Hoops

Did Brian Goorjian ruin the NBL?

I didn't mean offence Mick, I quite liked his passion but next decade how many will remember him and how many fondly?

I love that game I think against the Kings where he got ejected!

Like it, Pop.

How fun was it to hate a Goorjian coached team... Especially took great joy in the Titans being beaten like the did in finals.

I respect the hell out of Brian (so happy he's in the HOF) and anyone that can let your passion rise to the surface like he does can only be good for the game... Too many boring coaches that will remain forgotten ie Woolpert

I subscribe to the 'Goorgianisation' theory, and it is not fair - or accurate - to say the referees 'allowed' it. It became what they were conditioned - through cynical repetitive thuggery - to see and accept as normal.In other words, it became the norm, which everyone grew to accept.

It's like pointless music smothering and keeping crowds out of games and, more to the point, modern footwork.

Many - probably most - shooters travel almost whenever they jump shoot because they always shift the same foot into the shot, irrespective of whether they landed on their left or right.

It's what they do every time, and the refs won't - almost can't - call it every time, so it becomes accepted.

And then we have Ennis. A few more of those three and four-step spectacular layups' - or dunks - and that will become the norm - if it isn't already - because that is what the refs, and everyone else, gets used to seeing and therefore registers as 'right'.

Which takes us back to Goorgian et al. The first few times it was 'did he really do that?' ... by which time it was too late to call.

The next few times it was blown, but they just kept on doing it, frequently and blatantly. This meant the refs simply missed some thuggery because it was so frequent. And because there was so much of it, they started to not blow much of that they did see, starting to make value judgements about what and what not to call for fear of 'blowing the game to pieces'.

And so, gradually but inexorably, it became the 'norm' - just like seeing shooters shift the wrong foot up and, more recently 'spectacular' - but illegal - three and four-step layups, which currently still often fall into that initial 'did he really do that?' category.