With basketball players routinely being sized 6′5″ and taller, it seems that basketball is a much different sport than it may have originally been created to be. Somehow I don’t think that when Dr. James Naismith created basketball in 1891 he thought that one day players would be tall enough to simply go up on their toes to dunk. So nowadays, when you are watching NBA and college players, there almost seems to be comparable to MLB hitters playing with high school dimensions.
If you look at baseball as a prime example, it is a sport that has been tweaked time after time to create a balance. The addition and constant changes to the pitcher’s mound in the earlier days, as well as the tightness of the ball’s wind are small adjustments that the league constantly makes to try and keep things balanced between offense and defense. So then why can’t basketball change?
In many ways, it already has; the advent of the three point shot and constant fluctuation of the three point line come to mind. But those changes really do not account for the fact that our professionals may have, in a sense, “outgrown” basketball as it is currently played. That’s whats going to make this weekend very interesting in Seattle, where at the University of Washington they will play an exhibition game using non-NBA basketball professionals playing a game with 11 foot rims. Of course since we are talking about U-Dub, the technology and superiority of their athletic equipment allowed for such a change to be made to the rim:
University of Washington athletic department personnel used 1-foot wood platforms to raise the standards for an exhibition game Saturday.
The exhibition is being set up by Family SportsLife Today, some organization that is run by a former Seattle Supersonics assistant coach - Tom Newell - and if you have a FSN package it might be worth tuning it at 1:00pm PST to see how basketball studs cope with playing when the rim looks to them at 11′ much like it does to me at 10′.
- 11-Foot Rims | Taking hoops to new heights (Seattle Times)
3 responses so far ↓
1 Jay Arnold // Jun 14, 2007 at 1:46 pm
To fill in details about the organization, FamilySportsLifeToday.com is a web site and podcast providing resources for parents and coaches for youth sports. Our podcast has information on developing a model to follow that puts teaching first and coaching second.
The exhibition that will be on Saturday will show how players and coaches adjust and the impacts of the game–some of which may be unexpected. Given what we are seeing in practice, shot arcs make blocks harder and rebounds kick out further, which could make the game faster. And, of course, focus more on fundamentals.
Coach Tom Newell discusses what he expects at www.FamilySportsLifeToday.com/ForLoveOfGame
2 eric // Jun 14, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Thanks for the info Jay; I’ll definitely be watching on Saturday.
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