NBA to Use Ball State Prof’s System
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIn addition to the Pacers’ Domantas Sabonis, this year’s NBA All-Star Game will have another big Indiana connection. The league will adopt what is known as the Elam Ending, created by and named after Ball State University Professor Nick Elam, during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game.
The NBA says at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the game clock will be turned off and a Final Target Score will be set. The score will be determined by taking the leading team’s score through the first three quarters and adding 24 points. The first team to reach the target score will win the game.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business sports contributor Bill Benner, Elam said the goal of the format is to create a more exciting end to the game.
“The idea is that, if you’ve got the lead, you can’t just stall and play passively; you have to keep playing assertively to get to that target score,” said Elam. “If you’re behind, you don’t have to foul and hand away free points; you can still get good defensive stops. If you’re behind and you’re on offense, you can keep getting your best look. And the whole combination of factors makes the outcome of the game less predictable, makes late comebacks more likely and somehow, someway, the game’s going to end with the swish of a net, so you get that memorable, game-ending moment.”
The league chose the number 24 in honor of the late Kobe Bryant, who wore the number 24 on his jersey during the final 10 seasons of his NBA career.
Ball State says Elam first began thinking of the concept while he was a student at the University of Dayton. In 2007, Elam wrote a book, “Time’s Up for Basketball’s Game Clock,” which drew the attention of some in the basketball community.
It wasn’t until 2017 when The Basketball Tournament, which implemented a version of the format. Ball State says grassroots-level leagues in at least 15 states and at least one other country, Egypt, have adopted the format as well.
“The idea of this concept is not to change basketball; really it’s to do the opposite, to preserve that more natural style of play through the end of every game,” said Elam.
Elam says when he received the call from the NBA that the Elam Ending would be used in the All-Star Game, it was both “surreal and extra-real.”
“I had envisioned that kind of a call so many times over the years and I just knew that it was only a matter of time before (the format) would have this kind of a breakthrough and it would get this chance on the biggest stage. We’re going to see the best players in the world on one court using this format and so the NBA called me and gave me a heads up that there would be an upcoming announcement.”
Elam will get to see his format up close as the NBA has invited him to Sunday’s All-Star Game in Chicago.