Ben Schmitt
NBA technicals
Nov 4, 2006
I'm not digging these new NBA technical fouls. Sure, the league needs to crack down on the players whining like spoiled brats. But the new rules give the officials too much power to T up a player for just about anything. There's too much of a gray area. I've seen several highlights where a player waves his arms and gets a T. Come playoff time, the officials will have too much influence over games if they're calling these kind of technicals. I think I heard that the league has averaged an ejection a night so far. That's insane.
Comment by MIchigan Thomas | 11/04/06 at 5:36 PM
I hate it and its really effecting the games. I don't understand why stern wants NBA players to behave like robots and show no emotion during play. Stern thinks he's a behavior specialist and not commissioner of an entertainment baskeball league.
Comment by Dom | 11/04/06 at 8:11 PM
A player chest-checks or unleashes a string of obscenities at an official, and I understand being reprimanded. A player waves his arm after what he deems a questionable call, and I don't get it. I'm hoping things calm down after a little trial-and-error period because if this keeps up, each side will end up with half their players benched after wiping their foreheads or sneezing at the wrong moment.
Comment by Flip C | 11/05/06 at 8:02 AM
Have to disagree with you on this one.NBA,NFL,MLB
are all show biz driven,where competition and sportsmanship take a back seat to showmanship and histrionics from pampered actor-athletes partially created by simpering, fawning media. RE:touchdown ballets, dunk contests, disappearance of the inside pitch (and strike zone, for that matter). Might as well watch soccer guys act like they've been shot by 30.06
every time they get touched.Bout time some refs/umps were supported by league officials.
Comment by Micheal Thomas | 11/05/06 at 10:23 PM
Come on now Flip, sports has always been abut the showhmanship as much as its been about the competition. The NBA has already taken the competition out of the game (you can't even breathe on a person without a foul unless you're a superstar where then you can essentially pick up the ball and skip to the basket), now when players complain about these titty tat fouls that they've installed into the league over the last decade, they get a technical.
Tell me, if your boss comes over ot you and tells you he's writing you up for parking too close to the yellow lines, you're going to show some emotion. Only a robot doesnt show emotion or react. If I want to see robots play basketball I'll turn on the ps2. I want to see real people give a care about what their doing. Thats where competition comes from.
Comment by Jaque | 11/06/06 at 6:02 PM
I think most people have lost sight of what is happening here. Stern, who takes all of his standing orders from the owners, has shown the world what sports elites can do to established sports. Because the NBA revenues rely on how well the league markets their sport, owners whose true constituency is upper middle-class white men, have leaned on das fueher Stern, to get the "colored" boys to clean up their act. They hate the tatoos, because they are scared the tats might illicit some sort of political statement; they don't want the players coming to the arenas looking like the thugs(EFFECTING WHITE KIDS), who wear those outragious bling-bling trinkets, and how they espouse the anti-social, "cretinship" they've "peeked" in the obscene, hip-hop videos; and, put an end to all the STREET-BALL whining! The NBA (Stern), has legislated against a [black] kid who wants to try his luck at the pros, with levees to stem the tide of the ocean turning too dark. Meanwhile, MLB,NHL, and even NASCAR have no such stringent restrictions. NASCAR, sponsors kids, as young as, eleven years old, to drive ground rockets at 150mph! Because most the league is black, King Stern wants to plug that dike, with psuedo- discriminatory rules! Now, an NBA player cannot pack a "rod" when he's not playing on the ticket! Vice- President Chaney can pack a heater, shoot a dude, only to have it spun out the universe, by those that say he has a constitutional right to have a man-killer! Funny though, all these rules amendments are basically aimed at the darker dues that play the sport! Constitution? Rights? Not in the NBA! But,what realy peeves me about the whole scenario? None of the players have vehemently protested! Nobody wants to put that big paycheck in jeprody like Muhammad Ali and Curt Flood did when they descented. A pure constitutional right, to descent against unjust laws or rules, have crapped on the the spirit of Muhammad Ali, and Curt Flood. Who, by the way, died with a bottle in his hand, because he wanted to market his skills as a baseball player: To be a free agent, a previledge every pro-athelete, now enjoys. But, Ali and Curt, desented against unjust laws and rules and the hierarchy,which wanted them relegated back to the status of knowing their place.
