BY DC CUEVA
For basketball fans, this summer of 2016 has been the most interesting offseason in the Association in recent memory...one that began on Father's Day with a Game 7 for the Ages in an all-time NBA Finals. That night, the Golden State Warriors, 73-9 in the regular season, played for survival on their home court in Oakland after squandering a 3-1 lead over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. A man who came home to Northeast Ohio years after being scolded by them for leaving for Miami, delivered an all-time performance and turned into an immortal in his hometown as the Cavs became the first road team to win an NBA Finals Game 7 in almost four decades, and the biggest major postseason comeback in American sports since the Red Sox twelve years earlier.
It's after this loss that the Warriors looked to rebound from this monumental collapse by making the biggest power move you can make, and successfully landed the pride and joy of an entire heartland in Kevin Durant. Afterwards, a tsunami of free agency activity ensued: Dwayne Wade returned to his roots in Chicago, Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah reunited in New York, Pau Gasol went to San Antonio as the Spurs began the post-Tim Duncan era, Dwight Howard headed over to the Hawks, Jeremy Lin brought Linsanity back to the Big Apple to Brooklyn, and Harrison Barnes & Andrew Bogut joined Dirk in Dallas.
And if the countdown to the 2016-17 NBA campaign couldn't get even more amped up as you can possibly get, there's also the fact that this is an Olympic year, and that the many of the best of the best would be spending a summer not relaxing after a long season, but committing themselves to playing for country than city, and playing for the right to be true world champions...as Olympic gold medalists in basketball. Same for the women in them taking a month off of WNBA play to enjoy the strongest visibility that their niche following of women's professional sports can get in a four year period, a year after the U.S. Women's National Team became a pop culture phenomenon.
Basketball is an American-made sport invented by a Canadian, but has gone on to become the most international of the four major U.S. sports: the NBA is watched avidly by fans on all six continents, for which each of them have solid national teams that don't always get a chance to compete together as much as other major team sports. But when you look at the game played at the Olympics, and the one we all know and love here, there's some numerous differences. And there's also a proud history of players representing the U.S. in Olympic and international play as well.
It's true that in the United States, international competition in major team sports on a regular basis remains the sole domain of soccer and of the U.S. Men's and Women's National Teams, and loyal all-around sports fans like me who follow Olympic sports in between Games. But it's those events like the World Cup in soccer, golf's Ryder Cup, and of course the Olympics that bring both hardcore and casual sports fans together to cheer on Team USA as the country's best don the red, white and blue. There's nothing like that honor of representing an entire country on sports' biggest stage.
Basketball has only the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the Olympics and their related regional tournaments to rely on for their top-level international competition unlike other team sports, but when it does take place there's no better team sport at the Olympics than can match the star appeal as hoops. This sport made its Olympic debut in 1936 and the alumni list of players who've represented the U.S. in Olympic play reads like a who's who of this sport: Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Bill Bradley, KC Jones, and the list goes on. The Americans would win every gold medal in the amateur era, but two.
Ask those who know the international game, and they'll tell you about the game that changed it all: Munich 1972 in one of the many chapters of the USA-Soviet Union rivalry. The gold medal final went down to the last seconds when Doug Collins was fouled hard by a Soviet player, made both free throws to put the Americans up for the first time in the game 50-49 and seemingly had saved his country's 63-game Olympic winning streak. But three attempts for the Red Army to properly inbound the last play, premature American celebrations and numerous rule interpretations, ultimately saw them prevail 50-49 and after a failed protest, Team USA refused their medals in protest.
The year after the last non-US gold in 1988 - a bronze medal finish for David Robinson, coach John Thompson and a team of college players, a change came with FIBA - basketball's international governing body, to open their competitions to all players including professionals. This enabled Jordan, Magic, Bird and the NBA's best to take the stage at the Olympics, and the Dream Team in Barcelona would become a phenomenon that would signal basketball's arrival as the preeminent team sport at the Summer Games and where now the world's best basketball players play there and at the FIBA Basketball World Cup. Competition has also increased among the international teams as well, too.
As fans take a break from the hot stove summer of NBA player movement for Olympic basketball, there are notable differences between the game we're all used to in the Association, and the game that's taken for granted outside North America - though it does share attributes of the hoops we've become accustomed to here.
