The Chronicles of Ian

Commissioner David Stern and the National Basketball Association have exhibited obvious concern for the decline in scoring and the dismal offenses that are responsible for dwindling final scores. The average points per game twenty years ago were 110.8. Last year that number dropped to 93.4. What's to blame for the scoring famine? The adoption of a defense-first style of play is clearly to blame. However, such a style is far from harmful to the league, no matter what ESPN would have you believe. The fact of the matter is, to the ignorant masses, high-flying dunks, triple digit scores, and other eye candy of the sort amount to entertainment. To the NBA, entertainment equals money. So what can be done to prevent the NBA's predicament from becoming a re-embodiment of the NHL's assassin?

Plenty, but Stern has unfortunately chosen to try to remedy the issue in all the wrong ways. Instead of altering the rules to create a quicker pace, the NBA has chosen to try to dismantle the elite defenses of the league. The officials have now been instructed to call forearm contact with dribblers and the frequent hand-checking beyond the extended foul line that are cores parts of many top defenses today. The thrills and exhilaration of superior defenses have been drowned out by the whistles of foolishly intensified rules.

The theory behind the madness is that by disallowing the hand-check, offensive players will have more freedom of movement, and will therefore be more able to score or distribute to others. The negative outcome is apparent. The games are becoming extended to three hours in length, the top defensive players in the league are fouling out incredibly early, and what was once a fascinating game is being reduced to a glorified free throw shooting contest.

The intended results are also apparent. Offensive players LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are having incredible years offensively, averaging 26.3 and 25.2 respectively this year. Each of the players are shooting much higher field goal, three-point, and free throw percentages. Wade has already attempted 148 free throws, and James has attempted 105 from the charity stripe. ESPN and the national media is heralding these statistics as great improvements and astonishing performances by the up-and-coming of the league. Be that as it may, no one can help but suspect the influence of the officials newfound defensive stringency.

The NBA needs to be much more considerate when changing the rules. The zone allowance and the introduction of the three-point line were both intended to generate offense, but both ended up contributing to the lowering average. Stern needs to contemplate ways to speed up the game, and he needs to cease punishing defenses and elite defensive players for offensive liabilities and weaknesses. Until that time comes, we can only pray the officials will let this rule slide as they do every Christmas with every other new rule change initiative.

The way some defenses are playing is astoundingly passionate and exceptional, especially those in Detroit, Miami, and San Antonio. To attempt to tear those defenses down simply to produce a more "entertaining" game is erroneous and nauseating. Perhaps Larry Brown had the finest suggestion for augmenting scoring when he proposed, "Why not just make guys improve fundamentally? Have guys work on their game." Quite the concept, huh?