Letter to Ronnie Nunn, director of officials

From Hoopshype.com comes one of the most intelligent and wise postings concerning the charge/block calls around the basket. Dennis Hans is the author.

Dear Ronnie Nunn,

I recently finished the first month of my first season as a subscriber to the league's official cable channel, NBA TV, where you appear each Wednesday to educate viewers on the rules and how refs go about their work. You do a terrific job explaining the nuances of each play and the rule or rules in question, and I'm persuaded that the refs have the toughest job on the court. I'm also persuaded that many of the rules are a mess, and that we could make the refs' job easier, and the game more safe and fun to watch, if we fixed them. Let's consider one class of plays that's a frequent topic of your segments: block/charge (B/C) calls.

I was stunned to hear your November 8 explanation for a disastrous and dangerous development – B/C calls involving help defenders that are determined largely by who beats who “to the spot. ” You said that coaches are coaching their players to try to beat drivers “to the spot,” and that the league is reffing accordingly so that refs and coaches are on the same page. While “beat to the spot” is a useful concept for judging contact between a dribbler and primary defender (so long as the ref isn't sucked in by an out-of-control Devin Harris or Darrell Armstrong hurtling laterally or backwards to create a smidge of contact and thus the illusion of an offensive foul), it's all wrong for help-defense plays.

In adopting this approach, the NBA is catering to the very control-freak coaches who've done so much to muck up the game. In the glory days of the 1980s, this play required the help defender to be directly in the path well before the driver leaves his feet, thus giving the driver a chance to maneuver and thus avoid a collision (much as defenders are given the space to avoid screens). This contributed to a more free-flowing offense, a faster pace and fewer B/C collisions than today. Exceptions abounded, particularly on any team that employed Dick Harter as an assistant coach, but in general help defenders were more likely to use their feet to avoid collisions while getting themselves in position – on the ground or off – to make a play on the ball with their hands.

Today's “beat to the spot” nonsense makes the help defender's job considerably easier, and it amounts to a huge subsidy to mediocre defenders (e.g, the Collins twins, James Posey, Michael Doleac, Jason Kapono, Antoine Walker, Anderson Varejao, Kyle Korver, Othella Harrington – it's a long list) whose stock would plummet if in help situations they had to make a play on the ball. The NBA boasts that its players are “the greatest athletes in the world,” but this rule is affirmative action for stiffs, as well as B/C obsessed non-stiffs such as Robert Horry, Andres Nocioni, Jared Jeffries, Jermaine O'Neal and Shane Battier.

I understand that you and the refs don't write or interpret the rules, so I'm not faulting you for lunatic rule interpretations imposed by higher-ups. But I do fault you for not publicly pointing out their idiocy and danger.

I've been writing for several years about how the evolving interpretation of the B/C call has, over time, dramatically changed the character of the NBA game for the worse. Granted, a variety of factors have contributed to the game becoming progressively more slow and ugly since 1990, but in my view there's a direct correlation between making the charge-seeking help defender's job easier and offenses becoming more tentative and players' movements more herky-jerky. NBA acceptance of blatant traveling was a tacit acknowledgement that dribble penetration would all but disappear and league-wide scoring would fall below 90 if the rule was enforced. While the 2004-05 ban on perimeter touching has resulted in a slightly faster pace, more room to maneuver for the league's most gifted players, and the emergence of a few genuinely enjoyable teams, most notably the Suns, the trend of catering to charge seekers has accelerated.

In the past few seasons we have had the frightening spectacle of help defenders sprinting from the weak side or from under the basket – often directly at the driver – to get planted outside the restricted line a split second before the driver (who may be airborne or about to elevate) reaches that spot. This has led to a number of scary collisions and falls (I'll cite some examples below) and surely has James Naismith rolling over in his grave.

Read the entire post here, it will be worth your while!

Andres Nocioni is one of my favorite players. He hustles his butt off on both ends of the court and has a wide range of skills. He is one of the best at taking advantage of this rule but he has the will and athleticism to defend properly, so I will applaud him every time he gets the "charge" call under the present rules, but I will be gratified if the NBA wises up and takes Hans' advice to change this particular rule. Yap all you want about the new ball, but the ball isn't putting people into the hospital.

I wish we could get rid of the "rookie rule" that must be passed out to every referee in the NBA. I actually interviewed one, who demanded that he remain anonymous, in order to get more insight into this little-known facet of officiating.

Me: "So, how long have you been reffing in the NBA?"

AnonymousRef: "Long enough to have been up for a part in "Forget Paris." I'm still ticked off that they cut me out of it. They wound up giving the referee parts to actors!

Me: Sometimes it looks like you guys are having fun out there.

AR: "Sure, it is almost like being a player, it can be fun but you have to keep your concentration. I still get to see someone like Dywane Wade make a miracle move out there and I can tell ya', it's better up close than it is on TV!"

Me: "What are you guys saying to the players out there?"

AR: "Mostly we're talking about why what they did was a foul and why what the other guy did wasn't a foul. We maybe make a joke about another player, or comment on some hottie in the stands, that kind of thing. Some of it I just can't repeat..."

Me: "Anyway, I want to talk about the rookie rule."

AR: "What rookie rule?"

Me: "I happen to have a copy of the rule, it's been in the proprietary referee's handbook and I just happened to have access to it."

AR: "Hey, you aren't supposed to have that...", reaching for the booklet in my left hand. He views it, throws it down, "That's just an old Baseball Digest!"

Me: "You think I was going to bring the real thing with me? Oh, no. But I copied the page with the rookie rule, which reads as follows..."

AR: "I thought we were gonna talk about "Forget Paris!"

Me: "Forget 'Forget Paris', this is what it says:
1) If a rookie and a veteran collide, the foul is on the rookie.
2) If a rookie and a veteran almost collide, the foul is on the rookie.
3) If it is way too obvious that the foul is on the rookie, don't call anything at all.
4) However, in order to avoid suspicion, call the foul on the veteran exactly once in every seven times that the veteran actually fouls the rookie.
5) However, on the rookie's home court, change that number to one in three."

AR: "That's ridiculous, there is no such rule, show me the book!"

Me: "Forget the book. I noticed earlier this year when you guys called a foul on Tyrus Thomas' nose for breaking itself on Alonzo Mourning's elbow and then later this year the blood, lips and teeth of LaMarcus Aldridge dared to foul..."

AR: "Hold it, enough, okay. So what? Fans want the established stars to succeed. Rookies gotta pay their dues, no big deal."

Me: "So you admit to the rule?"

AR: "Yeah, yeah, it's right after the section about "fouls for breathing on Kobe" and just before the "call a couple of extra fouls on Mark Cuban's team" paragraph.

Me: About time somebody admitted to it.

AR: "Eh, I'm getting ready to retire before long anyway. Dick Bavetta called me "the old guy" last week and it made me start to think about a changing jobs."

Me: "Really, what were you planning on doing next?"

AR: "A blogger friend of mine told me I was right about as often as the 9th Circuit Court and I might as well be a judge. You don't have to run much so I could do that in my sleep! I guess you go back to school to do that, right?"

Me: "Well, you couldn't do any worse than the guys they have there now. Hey, good luck for the rest of the season."

(There is some factual truth to the rumor that AR is simply a doppelganger for the alter ego of yours truly. No animals were hurt in the making of this blog post.)