12/21/24
October 18, 2010
NBA Refs Will Call More Technicals on Complainers: The NBA says that more technical fouls will be issued this season to players who complain about the officiating during games. Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett got two quick technicals in Wednesday's preseason game against the New York Knicks, resulting in his ejection. "To the extent the harsher treatment from the referees leads to a stifling of the players' passion and exuberance for their work, we fear these changes may actually harm our product," protested NBA Players Association executive director Billy Hunter.
posted by rcade to basketball at 08:41 AM - 6 comments
Let's hope the rule is applied fairly and they've removed the Kobe clause.
posted by cixelsyd at 09:58 AM on October 18, 2010
Looks like Sheed got out while the getting was good
Or the NBA is looking to offset the "revenue" he gave them...
posted by MeatSaber at 11:02 AM on October 18, 2010
"To the extent the harsher treatment from the referees leads to a stifling of the players' passion and exuberance for their work more fines and missed paychecks due to suspensions, we fear these changes may actually harm our product my constituency's pocketbooks," protested NBA Players Association executive director Billy Hunter.
There, fixed that.
posted by holden at 12:06 PM on October 18, 2010
The new rules put more pressure on the officials, not less. True, the fans are not really enamored of constant whining and complaining from players, but they do come to watch their favorites play, not to see the referees toss them. The only way to enforce something like this is either to have an all-or-nothing attitude or to put out a set of concrete rules detailing what is and what is not to be called. Right now the rules as I understand them are vague and open to interpretation. If the referees try to ease back on the techs, there will be charges from some places that the refs were deliberately calling them against one team and in favor of the other. Thus, they'll have to call everything, even the most innocuous of gestures, and we'll see a lot of substitutes on the floor. Without more clarification, this rule is merely opening a can of worms.
posted by Howard_T at 05:11 PM on October 18, 2010
You know, I'm wondering if it is the referees' role to police this. And I'm also wondering if the Ts are the way to go about it. I haven't been able to see much bball yet this year, and rcade's clip really doesn't show us anything (gestures, animation, etc.). You expect that there is at least something camera-shot worthy when a player gets tossed. Of course, it's actually a limitation of televised basketball that you don't get the audio feed on most of those interactions, but this one clip sure doesn't give me a good impression.
So if it's not the refs, or the Ts won't work, what could some options be? League fines (more of 'em) can't be that hard to administer in this instance, can they? Or, what about the creation of a different kind of technical foul (e.g., not counting towards disqualification) to target these actions specifically? (think of a bench technical to a coach that's not a direct T kinda thing). Or, how 'bout the polar opposite? Just play on. Refs call or don't call. Administer what needs to be administered, and resume play. In my books resuming play as quick as possible really eliminates this kind of thing. It's the dead ball period where this can escalate. If you're whackin' whiners with Ts, you're increasing your dead ball time. In the clip, for example, it was during the administration of a T (with no line-up on the lanes, of course) that got this snowball rolling.
I guess what I'm really trying to say is that I don't like this. It's not that I endorse the "whiner-type" in sport at all, it's just that I'm not really behind whackin' more Ts to curb it. But, in the end, it may just be part of the cycle as this gets brought back to more acceptable levels.
posted by Spitztengle at 07:05 PM on October 18, 2010
Looks like Sheed got out while the getting was good