The rules of basketball have changed often over the years, so I hope no one will object if I offer a few modest revisions to make this wonderful game even better:
First, I would charge a fee not only to watch the game but to play in it. And the more one pays, the longer one gets to stay in the game.
Second, there should be a price paid for each shot taken, and the easier the shot, the more it should cost.
Third, as for fouls, one should be able to pay the referees, so that they never call any fouls on you (or walking or double-dribble violations for that matter).
Fourth -- and maybe most important -- there is no good reason that the baskets should be the same height for both teams. It should be possible for the team that pays more to have its basket lowered, and for double that amount to have the basket the other team is shooting at raised.
Under current rules, players who are taller and better coordinated and can run faster and jump higher have all the advantages. My rules would exchange the advantages enjoyed by these people for other advantages that would benefit a different group, one that has been poorly served by basketball as now played: the rich. Under my rules, the rich would possess all the "talent" and -- more in keeping with what occurs in the rest of society -- never lose a game.
"Whoa," I can hear some readers saying. "How is this going to make basketball a better game?" Well, that depends, doesn't it, on what you think the game is all about. Sure, one of the main purposes is fun. But, like all games, basketball also provides people with a simplified model of how society works and -- implicitly and often explicitly -- how to get ahead in such a society.
It does this through its rules and through what people do and experience when following (or watching others follow) these rules, and through the assumptions that the game encourages people to make regarding the relevance of these experiences for the rest of life. Basketball, then, is as much about education as it is about fun.
The new rules I have suggested would change the game's lessons dramatically. People who played or watched my version of the game would no longer expect speed, agility, persistence, teamwork or fair play to bring them success in life, but would instead learn that in our society, it is dollars that count. Playing basketball by my rules would help prepare young people for life in capitalist society, rather than miseducating them about what the future holds.
