Not Basketball Anymore - Why I hate the NBA

OK, so I know this is not a new topic, and a lot of people are already on my side about this issue, but I just couldn't contain myself when it came to ranting about the NBA.

I have been, for a long time, against the NBA. I didn't follow it when I was a kid, much unlike most of my friend who were Chicago Bulls' fans in the 90's. It might have been the fact that I grew up in Butt-Fucking Egypt until I was eight, or it could be the fact that St. Louis never had a team, although they did try to get the Grizzlies at one time, and it would have happened if Bill Laurie (St. Louis Blues' owner) would have been able to purchase the Grizzlies after the NBA Lockout. Either way, I have not been an NBA fan, and I will never be one, especially after what I witnessed on Sunday.

Before I decided to write this blog post, I told myself that I would sit down and watch an entire NBA game, just to prove my hatred toward the attempt of these guys playing "basketball." I ended up watching the last three quarters of the Phoenix Suns versus the Boston Celtics. I missed the first quarter due to the Illinois/Ohio St. game overlapping into the first quarter. I think I made a good decision there. It was nice to see the Illini get their tenth win in the Big Ten this season and solidify a spot in the Big Dance in March. Anyways, here are a couple of things I decided to keep tallies on during the game (keep in mind this is my haphazard attempt in making note when both teams committed a tally, and I was extremely hungover from Marti Gras on Saturday. So my focus wasn't all there):

Travels
4

Should have been travels
9

Isolation Plays
15

What I considered horrible defense
12

With that being said, I was actually surprised that four travels were called in the three quarters I watched, but there were many more times (nine to be exact, in my officiating mind) where I believed that travels should have been called. The extra step is such bullshit, and I think six of the nine that I marked down were on Steve Nash. Everyone knows that traveling is a thing to be ignored in the NBA, in order to let the players get an extra step and make a spectacular play in order to be on ESPN's Top 10. I don't know about you, but when I see plays in the Top 10 that are from the NBA I get pissed off. That's another issue though. ESPN sucks as well. Fuck ESPN and fuck traveling not being called in the NBA.

Along the lines of traveling is the fact of continuation that the referees allow the players to get after a foul is called. Twice on Sunday I saw a foul get called, and then the fouled player makes at least one more step to get up to the hoop to get the "and 1." I know that a lot of those guys are able to make spectacular plays, but come on. It's getting ridiculous.

Next up is the isolation plays. I don't know how many times I saw only one or two guys making cuts or screens off the ball while everyone else out on the court stood still. This is not basketball! This is stand-there-and-watch-the-guy-with-the-ball-make-a-play-ball. I didn't even count the times that only two guys were moving during an offensive set, and that would have helped pad the "stats" that I made for isolation plays. The plays that I marked down were when the guy bringing the ball up the court never passed the ball, received a screen or even faked a pass. He just kept the ball, made a move to beat his "defender" and score a bucket. Fuckin' 15 times that happened! What. The. Fuck.

Bringing up "defender" helps segway me into my next rant. Defense in the NBA is nonexistent. If there is only one guy making an attempt at some defense on an opponent, the rest of his team seemed to want to just stand there and watch. Double teaming. Hah! I laugh at double teaming a player. A trap? HAHA! You don't see traps in this sport, right? I don't really know what else to say about the defense in the NBA because there is none, so I'll just move on to my next topic.

Whoever came up with this rule of three seconds in the lane for a defensive player? On top of that, who's great idea was it to make this "violation" a techincal foul? This is stupid! Not to mention it happened four times in the game that I watched on Sunday! Supposedly, if a defensive player is in the marked lane for more than three seconds without being within three feet and actively guarding an offensive player, a technical foul is assessed for the three second call. When it happened, it totally killed the play that was going on, and it was really awkward to watch for the flow of the game. Side note, I didn't know that there was only one shot for technical fouls in the NBA. I don't know what to think of that. Either way, 3 second calls on the defense is absurd.

On to another thing that is absurd. How about the restricted are underneath the basket? I think this is one of the dumbest additions to the game. Why should the defense be penalized just because they take a legal guarding position too close to the basket, and the offensive player (who is out of control, mind you) crashes into said defensive player. We then reward the offensive guy for being out of control? This makes no sense. That is, it doesn't make sense unless there are people out there who would like to see the score in NBA games be ridiculously high. Well, it's working. Basketball players are taught from their first years in playing the sport to take legal guarding position and take a freakin' charge! Now, at the highest level of the game, they are supposed to take a legal guarding position and take a charge, BUT only IF they are outside of the restricted area. If they are in the restricted area, the player basically bails the referee out and allows them to make an easy call. It's now a blocking foul, even if you were in a set position for five seconds prior to the offensive player getting there. Oh wait, the defensive player can't be set in the paint for five seconds because that would be a technical foul in the NBA. Wow, this is pissing me off as I type it!

