Dr. Nick Elam joined the Sports Innovation Podcast to discuss the recently published SIJ article An Examination of the Effectiveness of the Elam Ending
In basketball, teams often employ late-game strategies designed to manipulate the clock, such as stalling by leading offenses and deliberate fouling by trailing defenses. These strategies result in choppy and passive play, predictable outcomes, and unceremonious endings, which lead fans to walk out or tune out during the final stretch. Most notably used in the 2020 NBA All-Star game, the Elam Ending is designed to preserve a more natural style of play through the end of every game by curtailing late-game clock-manipulating strategies, and to provide more late-game excitement for fans. The Elam Ending calls for most of each game to be played with a game clock, but for the final portion of the game to be played without a game clock. The game ends when a target score is reached, equal to the leading team’s score (at the time the game clock is shut off) plus eight. For example, if the score is 65-60 when the clock is shut off, teams would then play first-to-73-wins. The Elam Ending got its start in 2017 with The Basketball Tournament (TBT), a $2-million-winner-take-all annual event founded in 2014 and broadcast on ESPN.
Download the full paper here: https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/sij/article/view/23969
Open the Infographic: Elam Ending Infographic
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