NBA stiffens take foul penalty, will keep play-in tournament

LAS VEGAS (AP) » The NBA has completed the process of changing the transition take foul rule, ending years of discussion about what to do with the long-maligned tactic.

And, also as expected, the play-in tournament is going to be around for the foreseeable future.

The league’s board of governors finalized those two matters Tuesday, approving a plan to award one free throw when teams are disadvantaged by the take foul — as well as removing the “experimental” designation from the playin element to the postseason.

“Generally, it was upbeat coming out of our meeting,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. “People are thrilled that as we head into next season, it looks like we’ll be on our normal track in terms of when the season starts, in terms of our protocols around the game, particularly around the health and safety of our players.”

It wasn’t a surprise that the league changed the penalty on take fouls; Silver told The Associated Press in early June that it would change, though he cautioned that the new rule might still be tweaked in future years.

The take foul — in which the defender does not make a play on the ball — is what the league classifies as one that occurs either “during a transition scoring opportunity or immediately following a change of possession and before the offensive team had the opportunity to advance the ball.” The exception is in the final 2 minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime.

The new penalty for such a foul is one free throw, which may be attempted by any player on the offended team in the game at the time the foul was committed, along with continued possession.

Silver addressed a number of other topics, including:

REVENUE

The NBA is coming off a massive financial year, with revenue topping $10 billion for the first time and basketball-related income reaching $8.9 billion, another record.

Silver said the numbers are particularly strong considering the league is still dealing with a pandemic, and it wasn’t that long ago when some questioned whether sports could survive the coronavirus — at least in the sense of whether people would want to gather again.

“The numbers did surprise me to a certain degree because it exceeded projections, and the projections represent where we think our business is going,” Silver said. “I think it’s quite remarkable from where we came 2 ½ years ago.”