MINNEAPOLIS — The NBA has its share of downsides when judging North America's major sports. You can start with the excessive influence of officiating, which can produce 25% of the points put on the scoreboard through free throws.

There is also the willingness of select players to miss games with the slightest of irritations, or teams to hold them out in the name of the dastardly "load management."

And, yes, the "Euro step" is nonsense. On Friday night, we had the "Euro trail hike" from both the Timberwolves' Rudy Gobert and Phoenix's Bol Bol, without a whistle.

We also have the explosion of reviews and timeouts that can turn the final two minutes into 20, taking what should be the most tense period of the game and turning it into thousands of people inside the arena grumbling, "What is this nonsense? Let's go here."

As for those pathetic timing reviews, I have the solution: go back to those wonderful days when we didn't have tenths of a second on the clocks.

We get back to a ref handing the ball to the in-bounder with this advice: "It's two seconds up there, Slo Mo. Somebody better catch and shoot."

Yes, flaws exist, but this is the Big Truth:

When your local team enters the playoffs with a chance to advance, particularly when it has not done that with regularity (or even occasionally), there is nothing in major sports that provides such a long night of constant emotion.

I was watching the Timberwolves' remarkable effort (126-109) at Phoenix on Friday night and trying to figure out precisely what makes basketball different from the rest.

And then, presto, 65 years after an exceptional Fulda Raiders team lost to Edgerton in the District 8 semifinals and we went back home on the fan bus fighting tears, there it was:

...continued

©2024 StarTribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.