Keeping Up With New NBA Realities

After 50 years of watching basketball games, I’ve already forgotten more than I can remember about the different changes the sport has undergone. Globally, the game is as popular as it’s ever been, and many of the changes have improved the overall quality of the game, but there are some head-scratching things going on, many of which don’t involve game action. In particular, there are some relatively new NBA realities that are worth mentioning.

Fans In The First Row, Assistant Coaches in the Second Row

It’s understood that assistant coaches don’t have to pay their way into NBA arenas while fans – especially those who can afford front-row seats – are paying top dollar, but there’s still something quite awkward about an assistant coach in the second row stretching his neck to see game action over the head of a fan sitting in the row in front of him or squeezed into tight spaces behind the team bench with several other long-limbed assistants. Meanwhile, the head coach is flanked by his lead assistant on one side, and some guy swigging a beer on the other.

And the poor guy at the end of the bench still in his warmups is almost in the tunnel leading to the locker room.

Waiting for the day when the number of assistant coaches each team can have on the bench is reduced to two or three while the released seats are made available to the public.

Gotta give the league credit, though. Check out an NBA game from the 1970’s, and you’ll see empty spaces all over the arena – behind the basket, on the sidelines, etc. Now every available space is filled and occupied by an admission-paying spectator, including at the scorer’s table.

Who’s The Home Team?

Remote in hand, you’re flipping channels and come across a basketball game, so you stop to check out a few minutes of the action. The Golden Sate Warriors are wearing their white unis and a huge roar goes up when they score a basket. The other team is wearing dark colors and there is relative silence when they score a basket. So clearly, the game is being played at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, right?

Not necessarily. Since a) the Warriors are now the current flavor of choice, b) home teams now get to choose which colors they’ll wear on a given night and c) most arenas lack personality and are indistinguishable on television, the days of instant identification of the home team are gone. The quickest way to identify the home team nowadays is by checking for the team logo on the hardwood itself.

And with each team now having so many variations of Nike uniform sets, merely recognizing your own squad presents a challenge, of sorts.

The Portland Trailblazers just broke out some red Nike kits with black lettering for a home game against the Milwaukee Bucks, who are wearing black. Glad I have a color television.

Speeding Up The Game, Huh?

There is seemingly cause for referees to go to the monitor after every contested call in a tight game, and coaches around the league are probably wondering why they’ve been allotted fewer timeouts in an effort to shorten games while the replay office takes several minutes to determine who touched the ball last, whether a shooter had his foot on or behind the 3-point line, how much time should be put back on the clock, if a flagrant (and if so, is it a Penalty 1 or 2) or clear path foul was committed, who started the fight, who who escalated it and who left the bench, etc., only to find out that, in many cases, the available camera angles available are inconclusive and the indecisive call made on the court is upheld anyway.

One of the NBA realities that isn’t likely to change: anyone attending or watching an NBA game should be prepared to sacrifice about 2 hours and 30 minutes of their time.

Screaming Public Address Announcers

It always comes back to the 3-point field goal, because this is where much of the screaming takes place. Someone from the home team hits a 3-pointer at a crucial point in the contest, then scream your natural head off, PA guy. But when someone from the home team hits a long-range shot to bring his team to within 25 points of the visiting team with five minutes left in the game, it’s OK to deadpan. The scoreboard rules.

I have fond memories of PA announcers like John Condon, whose voice was the perfect fit for Madison Square Garden, or Dave Zinkoff at the Philadelphia 76ers games, who delivered with more flair than volume and made even the introduction of the starting lineups an event (before they started turning all the lights off in the building and banging your eardrums, which likely started when the Chicago Bulls were in their Jordan years).

Give me the understated baritone guys like Mark Mason at the Portland Trailblazers’ home games or Lawrence Tanter with the Lakers, and let the action create its own excitement.

Reliance On The 3-point Shot

Not to disparage the 3-point shot itself, but when you have a team like the Houston Rockets who are tossing up a majority of their shots from downtown (44 per game as opposed to 40 2-point attempts), that’s almost scary. Now it works for Mike D’Antoni’s guys, as they were one of the league’s top teams in 2016 and have won 17 of their first 21 games this season.

Let’s just hope this doesn’t become a trend.

I’d rather watch a game on a black-and-white television with both teams wearing the same colors and fans sitting in front of a screaming public address announcer.

With replay.