New rule changes being mentioned

Playoffs Will Have Timekeeper From Neutral City

By CHRIS SHERIDAN
.c The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (Feb. 8) -- The clock trick known as "home cooking'' won't be a factor in this year's NBA playoffs.

The league's Rules and Competition Committee adopted a change in timekeeping practices Friday, mandating that the person running the clock in postseason games must be from a neutral city.

"We've had a few occasions in regular-season games where there been some issues with timekeepers,'' NBA vice president Stu Jackson said.

Timekeepers, from time to time, have been known to start the clock a split-second late if the home team is inbounding with very little time left on the shot clock or the game clock. The practice has become common enough that players routinely notice when a timekeeper doesn't provide "home cooking.''

"This will ensure that the game is timed correctly and there's no concern by anyone as to whether or not there's anything going on with the home team,'' Jackson said.

The committee decided against tinkering with flagrant-foul rules, but it did decide to move toward changing the name of the injured list to the inactive list, thereby ending the practice of teams stashing healthy players with phony injuries because there is no room on the 12-man active roster.

Such a change must still be approved by the players' union.

"That's been an age-old problem, and what they found is there isn't a lot of good reason to not change it,'' Orlando general manager John Gabriel said.

Among the other items addressed by the committee, which is made up of one representative from each of the 29 teams:

The elimination of the Phoenix pre-draft camp, which formerly was the second of three league-sanctioned pre-draft camps for college players. The camps in Portsmouth, N.H., and Chicago will continue to be held.

A discussion of the rules changes that have gone into effect this season, including a debate over defenders using their bodies to impede the progress of a player driving to the basket. Last season, no contact was allowed. This season, there have been different interpretations of what constitutes an impediment.

The effect that the new television contract will have on the salary cap. The money in the new six-year agreement is backloaded, but not to the degree that it was in the last contract. Teams are concerned that the growth of the cap will not keep up with the growth of contracts, many of which increase by 12 1/2 percent per season.

The NBA instituted a set of major rules changes for this season, eliminating all the old illegal defense rules in favor of a defensive 3-second violation, lessening the time allowed to bring the ball upcourt from 10 seconds to eight seconds and eliminating many of the so-called ticky-tack fouls that were slowing down the game.

Scoring has gone up slightly, from 94.1 points per game at this time last year to 95.2, while fouls are down from an average of 45.8 per game to 42.3. Field goal and free throw percentages, along with possessions per game, have basically stayed the same.

What is bothering the league is the increase in flagrant fouls.

A total of 84 flagrant fouls have been called thus far, which puts the league on pace to eclipse last season's total of 140.

"We think a lot of it is due to the fact that the lane is open and defenses are further away, and when defenders are contesting they're coming from further away and they're coming harder,'' Jackson said.

The committee discussed the adoption of an intentional or deliberate foul rule, but there was no consensus to ask the Board of Governors to impose such a rule.

For now, the referees will be instructed to "err on the side of flagrant, because these hard fouls we certainly want to eliminate,'' Jackson said.

Several of the players selected to the All-Star Game said they saw no reason for a change. Chris Webber of Sacramento and Tim Duncan of San Antonio said the amount of times a player is on the receiving end of a flagrant foul is directly proportional to his ability to make free throws.

Both Webber and Duncan were terrible foul shooters earlier in their careers but have improved their accuracy tremendously. Shaquille O'Neal, though, has remained a 50 percent foul shooter throughout his career and continues to be fouled harder and more often than other big men.

"The biggest thing is don't let them get their arms up if they can't shoot free throws,'' Webber said.


I have seen this numerous times happen to teams about time it is mentioned now lets add a instant replay call to the mix!