New Change is Good for the League

Back in Summer Quandry #14, Lee mentioned a couple of changes that he'd like to see the league enact. I wholly agreed with him about the league doing something about the photographers at the ends of the court. Too many times I have held my breath as they tried to extricate a player from the photographers or their equipment as the player couldn't stop in time to avoid a collision.

Today, I was pleased to see an article in the Globe talking about some changes the league is making for the upcoming season.

The NBA is expanding the area that must be clear behind the basket and cutting the number of photographers along the baseline in an effort to improve player safety. The new regulations, calling for an extra foot of open space on both sides of the basket stanchion, were sent to teams Tuesday by league president of operations Rod Thorn in a memo that was obtained by The Associated Press.

The "escape lanes," the unoccupied area on either side of the stanchion to the closest photographer spot, will increase from 3 to 4 feet. Only 20 camera positions, 10 on each baseline, will remain, down from 24 last season and 40 during the 2010-11 regular season. Each baseline can have six photo spots on one side of the basket and four on the other, and dance teams or other entertainers cannot be stationed along the baseline

While not exactly the total banishment of the photographers on the baseline that I would like to see, this is a good start. This will give the players an extra 2 feet of space around the basket for players and will limit the photographers on the baseline so hopefully that will help keep the players a bit safer.

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