Ms. Kas Kyla, the chair of the Lunar Basketball Association is leading the charge to further tweak the rules of the game for competitive matches on the Moon. Opposing her is Mr. Turi Nusileisti, who believes the rules should remain as is. He is on the LBA board and the owner of the Tranquility Trotters.
Ms. Kyla’s points for change center around the referee’s inability to call fowls for players in motion that collide with other players, accidentally. “This acceptance which began as consideration to human movement in a low gravity environment is now being misused. On many occasions it has been quite obvious that many of the human collisions are purposely intended to inflict harm or intimidation to players of opposite teams. Basketball should not become a contact sport. American-style football was abandoned decades ago for this very reason.” Ms Kyla points out that we now have enough native lunar born players who can manage their movements on the court in a less gregarious manner and can be better behaved than they otherwise tend to be.
Mr. Nusileisti states that this behavior has been part of lunar basketball since its foundation, and the spectators, players, and advertisers love it that way.
Stay tuned for more as the debate continues. The LBA leadership board meets every two months but has not set a deadline to resolve this dispute.
To understand more of the physics regarding basketball on the moon, I enjoy this ancient blog post from about 100 years ago, which explains how basketball on the Moon is inherently different from basketball on Earth. See Basketball on the Moon, posted way back on March 15, 2021.
