FIBA Eyes Lower Rims for Women; Big Decision for British Basketball

(ATR) Hoops honcho Patrick Baumann tells Around the Rings the dunk is but one issue at stake when FIBA decides Sunday whether to pilot lower rims for the women’s game.

"I’m not going to question who likes a dunk and who doesn’t like a dunk," said the FIBA secretary general.

"The key for us is to make [basketball] accessible for the vast majority of the girls that would like to play the game, and that’s the only reason why we would be testing some changes in the rules."

The proposal comes amidst an ongoing push to make women’s basketball more appealing to fans and media as well as more accessible to smaller players.

Lowering the rims is tossed around regularly in meetings of FIBA’s technical and women’s commissions, according to Baumann, but the idea received new life in October on the sidelines of the women’s world championship in the Czech Republic.

Among the action points to come out of the inaugural women’s basketball conference staged during the tournament’s final weekend were the development of more feminine (but not necessarily more revealing) jerseys as well as the possibility of different height goals.

FIBA then agreed at the commission level to move forward with testing last month, but now its Central Board gets the final say-so. Should the body give its go-ahead Sunday in Lyon, its 22 members will also determine when, where and how to conduct a pilot program.

"We’re going to see whether in fact there is a good argument for it, or whether it’s total crap, as some say, and it’s ridiculous, or whatever," Baumann said.

Despite this healthy dose of skepticism, the concept is not without precedent.

The short-lived Liberty Basketball Association played its sole game on a 9-foot 2-inch rim, and Italy has on special occasion lowered the goal for the final of its women’s cup.

Baumann suggested other countries may jump at the opportunity to test lower rims but that FIBA has a handful of options at its disposal should interest prove scarce.

His federation has access to friendly tournaments, could organize its own event in Geneva or could use its burgeoning 3-on-3 competition, which debuted last summer in Singapore at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games.

"We have no idea whether it’s good for the game," Baumann told ATR.

"We understand that there is concern that it might change the game too much. Today, we like the women’s game as is, but we should probably just simply try it out."

Though a green light for testing could be just days away, Baumann was quick to rule out any hasty changes.

Roughly 15 years of back-and-forth preceded FIBA’s last big rule change for women – a move to a smaller ball made in 2004 – and the secretary general said similar depth of discussion would surely be required for any rim tweaks.

Any testing would be done over a long period of time at a number of different levels, Baumann insisted, and "certainly not at official international competitions" of any sort.

Baumann also said he’s well aware of the implementation issues that would come hand-in-hand with even the smallest switch in goal height but said those could be overcome with time.

"There is the usual argument: it’s not possible to change the baskets around the world," he said.

"Of course it’s not possible, and nobody expects to change the baskets around the world tomorrow, but it’s relatively simple to work with the manufacturers of backboards."

Such a far-reaching alteration would be well worth the trouble, Baumann suggested, if lower rims could help keep more girls in the game.

He pointed to major drop-offs in female participation between ages 12-13 and again between ages 18-19. The latter likely correspondsto the jump from secondary education to university studies, and the former is perhaps a byproduct of the switch from eight- to 10-foot goals.

Regardless of reason, the quality of competition at the top of the sport is ultimately what suffers from these drop-offs at the bottom, and Baumann is tired of seeing the same countries on the podium year in and year out.

"The reality of what we see with the women’s game is that over the past 10 to 15 years, there are only USA, Australia and Russia that are competitively and consistently up there winning all the medals that are available at the world championships and Olympic Games," Baumann explained.

"That’s really one of the biggest challenges that we have in women’s basketball despite it being extremely attractive."

Czech Republic and Spain won silver and bronze behind the U.S. back in October, but Baumann’s usual suspects finished 1-2-3 at the previous three world championships as well as the past two Summer Games.

To Dunk or Not to Dunk?

Not everyone in the basketball community is convinced Sunday’s decision is about increasing participation and improving competition.

"The game was invented this way, and now you’re saying for them not to play it that way. I don’t know. I’m not sure that it works, but I don’t want to be a naysayer right out of the gates without having it testing."

USA Basketball’s official stance is likewise skeptical.

"If FIBA wants to test this, let’s test it," Tooley said.

"I think there are bigger issues that we need to do for the women’s game than worry about whether we lower it or not."

Among those bigger issues, he explained, were putting more resources towards promotion, increasing opportunities for girls in other countries to play women’s basketball and synchronizing both the WNBA and European leagues with the FIBA calendar.

Should lower rims gain traction in the international game, Tooley said it’s far too early to tell whether USA Basketball would pressure the WNBA to make the switch for consistency’s sake.

"At the end of the day, it’d be the WNBA’s decision to do it how they want to do it," he said.

The WNBA refused to comment on anything related to lower rims or their impact upon the game.

One retired and three active WNBA players have dunked in league play– for the time being.

Fate of British Basketball Up to FIBA

Tops on the agenda for Lyon is the future of British basketball.

The Central Board will decide Sunday whether to grant Team Great Britain a host nation qualification spot in the 2012 Olympic tournament.

British Basketball's legacy plan will determine whether FIBA forces the host country to qualify through usual means or spares its teams the trouble.

The British Olympic Association announced last week that both the men’s and women’s squads have its full support in their campaign for 2012.

Basketball is the only team sport on the Olympic program for which its international federation chooses whether to grant an exemption to the host country.

In other sports on the program for London 2012, the host spots are decided by the BOA’s Olympic Qualifying Standards Panel in consultation with the sport’s NGB.

Team Great Britain has only once fielded an Olympic basketball team (at the last London Olympics in 1948) but will have its chances boosted Sunday by commitments from NBA stars Luol Deng and Ben Gordon.

Also in Lyon, FIBA will award hosting rights to the2014 FIBA World Championship for Women. The bidding is between Australia and Turkey, last year's host of the men's world champs.

Written by Matthew Grayson.