INDIANAPOLIS — The annual NBA All-Star Game happens this weekend, and for the second straight year, the Indiana Pacers will be represented by Domantas Sabonis.
Also for the second straight year, the game will feature the Elam Ending, an alternative scoring method that has close ties to the Hoosier State.
“My mom is an IU grad, and so I grew up on Bob Knight and the Hoosiers. When I enrolled at the University of Dayton in 2000, ever since then, the Dayton Flyers have been my number one team,” said Ball State University Professor Dr. Nick Elam.
Elam has always been a big basketball fan, but not necessarily a fan of the way games end.
“It was always disheartening to me that the final stretch of the game was often the worst stretch of the game, and it becomes so warped where the trailing team has to resort to deliberate fouling, the leading team goes into a stall offense, a very passive offense,” said Elam. “So what we get are many big games and good games that just fade out with a wimper, without one memorable moment to carry on.”
That just didn’t sit well with him, so in 2007, Elam went to work.
A high school math teacher at the time, he began watching and analyzing thousands of basketball games to create a better way.
“The light bulb kind of went on. With all this different phenomena we see at the end of a game, they’re attributable to the game clock in some way, and so maybe if you just got rid of the clock at the end of the game, maybe that would address these issues."
And so the Elam Ending was born.
To put it simply, his method eliminates the clock at the end of games and implements a target score that must be reached to win.
“Once I convinced myself that the idea had merit in 2007, then the really tough part started of trying to convince someone in the basketball world that the idea had merit. That was a ten-year process of reaching out to people,” he said.
Finally, in 2017, TBT (The Basketball Tournament) decided to use Elam's technique. Then last year, the NBA came calling.
“They told me that they were going to implement the Elam Ending at the NBA All Star Game and they were going to send me and a guest to Chicago for the 2020 All-Star Weekend,” Elam said. “That was really a thrill to get that call.”
It was an exciting finish, with Anthony Davis ultimately sinking a free throw to lift Team LeBron to the win. And the feedback was so good, the league decided to keep the format this year.
RELATED: The Elam Ending explained
“It’s something that I’m really passionate about. It’s been a fun independent project all these years and I think the story is just getting started. I think the story is long from over,” said Elam.
So when you’re watching the All-Star Game on Sunday, look out for the Elam Ending. There’s a proud Ball State professor that will be watching, too.
