July 28, (THEWILL) – Fouls in basketball regulations in the United States’ National Basketball Association (NBA) are in for a change as the body has reportedly finalised a rule that will limit the number of non-basketball moves players use to generate foul calls for their teams.
The change will go into effect from the start of the 2021-22 season and will be implemented by the referees accordingly to limit the calls players have been getting away with by exploiting what has been a loophole in existing regulations.
The change creates a distinction between types of contact that can be penalised where before players earned calls for all contacts. Now, if deemed more than marginal (offensive player’s contact impacts the defender’s speed, quickness, balance, or rhythm) play results in an offensive foul. But, a no-call should result if the contact is deemed marginal.
In August this year, the NBA Summer League discussed as a potential start date for the rule change. The process of bringing about this alteration to the regulations gathered momentum last month as the NBA began to seriously consider limiting the number of calls players generate on non-basketball moves.
The change will be welcomed by teams that have been on the receiving end of opposing players that are notorious for the use of non-basketball moves to generate foul calls. The debate about the pros and cons of introducing a rule to clarify the manner of contact that can check the offense has been a hot topic in the NBA for a while.
Two of NBA’s top players, James Harden of the Brooklyn Nets and Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks, have become serial offenders of the non-basketball move that gets a whistle from the officials and annoy their opponents.
The practice involves using an unnatural shooting motion and flailing the legs while in the air to convince a referee that an opposing player has touched them to throw their mechanics out of intended orientation and so, earn free throws as penalty in their favour.
In a game against the Nets in December last year, Young went to the free-throw line a record 16 times by applying this practice. It was so off-putting that Brooklyn head coach Steve Nash appeared to tell one of the officials “that’s not basketball” in a demonstration of his displeasure.
But, Young, who enjoyed the opportunity to apply his mastery of the non-basketball move, responded the following month by telling reporters that he “learned a lot about drawing fouls from” watching Nash when the coach was a player.
With the enforcement of the new rule in the upcoming season, players like Young and Harden may begin to realise that they cannot continue to gain unfairly from a loophole that is being shut in front of them.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
