Basketball Players Who Caused Rule Changes
About 1 min read
A handful of basketball players have been so dominant that the rules of the game were changed to limit their advantage. These changes, prompted by individual greatness, ended up reshaping how the game is played.
Questions you may have include:
- Which players caused rule changes?
- What rules were changed?
- Did the changes actually stop them?
Goaltending and the tall defenders
Early big men such as Bob Kurland and George Mikan could leap and swat shots away as the ball descended toward the basket. To curb this, college basketball banned defensive goaltending — interfering with a shot on its downward path — in 1945.
Widening the lane
George Mikan so dominated the area near the basket that in 1951 the NBA widened the free-throw lane from 6 to 12 feet to push him farther out. In 1964, the lane was widened again, to 16 feet, in response to the even greater dominance of Wilt Chamberlain.
Free-throw and dunking rules
Chamberlain was athletic enough to leap from the free-throw line and dunk, so a rule established that a shooter cannot cross the line until the ball is released. College basketball also banned dunking from 1967 to 1976 — a change so associated with the dominant Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) that it was nicknamed after him. Even the three-second rule, limiting how long a player may camp in the lane, traces partly to dominant post players of the 1930s.
An unexpected result
Often the rule changes did not diminish these players — being forced to develop new skills sometimes made them even better. It is a reminder that constraints can drive improvement.
Summary
Players including Kurland, Mikan, Chamberlain, and Alcindor were so dominant that basketball banned defensive goaltending, widened the lane twice, restricted free-throw and dunking techniques, and more. The rules aimed to level the field, yet often pushed these athletes to grow even greater.