Comment by BILL | 11/07/06 at 8:32 AM
Call it the Sheed Rule because he cried, whined, carried on and generally acted like a two year old when he recieved a foul,a total embarrasment.I find it refreshing watching fouls being called and the players just walk away,shaking their heads but saying nothing,even Sheed after his first confrontation with the new rule,he is learning fast, thank goodness.I do hope the refs dont start getting wild with the techs and ruin the game,just call them as really needed.
Comment by Angelo | 11/07/06 at 8:48 AM
Someone's got to step in and alter this rule before the season's halfway point.
Comment by Dick Brown | 11/07/06 at 9:51 AM
Last night they T- up Sheed (For hollering "And One" ) after he is fouled and Assistant Dave Cowens for saying "We are trying to win the game" ... Pistons lose by two points.
Comment by BILL | 11/07/06 at 12:39 PM
I agree with you there Dick,the new technical call rule I am sure wasnt meant to be called on something like that,the refs had to have blundered there,if not the game has been given to the refs to help which team they want to win and the fans should stop attending.I cant believe the owners would approve of those calls last night.
Comment by matt | 11/07/06 at 5:26 PM
just another reason to watch college basketball, the way fundamental basketball and the game of basketball is supposed to be played, and you still get to enjoy all the excitement and so called technical fouls
Comment by northtowntv | 11/08/06 at 10:37 AM
the players union needs to step up and take some action. if the players don't, the fans will start watching something else...
Comment by northtowntv | 11/08/06 at 10:42 AM
BILL, call it the Sheed rule if you will. We all know his game if fed from his emotions. But, don't forget about the playoffs last year. I thought the Pistons complained alot until I watch Miami play. Although I wouldn't include Shaq because he just does his thing.
Comment by Cordelia kirby | 11/09/06 at 10:26 AM
Come on now!!!!!!! If the players don't raise their hands at anyone than let the respond be just that...A respond! And then if the players refuse to let the call go and continue to get in the ref's face, than make them pay! The ref's are not always right!
Comment by Kijafa | 11/09/06 at 10:39 PM
The NBA is entertainment and this rule threatens to take that entertainment factor out of the game...Officials make terrible calls every night and many are already bias toward some players so what does this rule really achieve???Whats next from stern: No dunking?No Facial Hair?No Tattoos?No loose fitting shorts? Where is the players union? What happened to the players resisting and why the suddend complancency...This rule is reflective of the larger american society where they encourage you to not to complain or just blindy accept things...i.e.Iraq,Patriot Act,military commissions act,9/11,etc..
Comment by david | 11/10/06 at 5:56 AM
You take your kid to the game to watch his favorite player. The player gets ejected for rolling his eyes and putting his hands up in the air. Stern is not the smartest proffesional sports league leader.
Comment by JRS | 11/11/06 at 3:56 PM
There is no reason these NBA players can't act
like grownups instead of a bunch of pampered crybabies. I say keep on calling those technicals until they learn to get their act together.
Comment by Geeman | 11/11/06 at 7:08 PM
Whinning and complaining has gotten a little out of hand lately. I blame most of it on the horrible calls the officials make and the new rules of the game. If you brush a superstar it's a foul. If you're not a superstar deal with it. That alone will make you question a call. I heard on a morning radio talk show that we did't have this kind of complaining 20 years ago. That is true, but we had a better staff of referees 20 years ago. This new technical rule is not the way to decrease the whinning. We pay to watch the pros play the game not the refs take over a game. It's taking all the emotion out of the game. I like to think of myself as a real nba fan. However lately I've found myself turning off the TV set. The sad thing is I don't think I am the only one. What is going to happen to the game now if everyone feels this way?