Ok, this one has some visuals to go with it. I am also showing off my infinite skills in MS Paint along with this, but first my rant. As an official, we are taught to put the ball inbounds at the spot where the stoppage of play occured. This means, baseline or one of the sidelines. The NBA, however, decided to do away with inbounding the ball on the baseline. While I can see why they would want to do away with inbounding the ball on the baseline (post play between two seven footers can be dangerous), I think it should still be involved in the inbounding situations. To show what I am talking about, here is my awesome diagram that I came up with:


The left half of the court is what high school and NCAA uses, while the right half of the court is what the NBA uses if there is a stoppage of play (foul, violation or otherwise). Which one looks more straightforward? Exactly. The NBA decided to fuck everything up and put the inbounder at the black square that I have so eloquently drawn on my awesome paint drawing. From an officials' mind, I hate this, and it helps fuel the fire as to why I hate the NBA. But I'm not finished yet!

Totally aside from the actual game, why don't the officials wear striped shirts? Anywhere else you look (NCAA, high school and below high school) you will see officials wearing the traditional black and white striped shirts. It's something that everyone can relate to. However, in the NBA the officials wear some ugly gray shirt with tiny blue pinstripes and a big red number on the back. I can understand the number, as NFL and NCAA football officials have numbers on their backs, but whats with the shirt? If it were me, I would take pride in wearing my stripes on the court. I wouldn't want to work my whole life as an official, trying to get to the upper ranks, just to retire the white and black stripes for that ugly piece of shit. No thanks. When you all see me working D1 games for the NCAA, I will not strive to go any higher than that. Mark it down, I will turn down any offer the NBA will give me!

I'm getting down to the nitty-gritty, but there's still some stuff that I think takes away from the game, and therefore I decided to rant about a few more things as well. How about the fact that the bonus gets reset after every quarter is over? Again, why is the NBA the only form of basketball that does this? In every other level, the fouls carry over from one quarter to the next (in NCAA, the fouls don't carry over, but there are only two halfs, so the fouls don't need to be carried over). I even heard that the bonus is at the fourth foul in the overtime period in the NBA. What the fuck! Who decided that the fourth foul was the foul to start shooting in the OT? There are only two numbers that you need to know when concerning the bonus: 7 and 10. Seven is the single bonus, or the one-and-one, and 10 is the double bonus (shooting two shots no matter what). Where did four fouls come from? Stupid.

Going back to the defensive aspect as to why I hate the NBA. Why is there no full court press unless it is absoutely necessary to have it (and most times it is only to get a quick foul at the end of the game)? This is just laziness on the players in the NBA. If there was any effort exerted on a full court press defense, even the best players in the game would turn it over more than normal. Not to mention, there is only 24 seconds on the shot clock in the NBA (another way to help drive up the score), so making an offense spend 8 seconds in the backcourt would give them less time to run their normal isolation play. This would, in turn, have them at a disadvantage and the defensive team at an advantage. Now, I'm not saying that a full court press should be used ALL the time in the NBA because running a press can be highly taxing on your defensive players, but I would like to see a little more effort coming from those players who decide to always let their opponents get up the court and run a half court set every time during their possession.

Lastly, there are too many pure shooters in the NBA. Now I know I cannot fault the NBA for this, but it is ridiculous to watch games where the losing team shoots for 50% from the field (which is what the Suns did on Sunday). This can be acredited to both the NBA having the best of the best shooters in the world, along with the poor, poor defense that said best shooters in the world put out on the floor. Bottom line, these guys are out there to score buckets, not play defense. When Kobe goes for 81, or King James goes for 55 at MSG, I just say, "Whatever" and move on. We are all dumbed down by how many points these guys can score because they do it for every game. There's really nothing that can be done about this, so it's just going to be something that I don't like. I'd prefer to watch a game where the winning team shoots just above 40% from the field than a team that makes at least half of their shots while still losing by 20.

I think I've shown my reasons for hating the NBA, and I think that there is a lot there that many people will agree with. Therefore, I will stick to watching the NCAA and high school games. There is much more passion on the court from the players that play in the lower leagues, and I like living vicariously through their passion as I cannot perform on the court as they do. That is why I wear the stripes.