In the NBA All-Star Game in 2020, Nick Ilam and Jon Mugal couldn’t believe what they were witnessing at the full Chicago United Center.
The alliance has made fundamental adjustments to the big show in this season. With the deepening of the fourth quarter, the atmosphere on the scene became more and more enthusiastic.
“That’s really classic,” Knight All-Star guard Donovan-Mitchell said recently.
The stars of the two teams no longer finish the fourth quarter, but hit the set target score, namely “Elam final”-TBT league (a Basketball League held in the United States every summer, 64 teams decided to win or lose the championship, taking away 1 million dollars of bonus, and white chocolate, Mike Bibi, Fredette and others participated) a few years ago, this game model was very popular.
The person who came up with this model was Ilam, while Mugal was the one who implemented this model in TBT league. They and Dan Friel, the co-founder of TBT League, were invited to Chicago by NBA to watch the match.
Ilam and heavy eyebrows
Ilam was very excited. Who would have thought that the idea of this high school math teacher who was adorable when he watched the university competition nearly 20 years ago would become a fixed rule for the G League worth millions, what about the major events that have been introduced into NBA now?
“The intensity of the fourth section is very impressive,” said Ilam, who is now an assistant professor of educational leadership at Powell State University. “It’s great to witness all this.”
The NBA All-Star Game in 2023 will begin at 07:30 Eastern time on Sunday at Salt Lake City Energy Solutions Stadium. This will be the fourth consecutive battle in the fourth quarter to all-star game of the target score.
The following is a story about the revolutionary inspiration of the all-star New competition system, the evolution of this idea over the years, and the man’s journey to the top stage of basketball.
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Long before Elam reshaped the end of the basketball game, he was a fan from southeast Ohio who was obsessed with college basketball and was very angry with the end of the elite eight-strong match between xeville University and Duke University in 2004.
As the No. 7 seed, xeville University became a dark horse, entered the division finals, and met Duke Blue Devil, the number one seed. Duke’s biggest lead in that game was only 6 points. At that time, there were only 24 seconds left, but it was full of intentional fouls and pauses.
“It was originally a tense and exciting match with blood. As a result, the interest in the stadium disappeared at the last moment,” Ilam said.
“My buddy and I both looked at each other. It was really strange that the game changed so much at the end, and the style became extremely distorted, so we began to discuss these unfeasible ideas at that time, and later I would also read them from time to time.”
In the following three years, these thoughts continued to hover in Ilam’s mind. Until March 10, 2007, when he watched the semi-finals of the ACC championship at North Carolina State University and Virginia Tech University, he was finally hit by inspiration.
“At that time, I had this idea that might work,” Ilam said. “Since then, I have been addicted to it.”
With the passage of time, Elam’s vision is also improving. At first, he named this idea “mixed duration mode”, like a term only used by math teachers, stipulating that the whole second half of the game should stop timing.
Then he constantly revised, and the final changes were still not so thorough. Applied to the NBA scene, the table was suspended in the last three minutes of the game, adding 7 points to the score of the leading team to obtain the winning target score.
“The 48 minutes of a match, cutting the last 3 minutes, actually put aside one of the 16 points of the match,” Ilam said of his formula. “Then we need to add one of the 16 points back.”
“This is equivalent to about 112 points per game for each team.”
Elam has perfected his approach to how to make basketball matches look better. The question is whether anyone bought it.
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When Mugar opened the email attachment, he did not know what kind of butterfly effect he would trigger.
It was in the summer of 2016, and the third TBT competition just came to an end (it has been played for nine times now). Mogar, who was on vacation, opened an unknown email sent to the general mailbox of TBT league. The sender is Ilam, who has been promoting his final model for the past nine years, but has no results.
The attachment is a PPT titled “The timing of the elimination of basketball matches”. There are 67 pages in total.
Mugar has been reading, thinking about what content can make himself click the red fork to exit. But he was immersed in it.
“I grew up playing basketball,” Mugar said. “Now I want to run a league. The most worrying question is whether I can present a wonderful match to the fans. I also feel very deeply that the final moment when the game reaches 4 to 12 points, it will often become a free throw marathon, which is really difficult.”
Mugal’s idea at the beginning was to change the “mixed duration mode” to a name that is louder and easier to remember, that is, “Ilam-style final”-Ilam himself is also very fond of it.
After negotiating with ESPN, the broadcaster of the TBT league, and Elam himself, the agreement was successfully reached. In the following season, TBT held a finalist competition called “big carnival” in Philadelphia. And that is the stage where “Elam-style final” was first launched.
TBT’s first game adopted “Elam-style final”, with a goal of 95 points.
As a result, the final games of several finalist competition games were brilliant. By the fifth game of Brothers Dat Ball against ATL Hoops4Hunger, the two teams played the ending Ilam had dreamed of for ten years: former NBA defender Josh Selby threw a 76-75 kill Brothers Dat Ball in a penalty area. The winning score was no different from the set target score.
“I floated after the end of finalist competition on the first day, and I knew at that time that my concept would continue after that weekend anyway,” Ilam said.
“This model has vitality.”
Mugar also agreed. Since 2018, TBT has used “Elam-style final” in all 71 games and never looked back. The Canadian Elite Basketball League also fully implemented this rule by 2020.
The next leap of “Iram-style final” occurred in another email found in general mail by Mugal. However, the sender this time is not a nobody.
On the contrary, it comes from CJ-Paul, Chris-Paul’s brother. He has something to say.
