Kblaze8855
09-08-2020, 04:14 PM
https://www.hostpic.org/images/2009090117230093.jpeg
Giants.
The greatest fear of the games first coach and original “This isn’t basketball!” old man yelling at clouds. Phog Allen. The guy who convinced Dr.Naismith that basketball needed coaches...and became the first one. You see....Phog was a defensive minded coach who had a motto of “Hold em in the teens” but that got harder and harder when teams realized that being huge made it easy to score.
In the 1936 olympics an American team with two 6’7” centers dominated so much that there were international demands for a 6’2” maximum height for basketball because tall freaks had no skill.
Phog agreed in principle but wanted to fix the problem another way. He agreed that the giants had no skill. That athletic advantages shouldn’t be a deciding factor. This was his opinion in an article he wrote and titled “Dunking isn’t basketball”
"Those tall fellows were leaping at the ten-foot baskets and were literally 'dunking' the ball into the hoop, just as a doughnut is inelegantly dipped into the morning coffee," he wrote. "And I say that is not basketball. My conception of the game is that goals should be shot and not dunked."
Others agreed but....what could you do? His idea was to raise the basket to 12 feet. Problem is....some people could still dunk on it. Wilt Chamberlain for one. Phog felt wilts freakish athleticism should have been all he needed he get people on HIS side. He was mad he couldn’t stick around to coach him(he was forced to retire when Wilt got to Kansas where Phog coached). He said he was gonna use Wilt to shove the issue down the rules committees throat....presumably by just having him dunk every time and make it a mockery. Anyway....as scoring with bigs became easier you got shit like this:
https://www.hostpic.org/images/2009090124340092.jpeg
One comment from it(From HOF guard and GOAT shooter of the time Bill Sharman):
"A basket has become so cheap nowadays that the fans have nothing left to cheer about,"
Guys were too athletic. Too big. It wasn’t basketball anymore. You got lots of rule changes. Wilt being able to dunk from the ft line is why you aren’t allowed a running start for a free throw(he didn’t even do it in games...they just saw that he could).
I read a Vice article on them proposing something like the modern restricted circle where shots would only be worth one point. I suppose that would have made midrange shooters the old school 3 point shooters.
The parallels with the modern dislike of the 3 pointer is funny to me.
Is it possible that in 100 years all of us are looked at like backwards Phog Allen’s mad at how “easy” the game became as it changed?
Though it must be said....Phog won in the end.
They altered the rules and approach enough to take the game back from the bigs. It took 100 years...and he’d probably hate that scoring got so easy in the process...but that old hater and his converts managed to get the freak goal tenders(what they called big guys at the time) out.
“You can’t teach height” is no longer a factor. Now the question is “Can that Groot looking creature move his feet enough to guard a wing?” If he can’t he can get his ass back to the 70s and off my roster.
Giants.
The greatest fear of the games first coach and original “This isn’t basketball!” old man yelling at clouds. Phog Allen. The guy who convinced Dr.Naismith that basketball needed coaches...and became the first one. You see....Phog was a defensive minded coach who had a motto of “Hold em in the teens” but that got harder and harder when teams realized that being huge made it easy to score.
In the 1936 olympics an American team with two 6’7” centers dominated so much that there were international demands for a 6’2” maximum height for basketball because tall freaks had no skill.
Phog agreed in principle but wanted to fix the problem another way. He agreed that the giants had no skill. That athletic advantages shouldn’t be a deciding factor. This was his opinion in an article he wrote and titled “Dunking isn’t basketball”
"Those tall fellows were leaping at the ten-foot baskets and were literally 'dunking' the ball into the hoop, just as a doughnut is inelegantly dipped into the morning coffee," he wrote. "And I say that is not basketball. My conception of the game is that goals should be shot and not dunked."
Others agreed but....what could you do? His idea was to raise the basket to 12 feet. Problem is....some people could still dunk on it. Wilt Chamberlain for one. Phog felt wilts freakish athleticism should have been all he needed he get people on HIS side. He was mad he couldn’t stick around to coach him(he was forced to retire when Wilt got to Kansas where Phog coached). He said he was gonna use Wilt to shove the issue down the rules committees throat....presumably by just having him dunk every time and make it a mockery. Anyway....as scoring with bigs became easier you got shit like this:
https://www.hostpic.org/images/2009090124340092.jpeg
One comment from it(From HOF guard and GOAT shooter of the time Bill Sharman):
"A basket has become so cheap nowadays that the fans have nothing left to cheer about,"
Guys were too athletic. Too big. It wasn’t basketball anymore. You got lots of rule changes. Wilt being able to dunk from the ft line is why you aren’t allowed a running start for a free throw(he didn’t even do it in games...they just saw that he could).
I read a Vice article on them proposing something like the modern restricted circle where shots would only be worth one point. I suppose that would have made midrange shooters the old school 3 point shooters.
The parallels with the modern dislike of the 3 pointer is funny to me.
Is it possible that in 100 years all of us are looked at like backwards Phog Allen’s mad at how “easy” the game became as it changed?
Though it must be said....Phog won in the end.
They altered the rules and approach enough to take the game back from the bigs. It took 100 years...and he’d probably hate that scoring got so easy in the process...but that old hater and his converts managed to get the freak goal tenders(what they called big guys at the time) out.
“You can’t teach height” is no longer a factor. Now the question is “Can that Groot looking creature move his feet enough to guard a wing?” If he can’t he can get his ass back to the 70s and off my roster.