The NBA is also one of the most important stewards for the sport of basketball, and have a responsibility to maintain and improve the integrity of the sport and not sell-out for the almighty dollar.  What we’re suggesting is that the “truth” should be known (“The truth shall set you free”), and once people know the truth, many of them will realize the NBA is running a pretty loose ship and they need to tighten things up.  There is always room for improvement.  The media has been pretty lazy in not deciphering the inconsistencies with the refs and the rulebook like we have done.  After all, most of them have an incentive to keep feeding the machine that feeds them, so why rock the boat?  But most changes occur at the grassroots level.  I think most people have learned over the past few years you can’t trust the media.  People who just follow what the media tells them are what some call “lemmings” or “useful idiots.”

 No, we’re not saying that.  For lot of problems most people don’t even think about, or they ignore the fundamentals because they are swayed or dazzled by hype (Internet boom, housing boom, etc).  When they are confronted with a choice to ignore or to take heed, it’s their choice.  But at least they are glad that someone has brought the issue to their attention they never even thought about.  You may ignore it, although we’re fascinated that perhaps you see something here you like because you keep coming back to the site and contributing.  So you may be on the fence about it, or completely disagree, which is fine.  By having this dialogue, it may enlighten you.  But we honestly don’t have time to continue having a long dialogue with one person at a time like we’ve been having with you (no offense, we just have to move on).  This is going to be a numbers game where over thousands of people, more people than you may think might develop over time to make this a growing movement for change to take place.  Your viewpoint is limited because we get lots of emails and see posts from plenty of folks who like what we’re  proposing, so we think you are in the minority.  Anyhow.

One final note: those rule changes you suggested occurred after thoughtful discussion about the impact it would have on the game.  The changes we have been talking about have occurred without any official change, but just a laziness among the stewards of the game to let things fly and have them interpreted loosely without any rigor.  It’s like the police taking the law into their own hands and not following the law.  When that occurs in a community, there is an uproar.  But that kind of stuff gets publicity.  This kind of thing doesn’t.  We would love for some type of discussion of this to take place at a league/owner level when the next rulebook changes are discussed and considered.

As far as your final note…did you know in Florida, its illegal for an unmarried man and woman to cohabitate?  Or that in Alabama, it is illegal to play games on a Sunday with a penalty of 3 months hard labor?  This country is filled with cases of laws which may have made sense when they were passed that no longer make sense today and although they remain on our books it is up to the executive branch (in Basketball’s case, the head of Officials and/or David Stern), to choose to enforce them, and if people disagree they can vote them out, (or in the NBA’s case, just stop watching.  I still find that scenario hard to believe).

There was nothing wrong with how the game was invented when it comes to one of the most fundamental aspects of the game. Lane changes, shot clock, replays…fine. DRIBBLING THE BALL — non-negotiable to most basketball fans who don’t want their sport bastardized to some And1 tournament. If you want streetball, go watch And1, not the NBA.