Saturday, January 7, 2012
Mudville / Resolution Week / Sports NBA resolution: Walk less, not more
Posted by Ted Cox on 01.07.12 at 05:58 PM
- Wikimedia Commons
- Watch that pivot foot, Kobe
NBA refs turn a blind eye to traveling, with the league's apparent blessing. It seems no one wants to halt those wonderful highlight drives through traffic all the great ones get away with, from Shaquille O'Neal on through Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. Yet, for purists, it only sullies the game to the point where one dismisses those same shots. Derrick Rose is one player who seems to observe the traveling rule (not that he's not averse to picking the ball up and running with it while going down the lane through one of those NBA spanking lines, when refs routinely ignore the supposed pivot foot). Yet what the absence of traveling does, in that regard, is place mediocrity like the Detroit Pistons' Will Bynum on the same footing as Rose, the same way a loose strike zone places a mediocre pitcher with poor command on the same footing as Greg Maddux in a pitchers' duel.
So while the rest of the world is resolving to walk more, the NBA should resolve to walk less, and institute a systematic crackdown on traveling. Let ESPN find real highlights of great basketball moves for "SportsCenter."
Read more from Resolution Week:
"Once burned, thrice shy" by Kate Schmidt
"Say you want a resolution?" by Tony Adler
"Rahm swears off swearing for 2012" by Steve Bogira
"A resolution for 2012: Watch more Indian movies" by Ben Sachs
"Nixon, Mayor Rahm, Herman Cain, and Pam Grier—only in the Reader!" by Ben Joravsky
Comments (2)
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Enforcing traveling to appease the "purists" would ultimately have the effect that re-instituting the 2-line pass would have on hockey- it would slow the game down, from both the increased stoppages as well as the pace of each and every live play. I don't see why anyone (fans, or the league) should want to see this occur. Rather than debate the "purist" vs. "current form" of pro bball (really, I thought bball "purists" counted themselves among the significant number of "college is better than pro"-types that grumble self-righteously then turn back to the screen to watch another pimply-faced 19-year-old miss a free throw), I'll point to the NFL: has the increased emphasis on accuracy in "spotting" the ball, determining in-bounds/out of bounds, or the increasingly byzantine criteria for what constitutes a legal catch, improved the game or its watchability? (Personally, I can barely watch it anyomore.) Lastly, your comparison of Bynum/Rose or a mediocrity/Maddux, while certainly true, overlooks the "even playing field" aspect- any advantage to the weaker competitor is the same to the stronger, i.e. Maddux can throw more strikes, too, Rose has more versatility, etc. There's nothing wrong with your desire to see the rule enforced, but I don't see its lack harming anything (on the contrary, the enforcement arguably would) other than the "purists'" delicate sensibilities- sensibilities that, as NBA revenues show, aren't particularly widespread.
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