NBA trying to eliminate "overt" player reactions.

Forums: Sports, Nba, Basketball, Referees, Technical Fouls
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Quote:

NBA referees will have more reasons to issue technical fouls next season.

At the referees' annual meeting in Jersey City, N.J., on Thursday, the league announced the guidelines
for technical fouls will expand to include "overt" player reactions to referee calls.

Referees have been instructed to call a technical for:

• Players making aggressive gestures, such as air punches, anywhere on the court.

• Demonstrative disagreement, such as when a player incredulously raises his hands,
or smacks his own arm to demonstrate how he was fouled.

• Running directly at an official to complain about a call.

• Excessive inquiries about a call, even in a civilized tone.

In addition, referees have been instructed to consider calling technicals on players who use body language to question or demonstrate displeasure. They can also consider technicals for players who "take the long path to the official", walking across the court to make their case.

(espn)

whaddaya think?
i've watched a few exhibition games, and the players and coaches seem perplexed.
they're not sure what they can and cannot do.
the ref's are handing out technicals like there's no tomorrow.

why is the NBA trying to change the basic behavior of it's players?
it's an emotional sport, played at a fast pace.
when a call goes against you in the heat of battle, of course you're going to react strongly to it.

dunno what commish stern at al are thinking on this...

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Type: Discussion • Score: 6 • Views: 5,019 • Replies: 60

@Region Philbis,

Athletic competition means nothing to me; (it seems pointless),
but I support freedom of speech and anti-authoritarianism.

David

2 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

not a knicks fan, i take it?

1 Reply

@Region Philbis,

My opinion - if they want to establish this, I think they should begin in the pre-season to warn so players and coaches can learn what would likely be called a foul. Hard to make a 360 turnaround especially where there could be such subjective calls.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Curious if athletic competition is meaningless to you, then why do you respond?

1 Reply

@Linkat,

Quote:

they should begin in the pre-season

that's precisely what they're doing.
players are having a hard time adjusting to it...

1 Reply

@Region Philbis,

Hmmm.

I do think that players have been allowed to get away with physically intimidating the refs too often. So I can see calling more technicals for that.

But the other stuff seems silly. (Punching the air? Smacking his own arms? C'mon.)

1 Reply

@sozobe,

imagine if baseball tried something similar...
there'd be no more of those classic nose-to-nose shouting matches!

1 Reply

@Region Philbis,

Region Philbis wrote:

not a knicks fan, i take it?

When groups of strangers strive among themselves to accomplish a pointless activity
(be it running around in circles in the grass, tic tac toe, or throwing balls thru hoops),
I have no preference qua which group of people who I don 't know prevails over
any other group of strangers. FOR SURE, I know that whichever side prevails
in the pointless exercise: it will have no effect on ME;
(except that when the local teams r successful, too ofen the police throw me off the road).

David

0 Replies

@Region Philbis,

That's kind of it though -- they're not nose-to-nose in the NBA. More like nose-to-navel.

The refs tend to be waay smaller than the players.

Maybe they need to get bigger refs....

1 Reply

Quote:

NEW YORK -- Boston Celtics center Jermaine O'Neal talks in the sort of whisper-soft hush that makes you wonder whether his kids make it through even one bedtime story before their eyelids slam shut.

And it was with what O'Neal would call his "soft bedroom voice" that he approached referee Zach Zarba for an explanation about the personal foul he had received trying to haul in a rebound over Knicks rookie Timofey Mozgov late in the second quarter of Boston's 104-101 preseason triumph Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

Zarba instructed O'Neal to walk away. The veteran of 14 NBA seasons said he then simply asked whether he could have a conversation about the call and received a technical foul for his troubles, setting off fireworks that resulted in Kevin Garnett's getting tagged with a pair of technicals by second-year referee Kane Fitzgerald farther down the court, earning KG an automatic ejection with 4:39 to play in the first half.

Garnett was not available for comment after the game.

"I asked, 'I can't talk right now?'" O'Neal said, mimicking his gentle tone and demeanor. "Just like that, the soft bedroom voice …

"But he gave me a tech. That's too fast. That's way too fast. That's telling guys that they can't ask refs what they did.
You're basically taking emotions out of the game."

(espn)
(emphasis mine...)

2 Replies

@Region Philbis,

Ah - I've just watched a little of the end of the Celtics last night so I didn't notice.

0 Replies

@Region Philbis,

It is difficult - there can be too much on either side. I wonder if they are trying to work out the kinks. I can understand that the players/coaches need to respect the refs, however, if civil, they should be able to question why a call was made.

This hits me as I watch my daughter play - as this can occur even with little girls pre-teens aged. There was a parent that kept yelling out at the ref to call traveling (now his team was killing ours so what the need any way). Finally the ref came over and told him that if he were to say this one more time he would be thrown out.

Bascially you have to give the refs control of the game. It there is a particular ref that consistently makes bad calls, then it should be addressed outside the game and pretty much as anyone who cannot do a good job at their work - he is let go or re-trained.

0 Replies

@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

Curious if athletic competition is meaningless to you, then why do you respond?

Freedom of speech and anti-authoritarianism r important.

In addition, I 'm interested in demonstrated mental phenomena,
e.g., obsession with pointless exercises in futility.

David

0 Replies

@sozobe,

Quote:

The refs tend to be waay smaller than the players.

but they're authority figures who shouldn't be intimated by the players, no matter how big+tall they are...

1 Reply

@Region Philbis,

They shouldn't, sure, but the players do tend to take it too far I think. I know I've thought the refs were putting up with a lot without calling a T.

In football for example there seems to be more of a "don't mess with the ref" bubble. (And football is another one where the players are ginormous.)

Anyway, the general "overt" thing seems stupid and if they're going to be more strict about ref-intimidation, they have to be clear and consistent (doesn't seem like they are, right now).

1 Reply

@sozobe,

i think the league is being short-sided.

fans pay to see star players.
star players constantly talk to the ref's in an attempt to get foul calls in their favor.
if star players are going to get T'd up for this, they will eventually stop.
stopping will undoubtedly have an effect on their overall game...

Quote:

I've thought the refs were putting up with a lot without calling a T.

they did this in part to maintain the flow of the game.

if this is going to be the new way in the NBA, i think they need to also increase the number (currently two) of T's it takes to be disqualified from a game...

1 Reply

@Region Philbis,

Do thay have competent jurisdiction to effect the changes ?

David

0 Replies

@Region Philbis,

Yeah, I don't think just talking should be enough for a T, especially in the O'Neal example above (which could of course not be completely accurate, but say it is).

I do see 'em do that charge thing though ("running straight at the ref") where they then stop two inches away and loom over him while yelling -- I think there can be less of that. The purpose is clearly intimidation.

There's talking, and there's "talking." I don't mind the joshers and the cajolers.

0 Replies

Well, this has got to be the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. I certainly hope they keep that rule about kicking people out of playoff games after seven technicals too, so they can piss off the fans and players to the point where they will go to Stern's house, drag him the **** out of it, and beat the living **** out of him. Retard.

1 Reply

NBA trying to eliminate "overt" player reactions.

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