Two NBA superstars were injured in their respective playoff-opening games after falling over defenders attempting to take charges. They may both miss extended time, and fans are questioning if the charge should even be in the game anymore — what an absurd question to ask.
My main issue with people over the internet, media personalities and fans alike, is that I don’t believe the outcry is genuine. I think people are just mad about seeing star players getting hurt.
If you haven’t seen it yet, Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a lower back contusion after driving to the basket and going through Kevin Love’s chest, and hitting the floor.
Giannis missed game 2 of the Bucks/Heat series — the Heat mollywopped the bucks anyway — and may miss even more of the series as the injury lingers.
This of course, came a few hours after Memphis Grizzlies high-flyer Ja Morant also took a nasty fall and re-aggravated a hand injury. Morant was working his next masterpiece to add to a collection of ‘almost dunks’ by trying to posterize Anthony Davis as Davis tried for a charge.
Both injuries left the basketball world, more notably NBA Twitter, in a state of chaos. The charge had become the supervillain.
Many claimed the charge was only used as faux defense. Most said that plays were incredibly dirty.
The main argument is that defensive players are undercutting airborne offensive players to take a charge instead of ‘playing real defense’ and contesting. This leads to dangerous in-game collisions, injuries, and overall, a worse product.
All of these arguments are faulty, and here’s why.
First, the majority of these injuries occur off of bang/bang plays and aren’t made with the intention to harm. In fact, the defense is putting their own body at risk to win the call. So I believe calling the plays dirty is a bit too aggressive.
Secondly, calling the charge ‘fake defense’ makes it seem like NBA players have the ‘proper’ ways to play defense. The NBA is notorious for changing the rules to allow more open, fast-paced, and free-flowing offenses. Implementing restrictions like defensive three seconds and disallowing hand-checking drastically decrease the defense’s ability to guard opponents. If you remove the charge from the game, offensive players will have free layups and dunks once they beat their initial man.
While this high-scoring scenario may seem better at first, we all complain about how little defense is played today, so imagine how bad it will be with no other options for paint defense other than a block.
That leads me to my next point. These plays are dangerous because the offensive players are reckless. I can’t, for the life of me, understand why we are ignoring the decisions the offense makes before these collisions.
From a child all the way into college, you are taught to drive under control and stop on two feet to avoid charges. So why, at the game’s highest level, are we supposed to reward players like Ja and Giannis, who make a living slicing through the lane regardless of who is waiting for them?
Giannis has a reputation for running through defenders like an NFL fullback. The refs will call a foul on the defense, no matter what. Unless you block him, it’s a foul or a dunk. The charge gives the defense another outlet. Removing the charge would make guys like Giannis even more unstoppable.
Ja Morant makes highlights every night by trying to acrobatically dunk and lay every defender in the paint. It’s cool when it works out, but in reality, he’s endangering himself.
Maybe it isn’t a good idea to be 4 feet in the air attempting to jump over seven-foot 250lb men. We’ve been so accustomed to their skill and mesmerizing displays where they avoid defenders that we stop being objective about what we’re watching.
The Kings-Warriors game two had above five or six brilliant charge attempts. The game was one of the best of the season and probably the best of the postseason so far. An offensive slugfest with tremendous defensive chess matches to go with it.
I agree that late charge attempts to airborne opponents can and are dangerous. I’m not opposed to making a late charge attempt equal a flagrant foul. But to remove the play from the game entirely is ridiculous.
We’ve seen what ‘good’ basketball as a game and as a product looks like. Allowing stars to shine both on offense and defense is what we all want to see. Removing the charge shifts the balance to an extremely uneven offensive exhibition. I personally don’t want to see NBA All-Star level scoring games, remove the charge and ruin the game.