As far as I am concerned, the NBA has become a joke. And when Furman Bisher, the venerable and highly honored sports columnist from The Atlanta Journal, writes a column that appeared in The Gwinnett Post last week in which he expresses many of the same thoughts and feelings I have about the current state of this league, I know I am in excellent company.
I cannot stand to watch the current pro game that is supposed to pass for the great game of basketball. It is certainly not the game that Dr. Naismith designed. There is more contact in today’s game than there is in many Greco-Roman wrestling matches and basketball was intended to be a non contact sport. I realize that some amount of jostling goes on underneath the basket but not to the extent that it occurs in today’s version of the game. And as I’ve stated several times previously in this column, the officials are blind to what are intended to be rules. Palming the basketball, taking too many steps when driving to the basket, and moving the pivot foot are, apparently, accepted today. What I want to know is when did the rule book change?
I completely understand that today’s athletes are considerably more skilled than players from other eras. They can jump higher, pass with more preciseness, and run the court more quickly- so why can’t we expect more from them in the finesse department.
I want to see defense played without hand checks and without the muggings that go on under the backboards. I want to see team play and not the individualized “look at me” version most pro players have today. And I certainly agree with Hall of Fame greats like Charles Barkley and Karl Malone who think the way players act and look today is a disgrace. Charles was recently quoted as saying, “There’s more artwork on today’s players than you find in most museums.”
You can call me an old fuddy-duddy if you wish but I want to see the game played as it was meant to be played without these distracting violations that never get called. As a matter of fact, I was called that (well, not exactly fuddy-duddy, but something close to it) by a young man a few weeks back regarding a violation that actually occurred in a college game that was not called. As I write this column, Connecticut will be playing in the National Championship game tomorrow night. If this obvious infraction had been called when they were playing in the Big East Tournament, however, they might not have even gotten a berth in March Madness.
Connecticut was playing Pittsburgh and the game was close- tied with just a few seconds left in the game, as a matter of fact. Connecticut’s fine star, Kimba Walker, was driving to the basket. He stopped his dribble, took a step and then, jumped backwards landing on both feet. He then put up a jump shot that went in. Connecticut wins, right? Not so fast, my friend, as Lee Corso would say.
Once Walker established his position with his first step he had two options-shoot or pass the ball. When he jumped backwards he travelled and it should have been whistled a violation.
I made a comment to that effect on Facebook and was challenged that I didn’t understand how the modern game was played because I was too old. Well, he was right about one thing- I don’t understand how the modern game is played but I do understand how it is SUPPOSED to be played.
One of the reasons the NBA-style of basketball is no longer appealing to me is that most of the players today have adopted two primary personal beliefs. They are selfish and feel that they are entitled. As I have said many times before, they play for the name on the back of the jersey, not the name on the front. When individual players become bigger than the league or the game itself, something is terribly wrong. We saw the beginning stages of this last summer with the fiasco that took place in Miami and we saw it to a lesser degree just a few weeks ago when Carmelo Anthony held his team at the time, the Denver Nuggets, ransom so that he could hand-select the team he wanted to be “traded” to.
Basketball is such a beautiful game that I just hate to see it ruined. The ability of a great ball handler as he shreds the defense and leaves their knees buckled; the form of a perfect jump shot and the sound it makes going through the net; the majestic leap of a rebounder who knows how to box out- all of these are what makes the game great.
Unfortunately, much of what is deteriorating the pro game is filtering down to the college game, too. Stiffer mandates need to be put in place before both the pro and college games are ruined forever. The current “one and done” rule which allows a college player to accept a scholarship, play one year and then turn pro, is absolutely ludicrous. While I hate to do it, I must give John Calipari, the coach of Kentucky, some props for what he has done this year in taking the Wildcats to the Final Four after losing four players last year to the NBA after they had played just one year.
What the pros don’t seem to realize is that this is hurting their league as well. These young players who, for the most part, are not ready to play at the next level, are winding up sitting on the bench when they could be honing their skills in college. So, here’s my solution.
If a young man accepts a college scholarship he must stay at least three years. If he feels he’s good enough to play the pro game straight out of high school, then, by all means, he has the right to pursue that goal. But for every Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, there are dozens who don’t make it.
Let’s clean up the NBA game. These athletes are good enough to play the game in the manner it should be played; abiding by the rules both on and off the court. Instead of it being Not Basketball Anymore — let’s make the league acronym stand for New Basketball Awareness.
Randy Blalock is a columnist for The Barrow Journal. Send comments about this column to rblalock@mindspring.com.
