FIBA rules changes
Friday 18 June 2004
The most interesting one is the "flopping foul". It's worth a technical which is pretty significant - so how stringently are they going to enforce it? My guess is, unless it's really blatant they're going to leave it alone. So Mery Andrade may have to perfect the art of not flopping so obviously when playing for her European team.
Also a technical foul is now worth two free throws *and* possession at halfway. Techs aren't that common in the FIBA games I've seen but could you imagine this in the MNBA?
As for numbers, we may now see a proliferation of 23s and 32s at FIBA games.
The new Olympics qualification method is a much fairer one IMHO and mid-level European teams will be rejoicing. New Zealand may not go to another Olympics after Athens until they return to Australia again (or Australia starting winning World Championships)...