So what I'm gathering here is your point is that all these rules are used by FIBA to level the playing field. I'm not denying that at all. In fact your spot on. But your missing my point. If your main concern is leveling the playing field so that other teams and players can compete with the top talent then you ultimatley run the risk of watering down the ultimate product on the floor. It's not the same game. Yes it's more physical yes the dimensions of the court aren't the same ( tho the very easily could be. That not impossible to change) but what's that all really do? Just what you said. Even the playing field. If that's the goal why don't we just start out with corrupt referees?
The point I was making was why do we need to level the playing field in the first place? You don't see everyone in Europe and South America calling for the rules in soccer to be changed to be more physical because the brazilians depend on finesse and usually win. Same deal here. There should be one set of rules and court dimensions etc. And we should have the final say on that because we invented the game. Period.
TP to Celticshooligan.
I doubt FIBA will be able to force the NBA to change its own rules regarding goaltending, especially considering that the NBA has existed longer than FIBA (first world championship was in 1950) and also the fact that foreign players can gain a ton of exposure by competing in the FIBA tournaments. In fact, many of the best international sides competing in FIBA (USA included
) feature players who have played for, or seek to eventually play for an NBA franchise. It wouldn't do much for the growth of professional basketball if the most popular basketball league and the governing body behind international basketball couldn't come to some sort of a reasonable compromise as far as the rules and regulations of basketball are concerned.
I find it interesting to note that yes, basketball was invented in the USA, the inventor of basketball was born in Canada; the first ever NBA game took place in Toronto between the New York Knickerbockers and the Toronto Huskies -however- basketball has always been an 'American' game. Americans were the innovators responsible for taking the experimental game that Naismith invented, seemingly at a whim to its current level, establishing the most successful and most recognized basketball league around the world in the NBA as well as creating the concept of a 'professional basketball player', an 'all-star', a 'superstar', etc.
I'm not saying that international basketball isn't important, however just think of the rare case when the United States happens to actually lose in international competition -- more emphasis is placed on the fact that the higher-paid Americans happened to lose to a team of players whom half of which we may have never even heard of. Even these past Olympics proved that the athletes on Team USA felt that they couldn't even consider themselves the 'Dream-Team' until they won the Gold Medal in the men's basketball tournament, after other USA squads had lost in international competition and been sort of black-listed by international media. Heck, during the 90's Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigerian born NBA All-Star) chose to play for the United States' 'Dream-Team' and won Olympic Gold with his fellow Americans at the Atlanta games in 1996 so even foreigners can attest to how superior the USA's basketball program is seeing as Hakeem was probably the first non-American player to achieve all-star level success in the NBA...