A better game

As the youngest of five I grew up with basketball, football and baseball. My older brothers taught me how to play and to take a few lumps along the way. I loved to play and work on my deficiencies to be a better player.

I watched a lot of games as a youth and of course when my heroes lost I took it pretty hard. When it was my turn to play in high school I paid attention to the rule changes and it was interesting how many changes there were in the game of basketball.

The idea of many of these rule changes was to speed the game up and keep the excitement in the game for the fans. In its early stages the game started with a jump ball. Play continued until a team scored. Play stopped and the teams went back to center court for another jump ball. So you can see that if you had a tall center it might limit the opponent on possessions. This rule changed and the team scored upon would take the ball out of bounds instead of the jump.

The pros implemented an alternate possession arrow to limit jump balls and the colleges and high schools changed as well. I remember playing Freeman around 1968 when they had a 6’5” kid with long arms who would start each game and quarter to jump and his long reach got a lot of possessions. He wasn’t a great player so after the first dead ball he was out of the game. But he lettered and started every game and probably averaged about 1 point per game.

When the girls game came along, they played with a 30 second shot clock. The pros play with a 24 second shot clock. It took a few years for the men to implement the shot clock and the first version was 45 seconds; then 35 and finally 30 seconds. There were a few games when I started manning the shot clock where the girls had the 30 and then the boys’ game would start and we forgot to reset it to 35. I’m glad the men changed it to 30 seconds.

I played without a shot clock and we still probably got our first shot off in about 25 seconds or so. The offenses were geared to getting good shots inside the key. A lot of shots today are taken outside of the 3 point arc. When I played if those shots were taken your teammates and fans would call you a gunner unless that was your shot and you made it consistently. Then you were called a pure shooter.

Coaches who didn’t have to deal with a shot clock would often have defensive specialists and the only offense the coach wanted to see out of them was shooting free throws. Yes, a lot of coaches would not be happy if the defensive guy took a shot even if he was open at the free throw area. That was not their job.

The 3-point line was another change to the game. It started with the American Basketball Association and when some of their teams became part of the NBA the 3-point shot was a standard. The distance has changed over the years and the college game has also moved their line back as well. In Washington state the line has stayed the same since 1987-88 season. I do remember when I as an assistant coach for Ritzville in the 1986-87 season. We travelled to play ACH in Hartline. They already had the three point line in the Hartline gym so it would be ready for the following season. One of our good shooters saw the line and stepped back and let it fly. I’m not sure if it went in or not but even when it only accounted for two points young shooters were influenced and enamored by that line. I know the head coach wasn’t amused.

Since Title IX was implemented the changes in the girls’ game was with a smaller ball and the ten second backcourt count. In the early stages there was no over and back and however long it took before the shot clock went off. Now, of course there is a ten second count and an over and back violation. The 30 second shot clock has always been part of the girls’ game in the state of Washington.

The changes that have been made to the game of basketball to speed it up and make it exciting have been really good and have made it a great game to watch. It also has limited the domination by tall players when shorter teams can hit their threes. It’s a much better game today than when I played.

— Dale Anderson is a sports columnist from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].