After rave reviews following its use in the 2020 NBA All-Star Game, Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey expects the “Elam Ending” to be applied in future years to NBA overtime games.
The Elam Ending — named after Ball State professor Nick Elam — is designed to remove intentional fouling to stop the clock late in games, since teams play to a target score rather than using a clock.
Speaking Tuesday on Fox Sports 1’s First Things First, Morey told the hosts that he’s hopeful it will become a real consideration in future years.
“The Elam Ending, which happened in the All-Star Game, I think that’s coming to overtime,” Morey said. … “I don’t know what’s going to come, the league office does it. But I really think that’ll be in the next few years.”
Morey went on to make his case for the change:
Basically, it’s playing to a target score. It’s like playing pickup basketball.
In the NBA, how it could work, is with six minutes to go, let’s say the score is 95-90. You pick a target score of 105, and you just play to 105.
It gets rid of all the fouls and back and forth, and delays. You want live basketball. You only want people to call timeouts if the ball is dead.
Morey cited excessive late timeouts in Houston’s loss on Monday night in New York as an example of what the change could improve.
“It was like timeout go, timeout go, timeout,” Morey said. “That’s not what basketball is about.”
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