Last week’s record-setting flurry of 40-point-plus games by individual players made me wonder. What if the rim, through which you must shoot to score a basket, was higher by 12 inches?
This move would make it harder to dunk and also, one would suspect, make it more difficult to score from outside, especially from the ever popular 3- point shot line, located 23.75 feet from the basket at its longest point.
Let’s face it, athletes are getting stronger, faster and bigger. Dunking at one time was a rarity, not the norm. Now, everybody on the team including the towel boy can throw it down.
Of course, it’s all part of the show. Something about slamming the ball through the hoop with emphasis makes the crowd go wild.
There are no style points, ladies and gentlemen. A dunk is worth two points, just like a simple lay-up.
It’s obvious that the dunk is the most popular play in the game. Hence the flexing, the primal screams and human electricity that ensues. My argument is now is the time to get ahead of the curve. Future ball players can start practicing on 11-foot hoops.
Adding 12 inches may not deter young dunkers like Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies, who looks like he’s been shot out of a cannon on his moves to the net.
Even older dunkmeisters like LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers probably wouldn’t have many problems. At 38, LeBron, may be old by pro basketball standards, but anyone who has watched him lately can see the 6-foot-9 inch superstar still has enough hops, it appears, to put his chin on the rim.
How would Golden State Warriors guard, Stephen Curry, who is one of the game’s top scorers, fare trying to dunk at 11 feet? It would change his offensive approach for sure. I suspect Curry would adjust; he’s going to get his.
Some may argue the 10-foot dunk has stood the test of time. Unlike other rules in the game. My argument is now is the time to get ahead of the curve. There are basketball players in other parts of the world who are 8-feet-tall who can grab the rim while standing.
Damian Lillard, with the Portland Trail Blazers, and Curry have been known to be logo shooters — that is, shooting and making shots from the logo painted in the middle of the court. It is a ridiculous shot from 35 feet or more. But Curry and Lillard make it enough to keep doing it.
Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers, rained in 71 points this week on dunks, 3-pointers, foul shots, you name it.
It was the highest scoring outburst since Kobe Bryant’s 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in 2006. Wilt Chamberlin, the 7-footer from the 1960’s and 1970’s still holds the all time record, an astonishing 100-point game. Wilt also holds the highest average record, averaging 50 points a game for the year.
Mitchell’s 71-point performance this past week came on the heels of a 60-point, 21-rebound, 10- assist night from Luka Doncic, of Slovenia, a rising star in the NBA.
The next day Luka dropped 51 points on the San Antonio Spurs. Coach Gregg Popovich joked before the game that his team’s strategy would be to hold Doncic to 50.
Maybe if they had raised the rims.