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> You want to ban the charge in the NBA?
>@johnhollinger offers a counter:
>”In a league that has given offense every advantage and made it virtually impossible for defenses to keep up, it would likely open the floodgates toward pure ridiculousness.”
by lopea182
40 Comments
Is this a real possibility?
So people that want the charge gone, wouldn’t that allow the ball handler to just run right through the defender?
He’s right. You can’t even breathe on ball handlers these days without getting a foul called. Charges have been a part of the game essentially ever since basketball’s inception. All hoopers know the risks.
Really hope the league isn’t honestly considering this nonsense.
I normally don’t get worked up about NBA discourse, but the amount of garbage takes that came out last night about charges was insane. Nobody has ever argued that we need to get rid of charges until last night when a freak coincidence happened where two star players got hurt. The game is so ridiculously lopsided towards offenses as it is, you can’t claim to be a fan and genuinely think getting rid of charges is a good idea. This is just a perfect encapsulation of people on the Internet being prisoners of the moment and feeling the need to make a big show out of something.
Okay wait, at first I thought it was funny that Hollinger wrote an entire piece to counter a tweet by one of his colleagues, but then I said that out loud and like, is The Athletic just creating takes so that it’s writers can then also write counter pieces about the takes their employees are making?
The only real change you can make is what Cuban has suggested, which is expanding the restricted area. You can’t get rid of charges all together.
However, if you do that, you NEED to create other options for the defense. No defensive 3 second? Limited restrictions on verticality? Hand-checking? Idk, but you would need something to help the defense
Soft as fuck.
Banning the charge is ridiculous. At the very least you would have to reinstate hand checking and do away with the 3 second rule if that goes.
Banning charges would complete the pussification of the NBA
The right answer feels like simply redefining what a charge is.
What guys like Giannis or Butler do should be the definition of a charge: they ram into their primary defender, who is often backpedaling, to create space and possibly get a foul call. If you’re initiating contact with force to gain an advantage, that should be an offensive foul (or, at absolute least, a non-call, not a defensive foul).
Guys sprinting down the lane for a dunk or layup and an off-ball guy slides in to “take a charge” as the driver’s already gathered is fucking dumb and dangerous.
If they simply flipped the direction, I feel like it would be much healthier for basketball and for NBA defense.
It honestly feels like the league has lost the plot on fouls. They’re supposed to exist to prevent players from gaining an unfair advantage. Instead, they’ve been warped such that they’re being used to give the opposing side an unfair advantage.
I don’t know why this is the hill people want to die on when the bigger problem is offenses just running into a defender flailing and getting FTs for it.
Charge/Block can be a hard call for one fanbase but there are so many times where refs will call a whistle cause a guy falls while throwing himself at a defender just standing still.
How about you let defenders play more real defense and get rid of this fake defense.
What if instead of playing a real-life basketball game, we have the players suit up at gaming PCs and play a 15v15 game of 2k to determine the champions?
That’s basically what’s gonna happen anyways if the league keeps making every defensive play into a foul when a star gets hurt. It’s basketball, it is a contact, high-impact sport. Dudes are gonna get hurt, and we should do our best to minimize that without ruining the integrity of the game. It’s like concussions in the NFL. Obviously we should do our best to reduce them, but at a certain point you can’t eliminate the problem without fundamentally changing the sport.
The league needs to take away the attacker from having such an advantage when they initiate contact. The game would be better off if far more charges were called.
Yea lets make defense even more impossible. Feel like these takes are coming from casuals who only started watching this season once the playoffs start. Getting rid of the charge is an abomination of a take.
Honestly im all for banning blindside charges IF they allow players to go up vertically to contests shots.
Some of the discourse here doesn’t understand that drawing charges is a result of not being allowed to contest shots as much anymore
Who the fuck wants charges gone?
The league needs more support for defenders, not less.
The only people who want the charge gone are fans of teams led by offensive players who initiate enormous amounts of contact. Basically Bucks, Sixers, and Grizzlies fans. Eliminating the charge with the existing rules that neuter defenses would be absolutely asinine.
Wtf people want to ban charges? Doesn’t the rule set already advantage offensive players too much?
who is calling for this? bucks fans? that would be so dumb.
Get rid of charges but also start calling pushoffs and the shoulder dives that Giannis does every single play.
If the NBA wants fewer injuries, stop rewarding the offensive player for smashing into a defender. They see the defender slide in and choose to go through him because it gets rewarded the vast majority of the time with free throws. It’s not like the AD or Love suddenly teleported to get to the spot last night.
If defenders have a right to exist in their own space offensive players will adjust to stop colliding with them.
Abolishing charging would be the equivalent of abolishing cross checking or boarding in the NHL.
You know Harper has a truly moronic take if I’m agreeing with Hollinger
Are people really calling to remove the charge because Ja Morant decided to try to jump over a 7 footer without knowing how to take a fall?
They really need to emphasize calling other types of offensive fouls. I think if they called off arm pushoffs and the ball handler jumping into defenders more often, there would be less reason to take charges. They would still happen and there would still be danger, but if the defense had more stops from more even calling it would become less important.
My problem has always been with how the charge/block is officiated. Refs have stated that they are looking at the defender’s legal guarding position with no regard for the offensive player. You’ll have guys just run straight into defenders and if the defender is moving a little it’s a block. That’s just dumb. As a defender, your only chance to get the call is to fall over too because if you take the hit and just move back a little there’s no call and the offensive just gets to keep running into you till you eventually just flop.
Why the fuck would we ever ban the charge are you people dumb as hell or what
I always roll my eyes when people say this, but I can safely say that if they ban charges, then I’m done watching the NBA. It would exacerbate every problem I already have with the quality of basketball on display. The league is such a mess that I’m already to the point where I pretty much only watch the Sixers, but after this, it just wouldn’t even be basketball anymore.
I’m already getting bombarded with ads and (literally) constant piped in arena PA noise for three hours while watching sloppy basketball from otherwise talented players. The viewing experience is already very bad, and this would easily be the final straw for me. Calling it the final “straw” doesn’t even do it justice. This would be the steel girder that broke the camel’s back.
Offensive fouls that dont get called are already bad and egregious enough in todays game, now you want to reward shitty offense even more?
Why does the NBA hate defense so much? We see dudes scoring all the time, it’s actually getting old watching NBA games go 100+ points each team. The defense is almost always shit.
Charge already is gone if your name is Giannis.
We’ve seen games without the charge, it’s called the all-star game and it sucks
They need to modify the rules. If a player has a clear lane to the hoop and a defender slides in at the last second to take a charge, A) that isn’t defense and B) it’s flat out dangerous. Defend the rim or GTFO of the way.
You can’t remove the charge but you should treat defenders sliding under airborne players the same as defenders not giving a jump shooter space to land
those floodgates have already been opened
-defenders get bumped into and its a foul
-the offence “falls down” and its a foul
-defenders arms are up and the jump straight up and its a foul
Obviously if you got rid of the charge you’d need to do some combination of
– Give defenders more leeway for contact if they’re going to be forced to contest shots at the rim more
– Call offensive fouls for players initiating major contact on a defender going up in a legal guarding position/motion
If players actually got called for charges they wouldn’t barrel into players anymore
Make Defense Great Again