a.

, | _ARCUND Tak RING

By George Edmond, St, :aul Fioneer
Fress, 1/14/40.

Do you like the game of basketball? Does it provide thrills
in proportion to the cost and trouble involved in attending games?

Reason for the question is simply this? A lot of fans be-
lieve there is consiterabie room for improverent and suggest
changes so radical tnat, if they were put into effect we might
have another fine sport, but- it wouldn't.be basketball as we
know it’ now, Re it Gi: 87

: In our opinion it would be difficult to. uphold an argument

that basketball, ‘imperfect as it may.be, is not a good game. It
still outdraws the great college. game of football and, by ocser-
vation, provides about as many thrills asa person could ask to
‘be packed in an hour.of competition. giaid baoye
: Basketball, from a technical standpoint, may be picked to
“pieces, It may be shown, in logical fashion, that it is now a
feir game and that it might be made far more attractive from a
spectator standpoint, And yet, ‘despite all. the criticism, 12,000
or more fans can be packed into the Minnesota fieid house to see
the Minnesota Gophers meet .a Big Ten opponent, REAT:
. The logic may show one thing, public interest something en-
tirely different. Any game that stends.tops from & general in-
terest and attendance stendpoint. can't be entirely: wrong.

oy.

WHAT ARE ITS FAULTS?. -

This is the criticism you hear about basketvall abeve all
others? It is a game in which good play is’ penalized rainer than
rewarded, ie | poe f. a bel: oe

"That is based principally on the point that a team scoring
a basket must give up possessicn of the ball to the opposition,
Why, the critics ask, should a tecm be.put ct a disadventage after
doing something for which it- should be commended? Basketball, they
say, is the only sport in which this is done. ea-8

As a matter of fect, that is the least of the criticisms that
may be directed cgcinst basketball... euitl of: 4f |

| It is not the only sport that seeks to make things even by
putting at a disadventage the team wnich has just mado & score,
Football does exactly that when it provides that the team scored
ogainst may choose whether to kick or receive the next kickoff,
Golf does exactly the same when, in match play, it provides that
the player winning a hole must play: first from the next tea and
give his opponent the advantage of. judging: the wisdom of his choice
of elub, — edu” & ;
Basketball would become a farce if the team.scoring a basket
were given the advantage in the throw-out of the bell for resumption
of play. If that were done a team that was only a little superior
“to its opponent would become $0: superior as to destroy the compet-
itive angle, Games that now. give the deserving team an advantage
of a few points would become utter routs, Ti on

Tt must- be. admitted that the element of luck often results in
the better basketball. team. losing < close game.. But is that a
situation peculiar to basketball? Would anyone suggest that it
doesn't hapoen, too, in football, golf, hockey, or what have you?

Continued,