| Sports Nut No More Live-Ball Timeouts The dumbest rule in sports just claimed one of the NBA's most exciting players. By Josh Levin
Posted Friday, Apr 26, 2013, at 11:11 PM ET  Halfway through the second quarter of Wednesday night's Rockets-Thunder game, nine guys on the court stopped trying. With Houston up by one, Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks wanted his team to call timeout. Russell Westbrook dribbled the ball casually across half court, while his four teammates and four of the Rockets ceased playing in anticipation of walking to their benches. The only guy who didn't slow down was Houston guard Patrick Beverley, who tried to swipe the ball and ended up side-swiping Westbrook. Westbrook, who has never missed a game in his NBA career, came away limping and looking like he needed to restrain himself from throwing the ball at Beverley's face. Now the OKC point guard is probably in an even fouler mood: On Friday, the team announced he's having surgery to repair a torn right meniscus and will be out "indefinitely." Should Beverley, an impetuous rookie, have known better than to have pawed at Westbrook when he was just trying to call time? Is all fair in playoff basketball? Feel free to have that debate in the comments—there are reasonable arguments to be made on both sides. I'm going to focus on a more radical agenda: It's time to abolish the live-ball timeout. The NBA's timeout policies are dumb for a lot of reasons, many of which I laid out in a 2006 rant on the subject. They kill the suspense and momentum at the end of close games; they ... To continue reading, click here.
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