One Simple Suggestion to Make the NBA Watchable Again

Maybe you’re different, but I find the current brand of NBA basketball utterly unwatchable.

It’s basically guys going out to the three-point line and firing away.

Maybe they make the shot, maybe they don’t.

Teamwork? Passing? Moving without the ball?

Knowing what to do with your feet if you’re not in possession of the ball?

Knowing how to play with your back to the basket?

All are lost arts.

All because of the three-point arc.

Selfish, shoot first, three-point basketball is sadly appropriate for the iPhone age.

It’s all about the shooter, not the team.

I grew up in the Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Clyde Frazier era of team-first basketball, and I miss it.

It really doesn’t matter to me if your team can step back and throw up more threes than my team can, or the other way round.

So I have a simple suggestion to bring basketball back to greatness.

And no, I’m not doing away with the three-point shot.

Instead, I would just reverse things.

I would give three points for any basket scored in the paint, and only two points for shots behind the line.

Think of it.

Penetration, teamwork, and movement without the ball would be rewarded, and just stepping back and throwing up bricks would be penalized.

The game would probably be even more high scoring.

Defense would matter again.

And then this radically retro approach would trickle down to the college level, where players might stick around for more than one year, because they will realize they need more skills than just stepping back and firing.

And then the high school kids on the playgrounds will emulate the college game, little kids will clamor for learning basic skills, and basketball will be saved.

All because we made the two-point shot worth three points, and the three-point shot worth two points.

I’m not holding my breath.

The NBA makes trazillions of dollars a year — that’s actually a verified figure, from McKinsey & Company.

You can look it up.

So it’s not like they’re hurting and they need to turn to me for advice.

After all, Major League Baseball didn’t accept my guidance to make games just seven innings long, so as to combat the problem of four hours and 22 pitchers per game.

All I’m saying is that basketball was always the most beautiful, physical game because you had to get in and battle for position, thread the needle, operate in a heavily populated zone under the basket, and find the open man.

Those were the days.

Just sayin’.