NBA Implements Coach's Challenge Rule
Happy Friday everyone. Hope you enjoy the First Friday Freestyle. Today I will give my take on the new Coach’s Challenge Rule introduced to the NBA. This new rule has been approved in the annual meeting in Las Vegas during the summer league. The NBA season is right around the corner in October, so the approval of new rule definitely is a hot topic.
The Coach’s Challenge Rule will be used this upcoming season and has a one-year trial run. This rule is already implemented in the NBA G-League. Unlike the NFL, coaches will not have a flag and will not retain the challenge if it is successful.
Okay let me quickly explain the challenge rule. Coaches will be able to dispute the following fouls/violations:
A Personal Foul: when one player physically stops a player from scoring
A Called Out-of-Bounds violation: the last player to touch the ball before it goes off the court or when a player steps out of bounds with the ball
A Goaltending/ basket inference violation: when a player touches the ball or the hoop while the ball is sitting or rolling on the hoop while the ball is passing through
NBA coaches will have to call a timeout and immediately use their challenge. If a team does not have any timeouts remaining, an attempt to challenge a play would be charged as a technical foul.The challenge is called by a twirl of the finger towards the official. I feel like this might be an issue because when a coach signals a timeout, sometimes the referee does not see it. (But Hey We Will See). Some restrictions includes coaches not being able to use the challenge the last two minutes of the 4th quarter or the last two minutes of overtime.
I believe that this rule is well overdue. I have concluded that the Coach’s Challenge Rule will give referees the chance to review the violations more in depth. Sometimes in big rivalry games and playoff games, referees get a little too whistle happy because of the intense atmosphere. Or they completely miss the call because of the fast paced game.
As my fellow male readers know and can agree with, these violations carry weigh and can determines a team’s victory/loss. For example, Game 3 of the recent NBA final series the Raptors vs the Warriors. Raptor’s Serge Ibaka goes up and “blocks” Warriors Demarcus Cousins’ layup that obviously touched the ring of the basket. It should have been called a goaltending violation but instead referees missed the call. Warrior fans were outraged especially when they ended up losing the game 123-109.
Let The Countdown to October Begin!!