The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 240 - 126 Exposure

The NBA, as a basketball league with a strong entertainment nature (established initially to sell tickets by utilizing idle venues), has only allowed man-to-man defense since its inception in 1946, prohibiting zone defense.

However, just like traveling, a technical move strictly forbidden from the birth of basketball, zone defense has never truly disappeared from the NBA courts.

In 1946, 40 years ago, an era that sounds very distant, World War II had just ended, many countries were beginning to rebuild from the ruins, and some were still at war. Americans were already considering how to make basketball games more interesting and appealing to the audience.

By that time, the sport of basketball had been developing for over 50 years. College competitions, amateur matches, and scattered regional professional leagues had already flourished throughout North America. The NBA was just a minor professional league in the Northeast.

But the NBA’s (initially named the BAA) business strategy was clear: attract viewers and survive. Their rule prohibiting zone defense quickly gained favor with more fans and defeated their first rival, the NBL, which was established in 1937, in three years of competition.

The NBA acquired the teams of the NBL, along with their star player George Mikan, whose star effect brought more spectators and fans, laying the foundation for the league’s survival.

Back then, the banners made for the games had phrases like "Mikan vs. some team"; many people came to the games to watch Mikan.

But when Mikan was with the Lakers, he would often squat under the basket without moving, to prevent opponents’ smaller players from penetrating, which was in fact a form of zone defense. The NBA, eager to sell tickets and draw fans, naturally turned a blind eye.

Come the 60s and 70s, Mikan, who once made tremendous contributions to the NBA’s creation, established the ABA, challenging the NBA. By this time, basketball rules and tactics had undergone significant changes: an enlarged key area, the 24-second shot clock, the jump shot, the pull-up jumper, the pivot, etc., had all transformed the game drastically.

Voices started to suggest that the NBA should allow zone defense instead of just man-to-man because a game’s score had reached over 100 points, and combining man-to-man with a team defense zone seemed like no issue.

Moreover, it was always a challenge for referees to determine whether the defense was playing an illegal defense in the fast-paced game.

Legendary NBA referee Rich Borris once called an illegal defense on the Hawks. However, after the game, Borris stated that the Hawks’ defense should be allowed and was a good defense.

Two weeks later, Borris notified the Hawks and the Nets before the game that he would not call illegal defense in their game and that they could freely use the team defense and double-team in advance.

The NBA commissioner Larry O’Brien was furious. He heavily penalized Borris for unilaterally changing the officiating rules and suspended him for many games—but did not dismiss him, because there were too few experienced referees in the league.

Although officially prohibited, more and more college basketball coaches entered the NBA, and more teams began to test the boundaries of illegal defense to target the opponents’ superstar players in defense.

Otherwise, weaker teams that lack superstars or do not have the right defensive players stand no chance against stronger teams with superstars, if only man-to-man is allowed.

Referees often turned a blind eye unless the illegal defense was too blatant or obvious; generally, they wouldn’t strictly enforce it, and even if illegal defense was called, the first offense would only result in a 24-second violation and a change of possession, subsequent violations would then lead to free throws.

In the 1984-1985 season, there were 1193 illegal defense calls, but only 157 free throws resulted, indicating referees often made token calls once or twice a game as a warning.

In response to these phenomena, the NBA officially kept insisting on the prohibition of zone defense; after all, it was the rule they had established at the beginning.

In the 60-plus-page NBA official rulebook, 9 pages were devoted to how to identify illegal defense; over time this set of rules became more complex, to the point that even some professional referees were unclear about what constituted illegal defense.

In 1981, the NBA formed a special committee to guide coaches across the league on what was considered illegal defense, because NBA executives suspected that some coaches did not understand illegal defense at all (including Dick Motta).

Ironically, after the league’s instruction, coaches had a deeper understanding of illegal defense, and they knew better how to skirt the edge of the rules, walking the fine line between legal and illegal.

Dick Motta’s Dallas Mavericks were not known for strong defense, not because Motta couldn’t coach defense, but because the Mavericks lacked powerful defensive players.

However, they could execute targeted defenses in the playoffs, and tonight they used clever defensive arrangements to make Gan Guoyang and the Trail Blazers very uncomfortable on the half-court.

Jack Ramsay knew what was happening. Although he formally protested to the scorers’ table, he knew that all teams employed covert zone defense in the playoffs, including his own.

Gan Guoyang often cleverly stationed himself under the basket, using actions that seemed to be "switching defense" to carry out zone defense and thwart the opponents’ attacks on the basket.