Three spots down under this season’s “POE’s,” is the listing for “verticality.”
This could be listed as “The Hibbert Effect,” or some derivation therein, after former Georgetown Hoya and current Indiana Pacer center Roy Hibbert. At 7-foot-2, Hibbert, and his Indiana coaches, introduced to the league the idea of jumping straight up to defend the rim.
This was a twist on the prior defensive stance of staying grounded with arms straight in the air. Hibbert began to jump straight up with his go-go gadget arms extended, which forced offensive players to run straight into his chest and shoot over him.
Several in the league began to adopt this approach, including 6-foot-11 Wizards center Marcin Gortat. The league has noticed.
That’s why “verticality” is among this year’s points of emphasis. In part, it’s because the competition committee — filled with two owners, four general managers, three head coaches and one representative from the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) — heard from players about the concept, but also because players began to approach it differently.
The referees will be watching specifically for players who turn their body before contact. Big men have begun to twist so the impact from a driving player hits them in the side, preferably the shoulder or hip as opposed to an elbow to the chest or knee to the stomach. That will be called a foul.
“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of small big men and tin big men, I would say,” Gortat said. “They’re afraid to get a hit in the chest, afraid to get a hit in the guts and turning with their side and turning with their back. They obviously have different excuses for that, but that truth is they’re afraid to get hit.
“Obviously, it’s going to hurt, it’s probably going to put them in a bigger possibility of getting injured…listen, this is the game of basketball, this what you got to do. You’ve got to man up, you want to take one for the team, just jump straight up and take on in the chest or your guts. This is how it is.”
Another issue is body movement after impact. Gortat argues that when they are hit by a driving player, that automatically makes their arms come down and body fold forward.
“We’re bending in half,” Gortat said. “At the same time, we’re creating a foul.”
Referees will be watching arms, which they say have to remain vertical (or at least close to it). Veteran referees can remember when former Detroit Piston Bill Laimbeer would crack down with both arms very late in the contact in order to get a whack in and not be called for a foul. That trick will no longer work. Nor will the twist.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
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