Different Rules

[eg-italy]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Back in the mid-60's, several of us fooled around with FIBA rules. We actually joined FIBA for a while, but gave it up as not being worth the money. At that time, anybody could join but you still had to be certified before you supposedly were able to do international games. FIBA at that time was basically a one-man show. A guy named Williams Jones basically ran everything, and did so from the late 40's for over 40 years before he finally retired(or died) iirc. He was based in Berlin and everything flowed from there. The story going around back then was that Jones absolutely hated the USA for some reason. He supposedly had told different people that FIBA would never go to any version of US rules while he was involved with FIBA.

True or not, I've heard almost the same version over the years from different sources. What is true is that FIBA is still very political in it's thinking.

I wasn't an official in the mid 60's (still too young ), but I remember Mr. Jones; and the USA national team at the '72 Olympic Games remembers him very well . I don't know whether he hated the USA or not, but surely he was as you described him. Now the situation has changed and many rule changes reflect this (shot clock as in the USA, AP, substitutions and so on); however politics is still an important issue in FIBA.

Do you know that until a few years ago a team could not substitute after committing a violation? The rationale for this was: they could throw the ball OOB just to obtain a substitution. Go figure.