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Great job pointing out the problem, but what's the solution? According to Doyle, here it is:
Call a foul every time a foul happens, and when the offending player and his coach object a little too much, call the technical, too. Let tonight's NBA playoff games be decided by free throws. And tomorrow night's. And the next night's, if that's what it takes. Make the 48th minute as unwatchable as possible. Eventually the players and coaches will get the message.
Uh...what? The coaches and players, I'm sure, love having all that rest toward the end of the game to take a breather and save that last bit of energy for the final drive or final shot. It's like getting a freebie timeout - multiple times - in the last minute of the game. Coaches LOVE to win games at the free throw line. They'd rather win by 20 points, sure, but in a close game, any NBA coach will tell you that they want to be at the free throw line so they can sink easy baskets - drive and get the foul. If you don't get fouled - which is hardly ever at the end of a close game - you're going to make the layup a good percentage of the time. And even if a defensive rebound occurs, you foul that guy and force HIM to win it at the line.
This logic isn't going to just go away by having the refs blow the whistle more. In fact it'll make it worse. And besides, the NBA has already reduced trash talking and arguing with the refs to the point where you never see NBA players contesting fouls all that much anymore. They might be given a little bit of leeway toward the end of the game as tempers flare, but not that much. The problem of coaches and players complaining used to be a lot worse, and David Stern did, for once, do something that made sense when he eliminated that problem by threat of easily-acquired technical fouls.
I don't claim to have the solution but I know that Doyle's solution referenced above is not it.
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