News has been released that the 3-point lines at the Moda Center, home of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, were not the appropriate distances for the NCAA tournament games that were played there. One of the 3-point lines was nine inches shorter than it should have been at its highest point (22 feet, 1 ¾ inches is the appropriate distance). Stanford was one of the teams that played in Portland, losing to NC State in their Sweet Sixteen game by a final score of 77-67.
Upon hearing of the news, Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer issued the following statement to CardinalSportsReport.com and other members of the media:
“What happened with the court in Portland is inexcusable and unfair to every team that played on it. When you arrive at a gym, especially in the NCAA Tournament, at the very least you expect the baskets to be 10 feet and the floor markings to be correct. For an error of that magnitude to overshadow what has been an incredible two weekends of basketball featuring sensational teams and incredible individual performances is unacceptable and extremely upsetting.”
While I don’t think it’s an excuse for why Stanford lost to NC State (and just to be clear, VanDerveer did not say that, either), it’s still crazy that this would happen. You would think that before the games were played, they would have measured everything and made sure there were no errors. Hopefully this will serve as a lesson to future contractors, companies, officials, and the NCAA that they make sure they get this stuff right. Double check after you have everything assembled.
Had they caught the error before the games were played, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. And if anything you could say people were doing their jobs right. But instead, they created an uneven playing environment that probably did have an impact on the games that were played and they failed to rectify the situation until the cat was already out of the bag. That’s what makes this disappointing.
And further, just to underscore: This isn’t church ball. I’ve walked into different churches to hoop it up and played with rims that were a bit too short or 3-point lines that weren’t regular distance, etc. It’s still frustrating when you notice it, but it’s easier to shrug it off because we’re just hooping it up for fun. Like, was I mad when I dunked at the Quince Avenue LDS church building in Santa Clara because it was like six inches shorter? Not really. I didn’t care. I was just like whatever, let’s hoop.
Same with the court at the Stanford LDS institute building across from campus. The 3-point line is cut off once you get out past the wing points of the 3-point line. When I hoop it up in there, I don’t care. It’s church ball. We usually just play with the walls out of bounds and hey, it makes for a shorter corner three. The court is shorter and not regulation size anyways. It’s fine.
But the Moda Center isn’t an LDS church building. Nor is it a building of a different religious denomination. It’s an NBA arena. I would expect an NBA arena to have a court that has the right measurements for all of its lines and to have a hoop that is 10 feet tall exactly. This isn’t complicated. Whoever goofed this up has a lot of explaining to do and probably shouldn’t be trusted to properly assemble the court for another NCAA tournament game again. Period.
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