For the most distinctive difference between NBA and international basketball, then it's the manner the game is played abroad. There's more of an emphasis on, as a Yahoo Sports post on the international game in London wrote, on an offense that is "more of a read and react kind, as opposed to the heavy-handed ways NBA coaches tend to call plays." This is why there's more backdoor cuts and ball movement internationally than screen and roll hoops there is in the NBA and mismatches being more focused here.
As fans take a break from the hot stove summer of NBA player movement for Olympic basketball, there are notable differences between the game we're all used to in the Association, and the game that's taken for granted outside North America - though it does share attributes of the hoops we've become accustomed to here.
For the most distinctive difference between NBA and international basketball, then it's the manner the game is played abroad. There's more of an emphasis on, as a Yahoo Sports post on the international game in London wrote, on an offense that is "more of a read and react kind, as opposed to the heavy-handed ways NBA coaches tend to call plays." This is why there's more backdoor cuts and ball movement internationally than screen and roll hoops there is in the NBA and mismatches being more focused here.
Something that befell the Athens 2004 squad was their lack of not only star power, but also a poor showing from outside the arc. In the most lopsided loss in USA basketball's international history - a 19-point loss to Puerto Rico in their opening preliminary game, they shot 3-for-24 in 3-point range, on their way to a bronze medal rather than gold. The 3-point line is uniform around the free throw line: 22 feet, rather than extended from up top at 23' 9"; thus it's shorter than what there is in the NBA.
Plus, international courts for many years were easily distinguished for their trapezoidal lanes until FIBA changed it over to the now standard rectangular lane. And inside of that, if the ball touches any part of the rim when a shot is taken, any player can touch it, even if a defender can swipe the ball from the top of the goal or tip it in. This would constitute goaltending in the NBA with the imaginary cylinder, but internationally it's a live ball as if a receiver muffs a punt or a kick in football.
Zone defense is legal in all forms in the international fame, as is in the NCAA and WNBA, but it exists in a way in the NBA provided a defensive player remain in the restricted area inside the lane until three seconds if he's not guarding an offensive opponent; otherwise a technical is called for illegal defense.
International basketball is based more on the college game when you look at the various timing aspects of it. Total playing time is 40 minutes and for many years it was two 20-minute halves before FIBA made them into four 10-minute quarters...it's still 8 minutes less than in the NBA. The clock only stops after each made FG in the 4th quarter and OT internationally - following in the NCAA's lead rather than late in each quarter in the NBA. The FIBA shot clock was at 30 seconds for many years before it became 24, and is reset after most fouls and when the ball leaves the shooter on a FG attempt, but don't reset if a foul takes place under 5-14 seconds. And for time outs, there's only five the whole game and only the coach can call them.
If there's a jump ball in the world game, they use the college rule and the alternating possession arrow rather than actually jumping it up. The player foul limit here is 5 total fouls (personal and technical) rather than 6 personal or 2 T's in the NBA, also like the NCAA, and count both personal and technical fouls unlike in America. The penalty situation goes into effect at the 4th team foul in each quarter - 5 in the Association, and like the NBA it's a double bonus. And if a technical occurs, there's two free throws, like in all other forms south of the NBA.
If there's a jump ball in the world game, they use the college rule and the alternating possession arrow rather than actually jumping it up. The player foul limit here is 5 total fouls (personal and technical) rather than 6 personal or 2 T's in the NBA, also like the NCAA, and count both personal and technical fouls unlike in America. The penalty situation goes into effect at the 4th team foul in each quarter - 5 in the Association, and like the NBA it's a double bonus. And if a technical occurs, there's two free throws, like in all other forms south of the NBA.
As for how the time out situation goes internationally, it's actually more strict in every way. There are only two time-outs called in the first half, three in the second half and 1 in each overtime period, and only last for 60 seconds. In the NBA there are six the whole game and includes extended ones for TV timeouts, and there are similar ones in play for the NCAA and WNBA. And there's a catch: only the coaches can call time through the scorers' table, so won't see players on the court call time late in the gold medal game.
That is all but just a simple primer of how an international game of basketball is played on the international level, just as the last day of these Rio Olympics take place with the United States taking on Australia for the men's gold at stake. Enjoy.
- DC
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