Continental Basketball Association - Rules

Rules

The CBA follows the same basketball rules as does the NBA and most other professional leagues. However, from 1978 through 1986, CBA commissioner Jim Drucker created several new rules to raise fan interest which were adopted by the league:

• Season standings were changed from a win-loss percentage, to the "7 Point System". During each game, seven points are awarded—three for winning the game, and one point for each quarter in which a team outscored their opponent. Team standings were determined by the number of points, rather than win-loss percentage.
• A player cannot foul out of the game; after a player's sixth personal foul, the opposing team receives an automatic free throw.
• During the 1982–83 and 1983–84 seasons, overtime games were decided by the team who scored the first three points in overtime. During the 1984–85 season, that rule was modified so that victory went to the first team to lead by three points in overtime. By the 1987–88 season, that rule was superseded by a standard five-minute overtime period to determine the winner.
• During the 1981–82 season, the CBA created a 6 by 5 feet (1.8 m × 1.5 m) "no call box"—an area in front of the baskets in which any contact in the box between offensive and defensive players was to be an automatic defensive foul. This rule (which was designed to encourage drives to the hoop) caused more confusion than scoring, and was quickly abandoned. However, a variation of this rule would be adopted by the NBA in 2002.
• For a few years in the early 1980s the CBA offered a money-back guarantee—returning a patron's money if, before the start of the second quarter, the fan left the game. There was also a "national season ticket," allowing fans to attend any CBA game within a 100-mile radius of his hometown.
• Drucker also created a series of high-profile, big-money promotions that attracted increased attendance, league sponsorhip and media interest. From 1984–86, "The 1 Million Dollar CBA Supershot" offered a $1,000,000 annuity prize for a fan selected at random at halftime who made a 3/4-court shot. Although no fan won that one, in 1986 one fan did win a $1 million zero-coupon bond. The winner, Don Mattingly (no relation to the New York Yankee player with the same name), won the bond in the "CBA Easy Street Shootout" at the 1986 CBA All-Star Game in Tampa, Florida. Other promotions included the "Ton of Money Free Throw" which consisted of 2,000 pounds of pennies ($5,000) for making a foul shot, and "The Fly-In, Drive-Away" Contest where each fan received a paper airplane with a distinct serial number. At halftime a new car, with the sunroof opened, was driven to mid-court and the fan who threw his airplane into the sun roof won the car. A Ford Thunderbird was won by a fan at the CBA All-Star Game in Casper, Wyoming in 1984.