USA – NBA try out FIBA goaltending rule in Development League

NEW YORK (NBA) – The NBA is showing signs of being in favour of harmonised basketball rules as its minor league affiliate, the National Basketball Development League (NBDL), implemented the FIBA goaltending rule for the upcoming season.

In international play, once the ball hits the rim, it is considered to be ‘live’, meaning that players can knock it off or tip it in. Under NBA rules, an imaginary cylinder exists over the basket and touching the ball while any part of it is within that cylinder is a violation.

“I can confirm that the NBA D-League is implementing the FIBA goaltending rule for their upcoming season,” NBA Vice President for Basketball Operations Stu Jackson told FIBA. “The league is experimenting with the rule for observation and data gathering on its use.”

“The NBA plans to discuss the rule and its possible implementation for the NBA further at its next Competition Committee meeting in February.”

The news was welcomed by FIBA Secretary General and International Olympic Committee member (IOC) Patrick Baumann, who told journalists at the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey that he would like to see the NBA implement the international goaltending rule.

“I am very happy to hear that the NBA is putting FIBA’s goaltending rule into action in their development league,” he said.

“It is encouraging to hear they (the NBA) will have a close look at the rule and the possibility of introducing it into their league. If you combine the amendments we have made to our rules with the NBA potentially taking onboard the international goaltending rule, that combination would go a long way towards harmonising the global game.”

The NBA’s decision came just days before new FIBA rule amendments – which include switching from a trapezoid key to the NBA-like rectangular paint, moving the three-point line back a half metre (from 6.25m to 6.75m) and introducing no-charge semicircles – are coming into effect in all of the international governing body’s major tournaments.

These amendments were approved at FIBA’s Central Board in Beijing in April 2008. Top flight domestic leagues from all 213 of FIBA’s member federations must implement the new set of rules at the latest by 1st October 2012.

The move by the NBA to try out FIBA’s goaltending rule in its development affiliate comes a week after USA National Team head coach Mike Krzyzewski called for American basketball to take a page out of international basketball and have a 24-second shot clock at all levels of competition.

Krzyzewski, who led the USA to a gold medal at the FIBA World Championship in Turkey, pointed to the fact that international players have been accustomed to playing with the 24-second shot clock from an early age.

“They’ve been doing it since they were little. It’s a consistency of rules that I think helps,” he said. “I think it would help our game. It would help our game immensely if we had the same rules.”

The three main tiers on which basketball is played in the United States – high school, NCAA and the NBA – have very different rules when it comes to the shot clock.

The NBA operates the 24-second shot clock that is found commonly in the international game per FIBA’s rules. In the collegiate ranks, the shot clock is set at 35 seconds and is for the most part inexistent at the high school level as well as in summer and Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) competitions.

FIBA adopted the 24-second shot clock in 2000.

FIBA