NEW YORK -- Coaches love to blame the rules for the godforsaken plunge in scoring over the last decade while the league (and the rest of us) likes to blame the control freaks on the sidelines who don't seem to care or comprehend that basketball is an instinctive game not a rehearsed ritual.
As Dr. Naismith (or was it Allen Iverson?) once told me, "The game is meant to be played, not coached."
In the final analysis, coaches wind up institutionalizing the game by copying each other, though a big part of the problem is the incestuous nature of the sport and its hiring process.