[EricH]

Originally Posted by Chinmay

IRI isn't an official FIRST event. They are not required to play by the same rules. They can make these changes because it's an offseason event... Street ball has different rules than the NCAA tournaments doesn't it? I think that IRI is essentially some really high class street ball.

Yes and no. It really depends on the street ball you're playing, and where you're playing, and who you're playing with, and which game/game type you're playing. I've seen it at 2/basket, regardless of distance; you could be playing halfcourt, short basket. It really depends on all those factors.

Most common, of course, is that the official scoring rules, height rules, etc. are left alone except as needed for half/full court situations.

Oh, but wait! There are some changes made in official tournaments! For example, in the NCAA, the time is often shortened in the wide spaces of the bracket. This is because there are games on back-to-back days, and having players play tired isn't good for anybody. I seem to recall that there's something similar in international competitions. But the only things messed with are time and possibly number of officials and replay.

I would suggest that IRI isn't street ball. It's the Olympics. You're supposed to tweak small stuff. The problem is, the tweak this year was to change the inbounding rules (or whatever other basketball rule you want to use--slam dunks was a good one earlier), which changes the face of the game.