“CJ said, ‘Chris and I are both big fans of TBT. We are happy to participate in this event in some way, ‘”Mugal recalled.
CJ himself later coached in a team of TBT and was also amazed at the “Elam-style final.
“This is very interesting because it is a strategy,” CJ said. “There must be a strategy in the game, not a foul.”
In this way, “Elam-style final” found the breakthrough of NBA.
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In recent years, due to fierce deficiencies, the popularity of All-Star games has declined, and the game has become a large number of non-confrontation dunks and three points. Therefore, the league has added some incentive measures to the players, including letting the captain choose the players-this is the first time to choose on the spot before the start of the competition-and introducing charity.
However, in the process of preparing for the 2020 Chicago All-Star game, Paul, the then chairman of the trade union, contacted Xiao Hua, the president, and asked him to pay attention to the last exciting moment of the TBT league.
“A few years ago, the TBT finals were played in Chicago. I called Adam before the game and told him to pay attention to the game. Because of the ‘ilam fin’, the TBT game was really good. It’s really cool to end the game in this form.”
Xiao Hua watched the live broadcast and liked it so much that she was willing to test the water. (NBA does not use the name “Elam-style final” because this trademark has been registered by TBT.)
The implementation method of NBA is different-by the beginning of the final game without scoring, the set target score is the leading team score plus 24 points. The result of the actual combat was that the fourth quarter turned into an epic battle. Anthony Davis decided the outcome with a free throw, and the LeBlanc team won the goal with 157 points.
“I didn’t hit the end of Chicago All-Star,” said Mitchell, who was the starting point of this Salt Lake City All-Star. “But just looking at the performance of the players on the court, the intensity of their playing is already very good. I believe that scene will reappear this weekend.”
“To be honest, I think this is a benign innovation to the game,” said 76-player star Joel enbide, who was on the court at the last moment of 2020 All-Star. “Especially for fans, the game is more intense. The 24 best players in the league compete on the same stage. They want to see who is the strongest one.”
The success achieved by adopting the target score for the first time makes NBA begin to think: what other related events can continue to use it?
“For a long time, we have been focusing on potential innovations and new rules to improve the quality of matches, improve the health of players and increase the participation of fans, the idea of ending the basketball game with target scores rather than time is certainly not a new concept,” said Evan vasch, executive vice president of NBA basketball and strategy.
“99 percent of basketball matches in the world may have a goal score, because Streetball and YMCA matches are played that way. Therefore, we understand that for the final game, we have to make a trade-off between scores and time limits.”
“Obviously, TBT’s ‘ilam final’ was one of the first well-known events to introduce mixed mode. Chris Paul saw this, and bring it into some discussions on how to boost the popularity of all stars. Finally, we think that all stars are an excellent experimental site.”
On last December, vasch delivered a speech at the G League Showcase Cup in Las Vegas. In this week’s event, NBA set the final target score for each game. This season, the overtime of the G League also introduces the rules of target scores.
This is not the first time NBA has used G League as a creative incubator to try new ideas. Some of them-including coach challenges, offensive and defensive conversion fouls, and 14-second offensive time limit-have become NBA rules. Others do not, such as using FIBA to interfere with the ball rules, you can touch the ball at will after hitting rim, or get two points in a free throw.
However, there is one thing NBA cannot adopt, which is the name of “Elam-style final. The alliance is more willing to use clearer language to describe this change.
“If we say ‘we want to hit a target score, ‘the name itself explains the style of play,” vasch said. “We think this is a more acceptable method. After all, traditional fans may think this concept is more radical.”
“Changing the style of the whole fourth section is also our original creation. It’s a little different. We don’t think the name of ‘elam final’ will be widely recognized by fans.”
G League starts to try “Elam-style final”
There is no fixed number of prospects for the target score. Indeed, not everyone supports this move.
“The All-Star game is quite good,” Mitchell said. “But in the real game, it’s hard to say.”
“I think since there is a time limit, you must control the game and think about the way to win. This has been a part of the game for 75 years, so I don’t think it should be changed.”
“I don’t like the idea (the implementation of the game outside the all-star),” enbide said. “I think we should put it in some specific events first and then walk and watch it.”
As for Mugar, he preached the benefits of target scores to everyone. He hopes to completely change the tradition. The game has been played only in one mode. Why is it unchanged?
“If basketball had the ‘elam-style final play’ rule when it was invented, and 75 years later, someone suggested that the clock would stop at 0:00, and this new rule could only last for one game, then everyone will completely abandon it,” Mugar said.
“They will see a free throw marathon and find that it is a disaster. This rule will not work. Therefore, if I turn the problem upside down, I can convince myself that this is the future of basketball.”
Whether this is really the future of basketball or just an interesting turning point in this sport, since Ilam watched a foul-filled college basketball match 20 years ago, his inspiration has been added to too much meaning.
“I just wanted to understand, ‘why not? ‘”Said Ilam. “By the summer of 2007, I had already believed that this idea must have its advantages. I think it is necessary and I believe it is reasonable. It may make the competition interesting.”
“The really difficult part is when people begin to convince basketball circles that this idea is valuable. I don’t know, it will take 10 years for this idea to become a reality, but I am very happy that I still stick to it.”
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Original title:
NBA All-Star 2023: Thank the Elam Ending for the thrilling fourth-quarter finish in Salt Lake City
Original author:
Tim Bontemps
Published:
2023.2.18
Original link:
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35683146/nba-all-star-2023-thank-elam-ending-thrilling-fourth-quarter-finish-salt-lake-city
Translator: kewell
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