Your Change the game List

[Andrew]

At best, I'd call it savvy. At worst, I'd say it made poor sell-jobs in professional wrestling look good. It is at the same time one of the best and worst flops I've ever seen; I believe the technical term is "bitch move".

As far as punishing flopping, I agree that you can't really T players up. It's a nice idea in theory but with the two techs and you're out rule along with the subjective nature of flopping - was it an exaggeration to sell legitimate contact, was the contact really that hard, where's the line between cheap tactic and gamesmanship, etc - it's a stiff penalty that likely won't be enforced competently or consistently.

The best punishment for floppers, offensively and defensively, is a non-call. Let the guy who tried to sell a non-existent charge lay on the floor while his man breezes to the hoop. Let players toss up wild shots where they leap into a defender going straight up in an obvious attempt to draw a shooting foul.

Going back to the idea of reviewing the tape on players known for or accused of flopping, you'd be creating awareness of their tricks and tactics giving the referees something to look out for. While there is the question of possibly creating bias against those players, I think it's more about crying wolf too many times causing them to lose the benefit of the doubt. I'd suggest they'd still get the calls when they're legit, but far less calls that they try to manufacture so blatantly.

[NovU]

For me personally, shooting and passing are the real fundamentals of basketball. The game was all about shooting when it was invented and so I think it is only right to see teams struggling against a zone D if they don't have many good jump shooters. (apart from the fact that the Heat also did not find the right answers on defense as well - at least in the last three games of the series)

Understandable, puriest perspective.

To add to the discussion, I thought it was post Jordan era that killed off the "Illegal Defense" rule. The league suddenly needed more scoring and new excitement factors, in order to retain those casual fans. That I think is why some oldies claim MJ or Bird would have scored more than Kobe under today's pace and rules, which I tend to agree to certain degrees.

[Andrew]

The old illegal defense rules were done away with prior to the 2001/2002 season, replaced by the current defensive three second violation rule.

[benji]

That I think is why some oldies claim MJ or Bird would have scored more than Kobe under today's pace and rules, which I tend to agree to certain degrees.

Jordan scored more than Kobe under the old rules.