Star NBA Guard Believes This NBA Rule Needs Fixing

The NBA is full of rules that not everyone agrees with. The league has done their best to keep the quality of the game high, while keeping things entertaining for fans and safe for players. One of the biggest changes the NBA has instituted over the last few seasons is adding an NFL-like “challenge” into the coach's set of tools. 

Now, coaches can challenge plays they think the referee got wrong, and on the first time, if they are correct, they get their challenge back. Most people are happy with the new challenge rules, as in the past, teams had no chance to overcome an incorrect call. However, the rule certainly isn’t perfect. 

Donovan Mitchell recently spoke about the NBA’s challenge rules. He doesn’t think they’ve gotten it completely right. 

“I do feel like there were some tough calls that didn’t go our way. I got fouled on a 3 and I’m having a hard time with the rule of once you’ve had two challenges you can’t get any more, especially when you win both…Maybe I’m biased because it happened to us twice in game-ending situations the past two and a half or three weeks, but they are game-changing plays. It happened in Detroit. It happened here. Both of them on TV. I don’t know what the rule should be. If you’re winning challenges, especially on calls that are very obvious, I think it’s something that should be talked about.”

Mitchell has a good point. If you correct the referees on two missed calls, you shouldn’t be punished by not being able to do it again. However, if coaches had unlimited challenges (as long as they were correct), it could elongate the game and create some pretty sluggish endings. The NBA wants to keep flow while trying to keep the most competitive balance they can. For now, they’ve done a pretty decent job of doing that with their current challenge rules.