Physicality is back in PBA: Coaches Pleased

Alex Compton and Norman Black laud PBA's move to provide more leeway for physicalities

Over the course of the past few seasons, one of the usual grievances that are being voiced out by the players, coaches and even the fans is that referees back then were almost "trigger happy" when calling fouls on physical plays. And we cannot blame them for voicing out such grievances. Picture this, folks. Referees could whistle you for a foul for simply bumping the player whom you are defending. That's really frustrating and could change the overall pace of the game because the more fouls that were called, the slower the game becomes. And slow games bore fans. They want faster games. They want more physicalities.

Fortunately, things are starting to get better as one of the changes that OIC Willie Marcial wants to implement this year is the reinstatement of the old "No Harm No Foul"  rule for the purpose of speeding up games and also to make the games themselves more exciting especially for the fans. Like it or not, the officiating has been horrible that fans were complaining about fouls that should haven't been called and fouls that should have been called And the frequent call of fouls have taken away the physicality in the PBA.

Before 2018 came in, Willie Marcial has stated that the league has already started training its referees as they prepare for the reinstatement of the said rule.

Just last January 10, 2018, two coaches expressed that they were overall pleased with the higher amount of physicality that was allowed during their game. Those coaches are none other than Norman Black and Alex Compton- both coaches whose team are relying heavily on their physicality especially on the defensive end.

Norman Black, for one, despite losing to Compton's Alaska Aces, 103-98, shared his observation that the game was being officiated a "little bit" differently and even took note that more contact between players was allowed on the court.

Alex Compton, for his part, has said that he's liking the new direction that the PBA is taking when it comes to the officiating of the games. The American coach even said that allowing more physicality to come into play is good for the game.

Conclusion

The best thing about the reinstatement of the "No Harm No Foul" rule is that more coaches and players can do their defensive assignments better because they are now lesser worried about being called for a foul.The only side effect of this is that we'll see more flopping players but then again, we just have to accept that flopping has been a part of the game, right? And so is physicality.