Will They Stand Under the Basket?
It didn’t take long for me to figure out that I probably didn’t have a future as a basketball player. There is not much of a demand for short, overweight guys who can barely touch the bottom of the net and who can’t shoot well.
These “minor” issues have not kept me from enjoying watching the game. While I’m not particularly interested in professional basketball, I do enjoy the sport at the college level. As is the case with any sport, the rules have changed somewhat over the years. While it may surprise some, I am not old enough to remember when there was a jump ball after each made basket. That was my dad’s generation. (It is difficult to imagine the “thrill” of watching that; especially if one team had a really tall player.)
For some reason, I’ve been thinking lately about one rule change that has taken place during my lifetime. I’m old enough to remember when, during a free throw attempt, players were not allowed to enter the lane until the ball hit the rim. At least, that’s what the rule was.
I remember watching game after game during which players repeatedly violated that rule. It just about got to the point that no whistle was blown until and unless a player or players had both feet all the way in the lane before the ball ever got to the basket.
Interestingly enough, the “solution” was not to enforce the rule. The “solution” was to change the rule. The rule change was that players were/are allowed to enter the lane as soon as the ball leaves the hand of the player shooting the free throw.
Would it surprise you to learn that this rule is now being violated fairly regularly? Would you be surprised to learn that the referee’s whistle blows only occasionally? I’m only being a little facetious when I wonder if the next “solution” will be to just let the players stand under the basket during free throw attempts.
It seems to me that there is an observation to be made about all of this that needs to be considered in areas of life that have little or nothing to do with basketball. That observation is that, somewhere along the way, we’ve stopped expecting behavior to adjust to the rules. Instead, it seems now that we expect the rules to adjust to behavior.
I’m not just old enough to see the effects of this type of “solution” in sports. I’m also old enough to see how this type of thinking has had an impact on homes, schools, law enforcement and judicial systems, churches, and our entire society. If we continue to choose to travel down that road, we need to be aware of the fact that we are headed toward total disaster.
I don’t know if basketball players will ever be allowed to stand under the basket during free throws. I kind of doubt it.
What I have absolutely no doubt about is the fact that all of us will stand in judgement before the Lord. He expects our behavior to conform to His will, not the other way around.
He is the One who said,
The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. (John 12:48, ESV)
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AUTHOR: Jim Faughn
