The NBA is considered by the majority of the world as the best basketball league. The league has developed drastically over the years and also changed in order to keep up with the times. The very rules through which NBA games are officiated began to differ with the passage of time.
As things stand it appears as if NBA rules allow for players to stat pad or even cheat the game by finding loopholes around these same rules. With that being said, let us take a closer look and find out more.
The NBA is known to favor offense more in recent times
Anyone who has been following NBA games will know that it is a league where offensively skilled stars like Steph Curry innately have more value than defensive-oriented players. The league began to transform several decades ago and allowed for rules that favored players on the offensive end of the court.
The phenomenon of favoring offense can clearly be seen in the average total points scored by a team in a single game. While teams struggled to score more than 90 points in the past, the usual NBA game has teams scoring around 120 per game.
One needs to look no further than the three-point foul call in order to understand how the league has changed. A player can shoot a three-pointer and draw a foul by simply sticking their legs out to make contact with the defender. Since even a missed three-pointer is awarded 3 free throws, fans can understand how this foul call drastically affects scoring.While the NBA may be a league that is more focused on offense, the rest of the world does not play by their rules. As a result, there have been several times in the past when an NBA star was unable to adapt successfully to an international style.
NBA players often struggle under European rules
Europe and the Euro League are the next big thing for high-level basketball outside the United States and the NBA. Several NBA superstars such as Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo came from Europe and refined their game there before declaring for the NBA Draft.
Since the NBA offers foul calls frequently, these very stars struggle to play through the amount of contact that is permitted in other international leagues. One can only imagine how NBA stars who have never played internationally will feel. There have already been instances of stars complaining to the referees after not receiving favorable calls like they were used to in the NBA.
In any case, the NBA likes to hype up its stars and show big numbers in order to attract attention. That also plays a role in the inevitable amount of stat padding in recent times. Fans are left hoping that the stars of Team USA are able to successfully adapt to the new rules in the Olympics.