World Will Be More Like N.B.A.

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August 26, 2008

World Will Be More Like N.B.A.

By HOWARD BECK

To reassert its global pre-eminence, the United States men’s basketball team overhauled its program, stuffed its roster with N.B.A. stars and did everything but rewrite the rules and restripe the courts. That last part is coming, though.

Winning Olympic gold in Beijing depended partly on Team USA’s ability to cope with the unfamiliar geometry of the international game: a trapezoidal lane, a shallow 3-point arc and a contorted array of driving lanes.
But in two years, the trapezoid will be dead, the arc will be a little deeper and the international game will be a bit closer in style to the N.B.A.’s. The lane will become a rectangle, emulating the United States model. The arc will move to 6.75 meters (22.1 feet) — closer to the N.B.A. standard of 22 feet 9 inches — from 6.25 meters (20.5 feet).

The changes were among several adopted, to little fanfare, by the International Basketball Federation, known as FIBA, in April. The new rules take effect after the world championships in 2010, so they will be in place for the 2012 Olympics in London.

The intent is to sharpen the international game and to make it more uniform from one hemisphere to another, at all levels of play. But the changes will undoubtedly provide a subtle lift to a United States team that probably needs no help.

“I think it’s going back to our roots and will be more of an advantage to us,” said Tony Ronzone, USA Basketball’s director of international player personnel. He added, “It will help us and our game in international compe ion.”

Geometry has never been a major concern for Americans. The trapezoid lane has been part of the international game since the 1950s and did not stop United States men’s teams from winning gold medals in nearly every Olympics since then. Nor was it the primary reason the team stumbled to a bronze in 2004.

But the adoption of a rectangular lane and a deeper 3-point arc will give the international game a decidedly American look and could change the way the world plays the game.

The N.B.A., with a 16-foot-wide lane, has long been dominated by burly 7-footers who play with their back to the basket and score from the low blocks. FIBA’s trapezoidal lane, which spans 19 feet 8 inches along the baseline, keeps those players far from the basket, diminishing their size advantage. The short 3-point arc also makes it easy for guards to double-team the post and still recover to the perimeter.

“Post-ups are a little bit harder,” Chris Bosh, a center on the United States team, said in Beijing. “In the N.B.A., you can be a little more patient. Here, if you get it in the post, you have to be aware of guards collapsing and trying to swipe down on you to steal the ball.”

The different rules have bred a severe contrast in styles. The best United States-born centers are generally in the Wilt Chamberlain mold: big, powerful and effective around the basket. The European big man is typified by Dirk Nowitzki of Germany, a sleek 7-footer who is more comfortable on the perimeter.

The rectangular lane can be expected to encourage players to develop a post-up game.

“This obviously is going to change kind of the style of game, and probably give more room to the post-up players,” said Zoran Radovic, the development director for FIBA who formerly starred for Yugoslavia. “Every winning team in the N.B.A. has a dominant center. In Europe, a dominant center is not that much of an effect under current rules.”
Basketball officials in the United States welcomed the changes, although they did not specifically push for them.

“It’s also probably an endorsement of our game and our rules,” said Jerry Colangelo, the managing director of the senior national team for USA Basketball.

Although it appears that the international game is moving toward the American model, “that is not the way the FIBA board who made the decision actually felt about it,” said Patrick Baumann, the secretary general for FIBA. The goals of the association’s board, he said, were much broader than merely standardizing the game.

In FIBA’s view, the 3-point shot has become too common. In 1984, when the arc was added in international play, only 14 percent of all field-goal attempts were 3-pointers, Baumann said. Now, he added, that number is 40 percent and players routinely make 38 to 40 percent of them.
“The board felt that’s no longer now an exceptional shot,” Baumann said. “It felt something needed to be done.”

The board stopped short of adopting the N.B.A.’s deeper 3-point line because FIBA also governs women’s and youth basketball leagues.
FIBA is looking for the combination of a deeper arc and a narrower lane to help open up the floor and allow more movement.

“The game was becoming a little bit too crowded under the basket,” Baumann said.

Of the 213 nations under FIBA’s jurisdiction, only the United States uses the rectangular lane. Baumann said uniformity in the game was merely “the cherry on the cake.”

Not everyone believes the changes will benefit the United States and other teams (notably China) with dominant post-up players.
“I don’t really see a difference,” Sasha Pavlovic of Serbia, who is a guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers, said of the rectangular lane.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas of Lithuania, a center for the Cavaliers, predicted that players around the world “will adjust pretty quickly” to the new lane.
Other rules differences mean that the style of the N.B.A. and the international game will remain distinct for a long time, Baumann said. Whatever advantages the United States may gain with these changes, he said, will be short-lived.

“You may feel it’s an advantage tomorrow,” he said, “but the day after tomorrow, all the teams will be on the same level, and the better will win.”
Pete Thamel contributed reporting from Beijing.

[Tully365]

I think it makes sense to adopt the rules of the best known and most successful league in the history of the sport, rather than the tweaked rules of euroleague basketball. If the USA over the years changed the rules and dimensions of their soccer fields, I doubt other countries-- which have much greater soccer traditions than the US-- would want to follow suit. The foundation of basketball's success and growth, from the Rens and the Globetrotters to Mikan, Russell, Jabbar, Dr J, and Jordan, has been based on this design. Why adopt the dimensions of what has essentially been the minor league court at the expense of what is without question the major league court?

[Brutalis]

I heard about this during the game against Australia.

I think it'll be uva big advantage for the USA. I noticed so many missed three pointers somehow had to be related to a physiological thing. These NBA guys knowingly take 3 pointers and are used to shooting a certain way on the longer and more spread out NBA 3 point line. A lot of their 3 pointers in these Olympics had too much on them causing it to double bounce on the rim and roll off the back or something of the sort. Not to say this is the excuse for their poor percentage in shooting them but it def played a factor.

[Kamnik]

Good.... rules in time should become exactly the same.

Will be good for the game longterm.

[Kill_Bill_Pana]

This have been say many time here already. Also Euroleague already change same rules before FIBA even do this. Euroleague play with NBA rules this season.

"Kill Bill liar" now is only true because stupid American writer says so.

[JamStone]

Man you're an obsessive and paranoid freak when it comes to you suspecting people calling you a liar.

Gyros!

[Flight3107]

This have been say many time here already. Also Euroleague already change same rules before FIBA even do this. Euroleague play with NBA rules this season.

"Kill Bill liar" now is only true because stupid American writer says so.

Oh, and....