16 December 2006

Basketball Shot Clock

I'm in Syracuse for a cousin's Bar Mitzvah and during some off time, we went to a museum about the Erie Canal. They also have exhibits relating to exciting happenings in Syracuse. And they had an interesting trivia item.
Why is the basketball shot clock 24 seconds? See the comments for the answer.

1 comment:

D said...

Before the shot clock was imposed a team would gain an early lead in a basketball game and then just keep the ball away from the other team, so that the other team could not possibly score and run down the clock. Players then fouled each other violently to get the ball so they could score. A coach of the Syracuse Nationals thought of a solution. There are 2,880 seconds in a basketball game and there were, on average, 120 shots in a game. So, he divided 2,880 by 120 and that gave him the twenty-four second shot clock. A neat piece of trivia.