Elam Ending Basketball Game: Revolutionizing Game Finishes

The final minutes of a close basketball game can be pretty frustrating. The trailing team often resorts to intentional fouling, hoping to get the ball back after free throws. This leads to a drawn-out, stop-and-start affair that can be painful to watch and impacts TV ratings.

That is the impetus for the creation of the Elam Ending basketball game concept. It has grown in popularity because many find it a more exciting way to finish basketball games.

• What's the Elam Ending?
• How the Elam Ending Basketball Game Rule Works
  • Real World Example: The Basketball Tournament
• Who Came Up with This Idea?
  • Teams Fouling Only had Success Less Than 2% of the time.
• Which Leagues Use the Elam Ending?
  • The Basketball Tournament (TBT)
  • NBA All-Star Game
  • NBA G League
  • Pick-Up Games
• FAQs about Elam Ending Basketball Game
  • What is an Elam Ending in basketball?
  • Why did the NBA remove the Elam Ending?
  • How to calculate Elam Ending?
  • What is the end of a basketball game called?
• Conclusion 

The Elam Ending changes how a basketball game concludes. It shifts the focus from a ticking game clock to a target score. This way of ending games helps to reduce the need for excessive fouling by trailing teams.

This concept was created because it's not fun when the flow of the game gets all choppy and extends the game time much longer. The Elam Ending offers a unique approach by focusing on reaching a predetermined number.

Here's how it works in a normal basketball game. The game clock gets turned off at the first dead ball stoppage with under four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

A final target score is then calculated. You take the leading team's score, and then you add a predetermined number of points to get the final target score.

The team that reaches that target score first wins. No more clock to worry about; the first team to reach the final target wins.

One place using the Elam Ending is The Basketball Tournament (TBT). They've adopted this way of ending games for all of their tournament games.

In TBT, they add eight points to the leading team's score to set the final target score. So if it's 88-80, the target score is 96.

The first team to reach the final target score wins. Because the basketball game can only end on a made basket, it avoids any anticlimactic free throws.

The Elam Ending comes from Nick Elam. He's a professor at Ball State University.

Starting way back in 2004, he began analyzing a massive amount of data to find how to better finish basketball games. By watching so many basketball games, he saw some issues to fix with the game clock.

After digging into over 2,000 NBA and college basketball games, his data revealed that the excessive late-game fouling by the losing team often stretched it out but rarely led to comebacks. He was determined to come up with something new.

In fact, of the teams that employed this stalling strategy, less than 2% of the trailing teams were actually successful. He presented a new game ending, initially termed the ‘Hybrid Duration Format.’.

This concept was later named the 'Elam Ending.' Jonathan Mugar was an early supporter of the concept.

Beyond TBT, a few other notable leagues have incorporated this rule change:

The Basketball Tournament took on the system. They play every summer for huge prize money, and so a fair game finish is critical.

It gets a ton of non-NBA talent playing on TV every summer. After a successful trial run in 2017, it has stuck around, proving beneficial in the context of TBT's tournament games.

Even the NBA got in on the action, starting in 2020 with the Elam Ending. Though not for their regular season games, they did adopt the Elam Ending for their NBA All-Star Game to honor Kobe Bryant.

All-Star Games usually become snooze-fests with players trying to stay healthy for playoffs. After they started elam ending it this new way, there have been spikes in competitiveness during the NBA All-Star game.

TV ratings increased because of how they play now. The ending brings higher intensity and some intrigue for new fans as the game ends.

The NBA’s G League is now using it, too, but only in a certain way. All overtime games have an Elam Ending to finish them.

Any games tied at the end of regulation now have a seven-point target. This number is added to what the tied team's score was to end the 4th Quarter.

Their showcase in Las Vegas uses it for all fourth quarters, though. This can be the largest difference between Elam ending and normal professional basketball games.

Of course, a basketball court rarely uses a clock at the playground. Games go to a set number of points where a team has to score to win.

It keeps a natural flow of gameplay. Pick-up games have shown how a target score is a viable option.

Elam Ending League Use Cases

League Adoption Type Added to score at turn off time When?

The Elam Ending is a way of concluding basketball games. It replaces the basketball game clock by using a set point total, helping avoid unnecessary fouling by the trailing team.

It has not been taken away in the situations it had been employed in. The main idea has stayed to make each NBA All-Star game end in a shot.

So if it is being applied and making basketball games end dramatically, we expect for it to stay. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver could soon expand to playoff games or even an Elam Ending basketball game for the entire NBA regular season.

In order to know the final target score of a basketball game, a fixed number is added to the total points of the leading team during the initial dead ball.

The number added depends on where the rule is being used, as shown in the table above. For example, during the NBA All-Star game, 24 points are added to the leading team's score at the start of the fourth quarter.

Normally, we would refer to this as a game-winner, final play, or buzzer-beater, when the basketball clock would run to 0 and the final buzzer sounds. However, the Elam Ending means there is no buzzer.

It makes teams play to an ending as soon as they can when the other team has a chance to go score. No more time for a fouling team to send the other to the free-throw line.

The Elam Ending seeks to maintain the competitiveness and excitement that comes with traditional basketball's closing, where every possession matters. This rule change could soon see more adoption across different levels of play because of the intensity of the game's finish.

Some think the Elam Ending is better, but others are fine with intentional fouls for clock management. Commissioner Adam Silver and other league officials continue to evaluate the game's impact.

Whether the Elam Ending will become a widespread feature in leagues, from college basketball games to the NBA regular season, remains to be seen. However, it's changed basketball's game finish and added new levels of strategy and excitement.