End never seems near in basketball games, but at least there's hope

In championship soccer games there's a shootout, which is totally alien with all that came before. Neat stuff. In football, the team ahead suddenly goes into a

Frank Deford | Mar 12, 2012

End never seems near in basketball games, but at least there's hope /

In championship soccer games there's a shootout, which is totally alien with all that came before. Neat stuff.

In football, the team ahead suddenly goes into a prevent defense -- or PREE-vent DEE-fense, as we pigskinners say -- even though playing an entirely different way the rest of the game is why it got ahead in the first place.

In baseball, the strategy may not change, but the personnel does. All kinds of new pitchers and pinch hitters appear.

These sorts of climactic upheavals all have the potential to make the ends of games much more exciting. But, oh my ... then there's basketball. Oops, there's a whistle now. Basketball has just never been able to figure out how to make its ending better than what came before. That's because everything grinds to a halt as the team behind fouls intentionally to get the ball, and it's henceforth like reading this column this way:

(Whistle ........................)

And sometimes now the team ahead fouls intentionally, too, (Whistle ........................) so that the team behind has to shoot a free throw or two instead of trying for a three-point field goal. It's not sport; it's like watching plea-bargaining.

(Whistle ........................)

It's also all something of a sham because most of the fouls are intentional, which should call for additional penalties, but everybody pretends that they're not. It's like all of a sudden, in the last two minutes of a football game, the refs would purposely allow the defense to go offside before the ball was hiked just to even things up. (Whistle ........................)

Even Referee magazine, which is to officiating what the IRS is to taxes, admits it's a fraud. The end of the game "has become a Kabuki dance," says Referee, "in which even though everyone knows what's going on, the officials pretend that they don't." The officials don't officiate! (Whistle ........................)

Basketball has never come up with a better answer, so the team ahead dribbles all around, boring us ... wasting time ... while the team behind chases the dribbler, looking for a chance to mug him, accidentally on purpose. (Whistle ........................) There are always proposals about how to discourage fouling and make the end of the game honest, but nobody ever even seems to want to try anything new, so, I guess, basketball will keep on pretending. (Whistle........................)

After all, fouling gives the team behind a chance and gives the coach the image of a never-say-die guy. And above all, while aesthetically the climax of a basketball game is ugly, it does allow for hope. There is no cliché any sports announcer likes better than: "Now don't go away, folks. This game isn't over yet." (Whistle ........................)

Published Mar 12, 2012

FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.