Starting next season, the NBA will abolish illegal defenses. Teams will be allowed to play any assortment of zones, free to double-team any player they choose. It is a wonderfully radical measure that may reinvigorate the game and a league suffering from mass apathy. Colangelo chaired the committee that unified at least 20 owners on a hotly divided topic, and as recently as the All-Star Game, NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik said he expected only minor changes in the substance of the game. For Colangelo to twist enough arms shows just how concerned the league is about the quality of its product.
Officials watch the geometric formations carefully, ready to blow the whistle on illegal defenses.
Yet most fans couldn't care less about illegal defenses, and if you can actually provide the working definition, you need to get outside a little more. Nevertheless, in today's NBA, six guys are deliberately removed from action, and 60 percent of the players aren't involved in the play. That's not basketball. It is a huge problem, bigger than the tattoos, off-court incidents and the kids who should still be in college. And unless you have the competitive drama of a game's waning moments or the high stakes of the postseason, the NBA is too painful to watch.