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Stephen Curry processed what was happening, and about to happen, in about a tenth of a second. Curry already had 25 points in three-plus quarters and had four 3-pointers. It was a typical Stephtacular night was brewing.
Curry took the dribble handoff from Looney just behind the 3-point line. The Knicks, of course, sold out defensively, sending three players in Curry’s direction. When you hear about the “gravity” that Curry’s historic shooting prowess creates, this is what people are talking about.
The Knicks’ center, Mitchell Robinson, was in no-man’s land. If he didn’t step up to Curry and challenge him, Curry could pull up for a long two, or step back and launch from behind the arc. But Robinson also had to watch Looney rolling to the basket. Robinson made his choice. He took a half-step toward Curry. Just a half-step.
That’s all the space Curry needed. Curry then ended the game … not with a dagger 3, but with a pocket pass, between Mikal Bridges and Robinson, hitting the rolling Looney in stride for a dunk.
No serious person can argue the skill level of today’s NBA players isn’t vastly superior to those of 10, 20, 30 and 40 years ago. More players can do more things with a basketball than ever. More people dribble it better. More people handle it better. More people pass it better. More people shoot it better and from a greater distance.
“I think the game’s in a good place.” said Kevin Durant. “I think a lot of people have been frustrated with the physicality of the game, things like that. I don’t think you can really complain about that this year, with the way that the refs are letting guys play and all those things. The game is continuing to resemble, a little bit, the old school, now, with the physicality.
But Silver has acknowledged that his sport may have to look at additional rules changes to bring the game into better balance. It is a correct notion.
Baseball, of all the major U.S. team sports, has acted most decisively in recent years to make radical changes to its product to improve it. Three years ago, the shift was killing the sport. Teams were taking advanced stats to their logical, absurd conclusion by putting multiple fielders on the right side of the infield to take away left-handed hitters’ prime areas for hits. Singles dropped to the lowest recorded levels in history. Batting averages plummeted. Stolen bases, one of the most exciting elements of the game, fell drastically. Yet games were still interminably long, at an average length of three hours, 10 minutes.
MLB did something about it in September 2022 when it announced three rule changes. It all but eliminated the shift. It made its bases slightly bigger, to make it easier for players to steal bases — to make it just a little easier for speed to stay in the game, rather than continuing to rely on the so-called “three true outcomes” to be the be-all and end-all. It limited pitchers to two “engagements,” or potential pickoff throws, with any base runner. Most importantly, it initiated a pitch clock, requiring pitchers to make their pitch within 15 seconds if there was no one on base, and within 20 seconds if there was someone on base. Steals have gone up dramatically in the last two years. And baseball times were reduced to two hours, 38 minutes last season.
Whatever the NBA comes up with is irrelevant to Durant. The basketball lifer just wants there to be a league in 30 years, long after he’s retired. He celebrates the game, with all its flaws.
“It’s just good when basketball’s around,” he said. “Regardless of how it’s finishing, we should be grateful that we have such a beautiful sport to follow. Being around for this long, this game is never going to go nowhere, either. I’m just always big on enjoying the progression of the game, and quit all the complaining all the time about what could be better, and what we should be doing different, and all the nostalgia you get from the ’80s and ’90s.
“All right, I get it, but like, let’s just enjoy what we’ve got in front of us. It’s an important and incredible game. The game needs support from everybody if we want to keep going.”
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