point? This is the stupidest thing about the NBA.
You know what other sport always plays music during its competitions? Figure skating. Do NBA fans really want the league to share something in common with figure skating?
During timeouts, sure, do whatever you want, but when teams are playing, let them play without a soundtrack.
The only reason I can see why NBA teams do this is to cover up a lack of crowd noise, which brings me to my next point.
* Lack of passionate fans.
College basketball has an automatic advantage here, with student sections making up such a huge part of the crowd. There’s no way NBA teams can match that.
But watching a college game where the crowd is chanting and booing loudly, is so much more enjoyable than watching an NBA game where nearly everyone is silent.
There are some NBA venues where passionate fans are the norm rather than the exception, and they make themselves heard. But most franchises really struggle to get enthusiastic fans into the building. And the ones who do come often have to sit in the upper deck because they can’t afford seats closer to the court.
My solution might hurt a little in the pocketbook -- especially in the short term -- but those franchises ought to come up with a section behind the basket with cheap seats for the team’s biggest fans. They should be $10 a ticket, available only through the team’s Web site, and you have to be a member of the team’s fan club to purchase them.
Everyone in the fan club gets a free T-shirt -- all the same color -- that they’re encouraged to wear whenever they sit in that section.
It might not work, but it’s at least worth trying in order to inject a little life into some of these dead arenas. Who knows -- maybe if the games become more fun to attend, revenue will go up in the long run.
The NBA has enough talented players and interesting story lines -- along with a huge international fan base -- to become the most exciting professional sports league in the world.
With a few small changes, maybe it can get there.
Justin Powell is the assistant editor of ProBasketballNews.com. He can be reached at pkmpowell@yahoo.com.
