Time outs in Basketball
 

I was visiting the USA over December and caught two college basketball games at MSG. As a Scot my favourite sport is football (soccer to you Yanks) and went to see these games as I tend to enjoy watching Basketball on TV back home. Anyway was watching the game and the amount of stoppages (time outs) was unreal. Instead of the game flowing and being entertaining, its stopped all the time for player changes and tactic talks from the coach. Time outs are a pain in the fucking ass and IMO ruin Basketball.

My question to you NBA fans, would you enjoy seeing the games flow end to end with minimal stoppages or do you enjoy the game being stopped all the time?

ummm.. timeouts are necessary IMO. So naw, I like it the way it is.

Time outs called by the team to discuss strategy or to change the momentum are one thing SammyG, but to put a two-minute commercial break in whenever there is a foul or the ball goes out of bounds can be a bit much.

As a player I found time-outs a pretty welcome break generally. As a fan they can be a bit annoying but I dunno, usually you only get a tonne of them if the clock is running low and the game is tight, which is usually nailbiting so you care a lot less.

TBH, I wouldn't be against a rule where an intentional foul in the final minute fouls you out until overtime.

I think it is rediculous how a team can be down nine points with 30 seconds left but they don't just let the other team win. It never works.

I don't have a problem with called timeouts, but if you dislike TV timeouts, football is absolutely the worst. They invented the "two minute warning" just for it.

I think there's too many time outs in basketball and football. I'm talking like time outs not commercials. There are too many commercials, but the last minute of a basketball game can take what seems like a half hour with all the time outs. Football's the same. They should be allowed one per half.

I dunno, you have to be careful when fiddling with the rules as you can end up complicating things further

1 time out per half isn't very complicating.

Its apart of the game, taking them away would be stupid for everyone who actaully likes the game.

You like spending half an hour watching the last minute of a game?

If its a close game and they just aren't wasting time for no reason (like BCWWF pointed out) then it just adds to the excitement of the game

I enjoy Basketball but with less time outs I would enjoy it more.

It seriously takes that long with the timeouts? I was thinking teams already only had a limited number of times they could use timeouts, but that's just fucking stupid that they don't imo. That's what i don't like about american sport though, there are too many things that stop the games from flowing.

They do have a limited number. It's just that they do it in a manner that extends what should be just a 1 hour to 1 hour and half game to 3 hours.

^first post ever in the sports forum

I think he means that if they get away with changing that, we'll have people and players wanting to change other things.

^ But if the change is for the better, then surely that's a good thing?

But where do you draw the line?

lynchings

Just simply assess which rules need changing and which rules don't, i don't see the problem.

It's not neccessarily time outs, it is the fact that intentional fouls when a game is within eight points draw out the last minute to close to 30 in real time.

THat is very true. Make it an automatic ejection for an intentional foul.

Or at least until OT.

Well I dunno, without time outs a lot of classic moments in the game would have never happened (Michael Jordan's game winner againest the Utah Jazz in the NBA Finals is just one of the many examples)

I think classic moments would still exist just not coming off the heels of a time out.. I feel basketball and football are way over coached. Let the players play the game instead of follow a plan.

Well I disagree about players being over coached (especially in the NBA, they never run set offenses or anything) that's fine that you think that way. However, time outs play a role in these classic moments since it is an opportunity for the clock to stop. Like Grant Hill's halfcourt pass to Lettner would have never happened since Duke wouldn't have had a chance to stop the clock after the made basket, thus they probably would have just thrown it in bounds and probably chucked up an ugly half court shot.

Maybe that shot could have went in, and that could be the "moment" but I dunno, I personally don't see a problem with time outs..I think its a part of the game (the organized kind, anyway)

fair enough. I just hate sports that lose flow often. Well not hate, but hate when sports lose their flow.