Tom McEachin of the Ogden Standard-Examiner reports:

The three-man injured list, one of the most-abused rules in the NBA, has become such a joke that even the starchy Wall Street Journal has poked fun at the league because of the way teams routinely use it to hide healthy players they don"t want to cut.

That"s why the NBA is eager to abolish the injured list next year and replace it with an inactive list.

""Teams do stash players," NBA commissioner David Stern said last week.

Under the league"s proposal, teams would still be able to keep up to 15 players, but only 12 would be active for any game.

The players association would need to approve the change, and there is some reluctance on their side, perhaps fearing changes could cost inactive players a chance to find playing time with other teams.