^ and from him came the Mikan drill ;)

Drazen Petrovic and Sarunas Marciulonis arriving and staring in the NBA in the late 80's. Changed the thinking of NBA teams as far as drafting and playing talent that did not go through the American school system.

LeBron James and David Stern convincing the NBA to completely abandon the travel rule rather than just loosely police it as they had done for previous superstars.

The "Mikan rule" was

1) actually widening the 3-second area to make min take his hook shot from further out.
2) 3 second violation

They actually outlawed the dunk for a while in the ncaa because of Kareem

Chamberlain was prevented from breaking the plane of the foul line on free throws until the ball touched the rim, as he used to trow it to the board , take 2 step , rebound it and dunk.

The most modern example I can think of is the Boston Celtics under Rivers and Thibodeau.

Really changed the way teams play defense, and a league-wide re-focus on that end of the floor.

Naismith might not have changed an aspect of basketball, but he certainly changed peach baskets!

Great topic BTW.

Charles Barkley back down rule..

Danny Biasone, the late owner of the Syracuse Nationals, invented the shot clock following the 1953-54 season to try to speed up the game and prevent teams from stalling.

http://www.nba.com/analysis/00422949.html

"Magic" changed the way we think of point guards, they dont have to be 5'10 and fast.

Larry Bird - Proved white guys that are not athletic can still make it. lol

The "do-gooders" who banned the title of an exercise drill called the Suicide

Anon (665)- Yes I have, more than you would want to hear about. I just don't see the link between a strenuous training drill and the unfortunate act.
It was obviously an 'innocent' title given to the drill many years ago, similar to somebody jumping into a swimming pool doing a "bomb" which was not meant to offend people affected by war. Many words in the English language have 2 or more meanings.
Apologies if you were offended.

Hanging Round - could've been a jab at your alias which obviously has a dark meaning!

Tex Winter for bringing the Triangle Offence to prominence, and helping Michael Jordan, Shaq and Kobe become winners, as well as global icons!

Isaac
No it just relates back to the days when I would dunk the ball, then hang around on the ring.
Unfortunately it had to stop as they raised the ring for the U12s to play (after the U10s) with a 'full height' backboard.

November 19th 2004, Auburn Hills Michigan, John Green threw a cup of Diet Coke. This helped to fuel an incident dubbed "The Malice in the Palace".

Ron Artest was suspended for 86 games.
Stephen Jackson was suspended for 30 games.
Jermaine O'neal was suspended for 15 games.
Ben Wallace was suspended for 6 games.
Anthony Johnson was suspended for 5 games.
Reggie Miller was suspended for 1 game.
Chauncey Billups was suspended for 1 game.
Derrick Coleman was suspended for 1 game.
Eldon Campbell was suspended for 1 game.
David Harrison was suspended for 1 game.

John Green was banned from attending Pistons home games for life and charged with assault along with 4 other Fans and 5 Indiana Players. All the Players pleaded "no contest" and were fined and given community service and placed on probation and ordered to partake in anger management counseling. John Green served 30days in jail and was given 2 years probation.

This event made the NBA review policy and placed a hard cap of 2 alcoholic beverages per person and they also reduced the max size to 710ml and all alcohol sales were also banned after the end of the 3rd quarter. Each team was also required to supply extra security for around the teams benches.

Diet Coke received no suspension or fine

Dennis Rodman made it OK to be covered in tatts.

Allen Iverson - Dress Policy.

Granted plenty of NBA players dressed like thugs, but none more so than Iverson.
I think he was influential in making Stern enact a dress policy

Sam Bowie. Put the mozzers on Portland for the past 27 years.

Manu Ginobili for introducing the euro-step.

Although someone might want to confirm whether he was the pioneer of it, or whether someone else started it earlier.

Good thread.

So who was responsible for the 3-point arc and when was it introduced? That's had a major impact on the game.

Bernard King. He showed the NBA that a severe knee injury like his was not career-ending, and that you could regain your previous level of play after surgery and extensive rehab.

Glenn Roberts - guy credited with "popularising" the jump-shot. Prior to that everyone shot underhanded or chest-pass style set-shots. He averaged almost 20ppg in an era when teams averaged 20ppg.

Joe Faulks - credited as the first player to shoot a "floater".

Oscar Robertson - 6'5" 220lbs PG. A pioneer for big PG's well before Magic Johnson. Had a crossover dribble well before Tim Hardaway made it popular. His numbers are ridiculous on a Wilt Chamberlain kind of level.

Pete Maravich - Cited in the Naismith Hall of Fame as "perhaps the greatest creative offensive talent in history". Averaged a ludicrous 44+ppg in college, before the 3 point line was used. His college coach charted all of his shots years later and reckons he would have averaged 13 made threes a game in college (ie 57ppg average).

A three-point rule was tested in 1933 at the suggestion of Herman Sayger of Tiffin, Ohio
The three-point rule was first tested at the collegiate level in a 1945 National Collegiate Athletic Association game between Columbia and Fordham.
It was popularized by the ABA in the 1967-68 season and then later adopted by the NBA in the 1979-80 season. Fiba introduced it in 1984. The distance has varied between leagues and seasons.

The first person to hit a 3 in an NBA game was Chris Ford playing for the Celtics. I remember reading this on his "Hoops" basketball card when he coached Boston.

Larry Bird. The Bird Rule. Introduced so that superstars could finish their careers with their teams if they so chose.

A little closer to home - Lindsay Gaze - for the influence he has had on Australian basketball and the way the game was played.

Im going to say Andrew Goodwin, he was really the template for a lot of the jump shooting centres that we now have. If you follow the lineage you go from Goody, Anstey, Loughton, DJ, maybe even Khazzou etc. Most footers in this country can knock down the 15-18ft jumper and it seems to be traced back to him.