The picture above is of Jalen Brunson, an NBA player dribbling the basketball. Except he’s not dribbling, he is clearly carrying the ball, which is illegal, or used to be. When I played basketball as a 9th grader, if you didn’t have your hand absolutely on top of the ball when dribbling, you were called for a violation. Later, as a referee, if I saw a played with his hand on the side or under the ball, I whistled him for carrying the ball.
Well, no more. In the NBA you can practically put the ball in a tote bag and lug it up and down the court with no violation. You can also grab the jersey of another player when defending and you can blast your way through the other team’s defense like a bowling bowl scattering pins.
Professional basketball is no longer a sport which I recognize. That’s why I and many other sports fans no longer watch.