Rec’ing on…If I Was In Charge Of the WNBA

This is sometimes a fun game to play: what if I was in charge of…? This time, let’s pick the WNBA. If I was in charge of the WNBA, I’d…

…change the clock from 24-seconds to 28-seconds. Honestly, I’ve never liked the 24-second clock. I didn’t like it when FIBA started it, and I still don’t like it. Maybe I’m just too old-school, but I like there to be

This is sometimes a fun game to play: what if I was in charge of…? This time, let’s pick the WNBA. If I was in charge of the WNBA, I’d…

…change the clock from 24-seconds to 28-seconds. Honestly, I’ve never liked the 24-second clock. I didn’t like it when FIBA started it, and I still don’t like it. Maybe I’m just too old-school, but I like there to be enough time on the clock for the team on offense to be able to switch to Plan B when Plan A doesn’t pan out. Now, if Plan A doesn’t work, there isn’t enough time on the clock to do anything more than improvise something.

…change crossing the centerline from 8-seconds back to 10-seconds. All this does is force run-and-gun play on teams. The only reason I don’t advocate no time violation is that it makes it too easy to spread the court to waste time at the end of a game…and even I don’t think that’s good for the sport.

…remove the ability of coaches calling time outs. The WNBA started it this season, and I haven’t seen an instance where it helped, but several where it hurt.

…give a technical foul to any, ANY, coach who "worked" an official. During the 2006 finals, it was painful to see all of the whining Lambert did to influence the calls. Worse, that behavior also started infecting the team. We’ve seen several technicals this 2007 season on players for griping, but not enough on coaches.

…remove fines on players for technical fouls EXCEPT when it involves fighting or other activities that might affect the safety of players and or others in the arena. (This only because they don’t get paid enough for a good balance/deterrent effect to take place.)

…make a floating salary cap so that teams don’t have to lose their veteran players because of CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) required salaries.

…encourage individual ownership apart from the NBA owners–or at least, autonomous entities if an NBA team owner wanted to continue ownership of the WNBA team. I’d hope this would prevent situations like that which happened in Charlotte and are currently happening in Seattle.

…schedule a WNBA All-Star Game in a Western Conference city. This only happened once in the 11-year history of the league, and that’s simply criminal.

…create a special pregnancy list so that teams wouldn’t have to worry about how to hold a player off their roster due to pregnancy while retaining their rights to the player while also not losing a replacement roster spot.

…contract a league-wide charter plan so the players wouldn’t have to fly commercial coach any more. Those seats are cramped for me, and I’m only 5’9" (1.75m). I can’t imagine what it’s like for the WNBA entourages.

…institute a referee fine system for blatantly bad calls/decisions. If the players and coaches can get fined, the refs shouldn’t get a free pass.

…allow coaches and players some public forum where they can criticize the referees, or league practices, without fear of reprisal. The current don’t-talk-about-the-refs-lest-you-get-fined practice isn’t healthy. Still, not having it a complete free-for-all is in the best interest of the league. There just needs to be something a little less draconian than the current policy.

…institute a verticality rule for defenders that allows them vertical space whether or not they leave their feet. An offensive player should NOT be allowed to simply jump into them to create a foul…the initiator of contact should be the one more severely judged as to foul-worthiness, not the recipient. (BTW, I’m loving the current emphasis on traveling and dribbling calls…makes the game more honest. Definitely something I would keep.)

…even out the broadcast schedule so that there wouldn’t be so many blocks of games featuring the same team(s). Additionally, I wouldn’t weight it so heavily in favor of the conference leaders from the previous year…conference dregs need air time, too, if only to help generate name recognition for very talented players stuck on the wrong team for them.

…create pay incentives for players to stay in their communities at least part-time during the off-season. Nothing helps generate attendance better than the public feeling they are part of the team via frequent personal appearances…even by the bench players. This would come from the advertising budget.

…add Albuquerque as a WNBA city (hey, I’d like to see games live, too).