I've been following Mark Cuban's blog with interest, and he often talks about changes he would like to see in NBA basketball. Many of the changes have to do with the consistency that rules are enforced, as Mark points out the differences between individual officials, players, time of the year, time of game, etc... in the way fouls are called.

Here's my 2 cents on what's wrong with basketball.

First, let me state right up front. Basketball is my least favorite sport. I can't watch it. Football is my favorite sport. Hockey keeps me on the edge of my seat with my heart beating at twice the normal rate, although I haven't gone to a game in decades. Baseball is a great sport to watch at the ballpark on a nice day. Heck, I like SlamBall more than I like NBA basketball. (SlamBall is fun to watch - check it out on SpikeTV Saturday nights.)

Some of these things may seem like fundamental basketball concepts, and so maybe I will never ever be a fan of the sport. But perhaps many people have the same beefs as I.

1) Often, the last 2 minutes of the game take 30 minutes to play. That's way too slow. The last two minutes of a basketball game are the slowest 2 clock minutes in sports. Zzzz...

2) With less than 5 minutes to go, either team can win. This drives me crazy. A team can be up by 20 points, but the other team still has a chance to win. What's the point of watching the first 40 minutes of the game? Just tune in for the last couple of minutes.

3) The intentional foul. So let me get this straight... a defensive player is allowed to intentionally interfere with an offensive player, forcing him to make a free throw (a lower percentage shot) in order to get the ball back with plenty of time left. That just lets the losing team have one more chance to get back in the game (see #2 above) and slows the game down (see #1). The offensive team should get to keep the ball after a free throw - that will cut down on fouls, speeding the game up.

4) While I'm on the subject, this whole concept of “team fouls”, where fouls over a certain limit cause free throws while fouls under the limit don't. So sometimes a team has “fouls to give“, near the end of a quarter. Fouls to give. What a stupid concept.

5) While writing this, I looked up the rules of the game on http://www.basketball.com/. Maybe it's just me, but the rules are WAY too complicated. The following is one example of a rule.

When a weakside offensive player is above the free throw line extended, his defensive man may be no lower than the "middle defensive area" extended for more than 2.9 seconds. When a weakside offensive player is below the free throw line extended, his defensive man must vacate the "inside lane" unless his man is positioned adjacent (posted up) to the three-second lane extended. When a weakside offensive player is above the tip of the circle, his defensive man must be no lower than the "upper defensive area" for more than 2.9 seconds. When a strongside offensive player is above the tip of the circle extended, his defensive man may be no lower than the free-throw line extended (upper defensive area) for more than 2.9 seconds.

Did you get that? This is just one subsection of the rules for defensive fouls - and I cut out more than half of that subsection. I bet most fans watching the game don't know all the rules. I mean, read the above... how could they?

When James Naismith wrote the original 13 rules for basketball, it was simple. I'm not suggesting we go back to that, but when you compare the mechanics of the game (put the ball in the basket) with the rules of the game, it looks like it's gotten out of hand.