Comment by Lil Pamm | 11/11/06 at 11:07 PM
I have been a basketball fan since the early 80's and this is the first year that I have been really disappointed in the NBA. I look forward to this season every year, I'm a Barber in Pontiac and I talk ALOT of trash during this time of the year. The ref's are really making it hard for me to enjoy a game. I do go to certain games to see certain players and I KNOW that I would be hightly upset if one of my favorite players got ejected and I paid 70 or 80 dollars to come see them play. To me David Stern has way tooo much free time. First, the dress code, then they change the ball and now the players CAN'T show any EMOTIONS. What's next for the players? A BED TIME AND A CURFEW!!!!!
Comment by Van | 11/13/06 at 5:10 PM
At the Nuggets-Clippers preseason game on Friday night, there was a level of serenity that I hadn't remembered. Both teams were just playing ball. So I'm watching and watching and thinking to myself, "All right, what's different about this game?"
Rasheed Wallace
AP Photo/Paul Sancya
Hopefully we won't see much of this nonsense anymore.
Then I figured it out: Thanks to the new "Rasheed Wallace" rule, players weren't bitching and moaning after every foul call.
By coming up with this wrinkle, was David Stern hoping to divert attention away from the fallout from last season's playoffs, when the brutal officiating brought back memories of the Allies-Nazis game in "Victory"? Yeah, probably. Still, you have to admit, players were whining and fussing in epidemic proportions. Nobody believed he could actually commit a foul. Even some of the better character guys (like Tim Duncan and Tayshaun Prince, to name two) were reacting after fouls like somebody had just stuck a parking ticket on their car. It was a disgrace. It seemed like they felt obligated to protest every call, like the one moment during the Spurs-Mavs series when Brent Barry was whistled for a foul and ran a few steps in disbelief, but you could tell his heart wasn't really in it, like he was doing it on autopilot.
Watching old games on NBA TV this summer, well before this rule was announced, I found myself admiring a random Portland-Philly game from the '77 Finals: Not the quality of play as much as its businesslike nature. Players were just playing hard and doing their jobs. It was a revelation. So that got me thinking, "When did this crap start? Who's to blame?"
For the rest of the summer, I kept an eye on the player-referee interactions as much as the old games. Rick Barry and Dave Cowens were famous for complaining about calls in the '70s, but much to my horror, two members of my beloved Celtics made bitching an art form in the mid-'80s: Danny Ainge and Kevin McHale. If you want to blame anyone, blame them. Barkley took it to another level, followed by Chuck Daly and the Bad Boy Pistons, Gary Payton and Sam Cassell and, ultimately, Rasheed and Antoine Walker in the mid-'90s (the Pacino and De Niro of this discussion). By the middle of this decade, thanks to everyone in this paragraph, everyone felt obligated to protest every whistle. The incessant complaining looked bad on TV and even worse in person -- just play after play of guys getting called for fouls, hopping around like little kids, then debating with the referees like an attorney haggling with a judge. Like everyone else, I hated watching it.
Now? The refs have been given authority to whistle technicals on anyone who pulls that crap. The league will be better for it. You will see. Maybe the level of officiating will even be better for it. If last season's performance was a collective D-plus -- and that's being kind -- we might end up with a C-plus this season simply because the refs won't have to worry about being shown up every other play. And if that's not enough, watching 'Sheed and 'Toine internalizing their emotions could end up being the funniest ongoing subplot of the 2006-07 season. Well, other than the Knicks.
Comment by Jaque | 11/14/06 at 10:19 AM
Rasheed, as we all know is the T-King. Look at his record for techs! Since he's been in the league, he has gotten an inordinate amount of technical foul calls. I think those t's were the same then, as they are now! To say to a referee that his seeeing-eye dog saw that there wasn't a foul, should get a player t-ed or tossed! But, not for raising his arms in the air! Mike did it! Bird did it! Magic did it! Kareem did it! Why the change all of sudden? Just enforce the rule as it is on the current book! This change smacks of something that doesn't smell right! Just minutes into the opening game, the King of T's gets t-ed up. What? Next game, T! Next game, T! Next game, T! Same discretionary rule, but, with a little hot-sauce throw into the mix! Thisis going to spoil the whole pie! Where's the player's union? If this were to happen to anyone on their gig, they would automatically scream bloody murder, some type of discrimination is taking place for making you the example. In the instance of Rasheed and the NBA, the bovine, fecal matter is obvious!
