USA - Global hoops considering rules changes

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International basketball might undergo a significant change if new rules are passed this weekend, according to USA Basketball officials.

One proposal would eliminate the trapezoid lane used in international competitions in favor of the NBA's rectangular lane, adding more of a low-post element to the perimeter play of the international game.

"I think it would probably help (the U.S. team) a little bit because it will probably enable a little bit more post play," says Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, an assistant coach on the 2008 Olympic men's team.

If approved, the rules would not take effect until the 2010 competitions for men, women and juniors.

Because the trapezoid is wider at the baseline than the rectangular lane, low-post players are forced farther from the basket, fostering the outside shooting skills of big men such as Germany's Dirk Nowitzki, a 7-footer who plays like a guard. Boeheim says the current men's senior team coached by Duke's Mike Krzyzewski has adjusted to international rules by not using the low post much in the last two years.

"We have opened it up and, of course, we have very good perimeter players," Boeheim says. The USA hopes to rebound from the embarrassment of the 2004 Athens Games in which the team took bronze.

Stu Jackson, the NBA executive vice president for operations, says he doesn't think the USA has been "at a significant disadvantage" because of the trapezoid lane but adds, "By eliminating the trapezoid … it may give better spacing in the lower part of the lane."

Also proposed: moving the three-point line closer to the NBA's line and instituting the NBA's "restricted area" in the middle of the lane that limits defensive players from taking a charge inside the defined arc.

"The big story is the movement toward the unification of rules," says Val Ackerman, president of USA Basketball. "The larger message is one world, one game."

The rules were recommended by the technical commission of FIBA, basketball's international governing body, and will go before the group's 20-person central board for a vote this weekend in Beijing.

Ackerman, the U.S. representative on the central board, couldn't speculate on whether the rules will be approved but says, "The best possible case has been made and the support has been strong. … The world has shrunk. There's a sense that people in basketball think there's no reason to play the game with glaring differences."

Adds Jackson, "I'm optimistic" it will pass.