Ben Thompson: belief

Transcript context

…How should NBA rules be changed? Are there too many clocks running? Isn’t it confusing, too arbitrary? The main thing I would change is making the end . . . they’ve done a little about this. They’ve reduced the number of time-outs in the last two minutes of a game to make it flow more. I would make it so that . . . FIBA has very interesting rules, where you could only call time out on a stoppage of play. They have lots at the end of the game to make it go more quickly. Oh, I would also give teams the option, when fouled, that they can either take penalty free throws, or they can take the ball out of bounds. And, at the end of game, there’s fouling — that would fix two problems. One, the hacking bad players who don’t shoot free throws well, which just grinds the game to a halt, and isn’t in the spirit of basketball at all. The point of a foul is to punish the defense, not to punish the offense. But then, two, at the end of game, you have this fouling constantly and the parade to the free throw line, but that would give people a harder time to come back at the end. Well, then, they should do better the rest of the game. I think that’d make the end of the games remarkably faster, make the whole game faster and more exciting. The problem of steroids and, in general, players taking substances in professional athletics — should it be regulated by the government? Does the league choose the optimal rules? Is there a negative spillover effect on, say, college and high school players? How should public policy deal with this?…

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