In 2012, Rasheed Wallace, the most censured man in NBA history — 317 technical fouls, 26 ejections, 38 disqualifications, Egads! — was closing his career as a seldom-used sub with the Knicks.
Asked if he minded not playing much, Wallace unintentionally broke the laugh barrier when he replied, “I’m not one to complain.”
Well, I am. Or are we supposed to just sit there as basketball becomes the latest sport to be badly diminished with TV’s help and the populist but foresight-free planning of those who determine its changes?
I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV. Thus, I’m going to propose two changes — not a full fix, but a start — to help reverse the course of basketball devouring itself from the inside, out:
Saturday on CBS, the last 1:58 of North Carolina-Miami ran an insufferable 15 minutes. Shucks, in 15 minutes think what you can save on car insurance!
And it wasn’t a case of the new normal, in which close college and pro games are unplugged by courtside examinations of replay monitors, hoarded time outs, intentional fouling, substitutions and commercials — though the UNC-Miami ending suffered from all of those.
In that final 58 seconds, Miami, which won 77-62, was always up by at least 10.
The next day on CBS, the last 2:08 of Michigan-Michigan State, for the same reasons, lasted 14 minutes — though the game, down the stretch, wasn’t all that close. Michigan State won by eight.
Those two games mirrored the endings of tight games, in which the stop-go-stop-go-stop drudgery, as opposed to excitement, is now anticipated.
Why would basketball do this to itself, not to mention us?
The first move to put some basketball back into basketball would be to eliminate the legal ability of the team that just scored a field goal to call for a timeout.
Same for foul shots. The game should no longer stop to allow the team that just made a second of two (or third of three) to substitute before the opposition inbounds the ball.
Simply put: If your team doesn’t have the ball, your coach or player can’t stop the game.
The closing two minutes of games have become an opportunity to coach possession by possession, and, with replay review stoppages added, not only by stashing timeouts or giving fouls. The game no longer provides the better-coached, better practice-prepared teams their deserved advantage.
In fact, the sluggish, slogging ends of games now appear as practice sessions, the players summoned for the coach to explain how they should respond to in-game circumstances — during the actual game!
TV is not happy with these endless endings, either, as the starts to the next game, event — programming of any kind — are being lost, joined deep in progress or delayed.
What similar shortsighted “fixes” have done to football and baseball — the loss of pace, action and once-inherent enjoyment and excitement — are now afflicting basketball.
For all the fond TV and radio farewells to Brent Musburger, who was relegated by ESPN to its SEC Network then left, we have not heard from a single reader expressing sorrow. Quite the contrary.
As slick as Musburger thought himself, first at CBS then ESPN, the know-better public never trusted him, considered him a hear-through thumper for his network and its wares — and a fanny-kisser of any front runner, college coaches especially, under any circumstances.
For all his “Folks, I’m here to tell you” bluster, he always could be counted on to avoid or minimize unfortunate truths. Viewers found that insulting.
And that he soon proudly will enter the dubious gambling info/tout business — as if his presence and name will instill confidence in prospective clients — further affirms what so many for so long sensed.
Switching between YES and MSG’s telecast of Wednesday’s Knicks-Nets, we kept bumping into good stuff.
MSG’s Mike Breen and Walt Frazier noted Carmelo Anthony was wasting more gas arguing with the refs than getting back on D.
YES’ Jim Spanarkel, told how as a pitcher at Duke — Ian Eagle called him the original Bo Jackson — his coach was baseball Hall of Famer Enos “Country” Slaughter. Who knew? Neat.
Back to MSG, where Breen noted the Knicks, to that late point, had 21 offensive rebounds — sagely adding that when you shoot 34 percent, the opportunities are maximized.
Though LeBron James is right — TNT’s Charles Barkley is the last guy who should be questioning anyone’s character — Barkley’s also right: James has become a self-entitled whiner.
How would you like to be a Cavaliers guard while James complains he needs better players to feed him the ball?
But Barkley’s counter — LeBron’s angry response to Barkley was a case of “murder the messenger” — was ironic given Barkley, for all his transgressions, including criminal, is extremely sensitive to criticism, even attacking his critics — mere “messengers” — with on-air vulgarities.
Barkley and James are two more who are better at throwing punches than taking jabs.
The funniest show on TV may be SNY’s Connecticut women’s basketball postgames, during which three-person discussion and analysis is provided to explain why and how UConn won by 40.
Between us, a Super Bowl thought: Multi-tasking Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman was a quarterback at Kent State, where he threw 30 touchdown passes. Again, just between us.
Watching and listening to grown men on ESPN, FOX Sports 1 and the Big Ten Network swoon and gush and analyze as to where teens decided to play college football, as per Thursday’s Signing Day, was both pathetic and now, unsurprising.
Sweet matchup on ESPN2 on Wednesday: Baylor-Kansas, both school’s student-athletes suspected of group-participation in or group-attendance at rapes. Jayhawks basketball coach Bill Self complained that it has become “a major distraction” — as if it shouldn’t.
Wednesday, with 3:48 left, Penn State, as shown on BTN, was killing Indiana in significant stats — points off turnovers (19-11), assists (18-8) and turnovers (Indiana had 14, Penn State 11). So what that the Hoosiers were winning, 67-63.
Reader Joe Dobies asks why baseball players, unlike wide receivers, make “leaping catches” instead of “high-pointing the ball.”
We hear Alain Vigneault’s contract extension to coach the Rangers includes a sweetener: Jimmy Dolan has waived the $5 “facility fee” to enter the Garden.
Monday here, I noted that after a hard fall, Notre Dame’s Matt Farrell helped up Georgia Tech’s Josh Okogie, then the two slapped hands. Reader Dave Distefano: “Wouldn’t it have been awesome if TV showed that in slow motion before the next commercials rather than chest-pounding and into-the-camera scowls?”
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