Ridiculous Rule!

It's January. Your favorite football team is driving down the field late in the game for that winning score. With just 35 seconds left on the clock, they get their touchdown! Your team is now ahead by 3 with only half a minute to play. The kicker lines up, takes aim, and heads for the ball. He sends a towering kick 8 yards deep into the end zone. The opposing team quickly calls a timeout. When your defense comes out to play out what should be the final 30 seconds of the game, they find themselves deep in their own territory, backs to their own goal line, feeling as though they had been penalized in some way. The opposing team was awarded the 25 yard line....YOUR 25 yard line!! Why? Because they had one timeout remaining? The offense was given 3/4 of the field because of a called timeout? That seems absolutely ridiculous, doesn't it?

Well, such is the case in the NBA. In the last 2 minutes of a game, a team may call a timeout after a change of possession, and advance the ball beyond midcourt without any time coming off the clock. Really? This, in my opinion, is taking away the work that the other team just put in to take the lead. You are rewarding a team for having a timeout. They didn't earn that "special" timeout. It was given to them at the start of the half. It was given to them as just a regular old timeout. Somehow, miraculously, it transformed into this ball advancing wonder that saved their season.

In last nights Memphis vs San Antonio playoff game, such a travesty took place. With just 1.7 seconds showing on the clock, Memphis in-bounded the ball, and was immediately fouled. They went to the free throw line, and hit both FT taking a 3 point lead. In college, this is when you get to see something like Grant Hill throw a 3/4 court pass, Laettner catching, making one move, and then breaking the hearts of Kentucky fans around the world. That's EARNING a win. In last nights game, you instead see the Spurs call a timeout, (exciting) get the ball beyond half court to in-bound, (no work had to be done, no time off the clock) and hit a 3 pointer as time expired to send it into OT. The Spurs eventually won the game in OT.

In my opinion, the final shot, pass, run, or hit, depending on your sport, should be earned. I don't see 3rd base being awarded on a bunt single in the bottom of the 9th......Do you?