Basketball Is Too Physical

02-22-03

I’m Chuck Wilson with an ESPN Radio Extra Point,
Former UCLA coaching great John Wooden contends basketball is “too physical”. He first said it more than twenty years ago. And every year, it seems, the game has become more so. Coach Wooden believes basketball has lost some of its beauty. He is right. Today’s game rewards strength and brute force at the expense of finesse and agility. The dictionary defines finesse as “subtlety in performance, showing skill and adroitness in handling a difficult situation”. It used to be viewed as a valuable asset in sport. But today, finesse is viewed as a negative. To be a “finesse” player is to be “soft.” So basketball is becoming more and more a measure of one’s toughness, with less room for the subtleties of the game. This thinking has filtered down to youth basketball where rough play often is ignored, if not encouraged, as if to prepare the kids for even more physical play as they mature. And this trend will continue, unless administrators, coaches and officials, see what’s being lost
I’m Chuck Wilson