Essay On Raising The Rim

Should The Basketball Rim Be Raised?

Raising the rim in the NBA from 10 feet to 11 feet is a very controversial topic because you are talking about changing the history of the game forever. One side argues that raising the rim causes players to become more athletic and the standard 10 foot rim is too easy for athletes and the other side says the highlights of the basketball games are the deep threes, and the alley-oop slams and raising the rim would take that away from everyone. Raising the rim for the NBA is going to result in less impressive, lower scoring games which isn’t fun for the players or the fans. Basketball rims being raised would be a time consuming and painful process. People do not realize how a few inches can make a person

Raising the rim would lower the scores, and would make players look less athletic” (Frasor 1). Which is true, everybody loves interesting high scoring games packed with highlights, and changing the rim to to 11 feet is going to take this away from them, including the players because of the amount of time it is going to take the players to get used to shooting and dunking on an 11 foot rim. Frasor adds to his argument by saying, “If basketball were too easy for professional players, then you could make an argument to raise the basket, but that is not the case” (Frasor 1). If the NBA were to raise the rim then it would prove that the NBA is too easy for the players. This is definitely not the case considering that the 2016 Philadelphia 76ers were 10-72 and last season it took them 16 games to get a win, in addition to many teams being under .500, meaning they had more losses than wins. Raising the rims is only going to result in those teams getting worse. While some people argue that the rims should be raised, like a former NBA coach, Tom Newell who argues that, “We’ve added a half court and rectangle clear backboards; changed the key to a larger colored lane for three-second violations; moved the three-point line closer, and added two more officials, And yet, the baskets have never been raised from the original 10 feet”(Newell 1). While Tom is