Comment by sandee z | 11/14/06 at 11:43 AM
does anyone know the name of the custom car shop that lindsay hunter operates in detroit? i'm hoping they can help me 'trick' my truck?
thanks! sandee z
Comment by sandee z | 11/14/06 at 11:43 AM
does anyone know the name of the custom car shop that lindsay hunter operates in detroit? i'm hoping they can help me 'trick' my truck?
thanks! sandee z
Comment by PJF | 11/15/06 at 3:00 PM
I think the NBA is approaching the problem from the wrong side. Perhaps there would be less arguing if the calls were more consistant. For as long as I can remember there have been people saying the games are purposely influenced, if not actually fixed, by the league officials. They point to the inconsistancy of the calls as proof. The good defensive plays of the Bad Boys suddenly became fouls when the league decided that the Pistons' style of play was not entertaining enough. This new rule gives the conspiracy theorists more ammunition because it gives the refs one more way to influence the game. The league needs to improve the officiating. They also need to make any disciplinary action against a ref public. Keeping it private makes it look like the league is doing nothing and is therefore condoning the bad calls thus feeding the conspiracy theories. Why is it ok to make the disciplianry action against players, coaches, and team officials public but not the refs?
Comment by Chuck | 11/16/06 at 12:40 PM
The NBA is garbage ran by control freaks. The product is bad because 50 percent of the players are either Foriegn or 18/19 year olds who nobody knows because they never went to college.
In the past we were able to keep track of players in college and then watch them get drafted. Now the NBA Draft is a Joke. Half of the people who get drafted nobody knows nothing about. And these people nobody knows nothing do nothing but sit on the bench for 3 years.
Marvin Williams didnt even average double figures in his 1 college season with UNC but he left early. And he got drafted solely on his potential (so did Zach Randolph he did nothing for Coach Izzo but he left after 1 year). All these NBA teams are drafting potential potential potential. So in the meantime NBA fans are forced to watch undeveloped talent. Guys who can't hit jump shots, guys who travel very often, fundamentally unsound youngsters who's main assett is that they can out jump you, ect,ect,ect...
So what happens. The NCAA takes the hit because all of the great young players go early into the NBA. And obviously the NBA takes a hit also because the kids they are drafting aren't read.
Who is to blame? Is it the Kids who leave early? Heck No. It's the NBA and the NCAA's fault. They should work together to implement a system like the NFL has. A 21 year old standard. The new 19 year old rule the NBA has now isn't cutting it IMO.
The funny and sad thing about the NBA is this. They draft all this potential potential potential but the Coaches that draft these young players will never see that Max Potential because they either will get fired before they see it or they give up on the player and they trade them away or let them go via free Agency
They need to focus on those issues first and foremost. The over product the NBA is showing on TV's are unacceptable. And people have stopped watching it.
Even the playoffs are dry.
Comment by mike | 11/19/06 at 12:38 PM
thank god for the new rule. my wife and i enjoy watching the pistons again. last year was disgusting with all the cry babies on the team especially sheed. professionals are supposed to be professional. love the pistons now with this new forced behavior
Comment by mike | 11/19/06 at 12:38 PM
thank god for the new rule. my wife and i enjoy watching the pistons again. last year was disgusting with all the cry babies on the team especially sheed. professionals are supposed to be professional. love the pistons now with this new forced behavior
Comment by Boomalot | 11/24/06 at 5:13 PM
The great players of the NBA are not as good as the great players 15-20 years ago. When Dwayne Wade can get to the free throw line 12-15 times in every fourth quarter of every playoff game on dubious calls, then come the world championships last summer and he struggles to get to the line at all, what does that tell you?
It tells me the NBA officiating protect certain players and has too much of an impact on game outcomes.
Comment by Drake | 12/08/06 at 12:11 PM
I don't watch the NBA to see a bunch of rich spoiled grown men whine about calls. Everytime a ref blows the whistle-half the people are going to hate it, it's reality. Ever notice how players never agree-ever-when a foul is called on them? Someone fouled them! Quit gripping about officials too. Almost everytime we think a ref got it wrong, we get to see over and over again the play in slowmotion, from several angles to see the old guy is right....again!
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