NBA trying to eliminate "overt" player reactions.

NBA Players To Sue League, Say New Technical Rules "Harm Our Product"

The NBA players association is considering legal action against the league over their new enforcement policy regarding
on-the-court complaints.

This season, players are subject to technical fouls for "unnecessary and unwarranted overreaction" to calls made by the referees
or even "overt gestures" directed at other players. Since they also raised the fines for receiving technicals and the accumulation
of T's can result in a suspension, players are understandably upset about the assault on their pocket books.

But the union is also worried about the effect on player psyches, arguing that the rules are "stifling the players' passion and
exuberance for their work" and making the game really boring watch.

Basketball at one time was referred to as the “Cage Game” and players’ “Cagers”. This was a result of wire mesh (chicken wire) or chain-link fencing being hung around the entire court in an effort to make the game go faster by eliminating all the out of bounds delays. However, in reality, it served more as a barrier to protect the players and rowdy spectators from each other, as well as from the objects being thrown onto the court. The wire cage actually resulted in additional rough play with players body checking each other into the wire mesh as in hockey. Players often received cuts, bruises, and even incurred infections from the rusting wire mesh. Although, the use of cages were abandoned by 1933, the term "Cagers" is still used today.

That same year a new professional circuit, the American Association, pioneered in the creation of an umpiring staff that was hired, paid, and assigned to games by the league itself. Paid $140 a month and $3 per diem for expenses while on the road, American Association umpires were required to wear blue flannel coats and caps while working games. The next year the National League adopted its own permanent paid and uniformed staff, thus completing the professionalization of major league "men in blue."

Despite increased status, umpiring in the major leagues was an uncertain, stressful, and even dangerous occupation through the end of the century. Frequent revisions in the rules and innovations in playing techniques made the umpire's job exceedingly difficult, while the physical and verbal abuse from fans and players alike often made an umpire's life intolerable. Umpires were routinely spiked, kicked, cursed, and spat upon by players, while fans hurled vile epithets and all manner of debris at the arbiters. Mobbings and physical assaults were frequent, so much so that police escorts were familiar and welcome sights to the men in blue. The transformation of the umpire from esteemed arbitrator to despised villain was largely deliberate. As club owners and league officials recognized that umpire baiting boosted gate receipts, they refused to support the umpires' field decisions, dismissed or paid player's fines, did little to curb rowdiness, and even joined sportswriters in depicting umpires as scoundrels and scapegoats. Occasionally umpires retaliated by hurling objects back into the stands or by punching players and reporters--and were summarily punished for so doing. But most found other jobs. In an era when "Kill the umpire!" was not mere rhetoric, there was a high turnover rate in umpires as few men were willing to endure such trials and tribulations for paltry pay and poor working conditions.

Midway through the second quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers' preseason game against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday, Lamar Odom was whistled for a shooting foul against Carl Landry.

After the call was made, Odom kept his offending arm up in the air for several seconds to indicate he believed his defense was legal and within the rule of verticality, and an official promptly issued him a technical foul.

The explanation? Even though Odom's mouth was silent, his arm was raised for more than three seconds. Automatic technical.
"That was one of the weirdest technicals I've ever gotten," Odom said after the game.

[ snip ]

"You have to zip it," Odom said. "If they call you for a tech, it's $2,000. That's a lot of money in America or anywhere. I don't want to give away $2,000 for going, 'Damn, I thought I had the ball!' or showing emotion. I want to keep my money, point blank."

The rule affects the Lakers especially because Kobe Bryant isn't just one of the game's most prolific scorers; he also picks up more T's than a professional Scrabble player. Bryant was whistled for 14 technical fouls last season, fourth-most in the league. In 2008-09 he was called for 11 and the season before that he picked up a league-leading 15 technicals.

When asked about the rule change during media day, Bryant said, "I thought it was like that already." He was partially correct:
The league launched a similar initiative prior to the 2006-07 season before abandoning the enforcement of it
early on in that season.

I think it affects everybody, because it's such an emotional game. But that's the rule," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. "So you have to control your emotions and you have to be smart about it. And it's difficult - especially for the players at times. And the rule is probably going to change the outcomes of games at times."

The league put the policy in place this season after saying its research showed fans felt that the players complained too much, which Hunter disputes.
"We have not seen any increase in the level of 'complaining' to the officials and we believe that players as a whole have demonstrated appropriate behavior toward the officials," Hunter said. "Worse yet, 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."

Besides warning of more techs, the NBA doubled the cost of them. Players and coaches are now docked $2,000 for each of their first five, all the way up to $5,000 starting at No. 16, along with a one-game suspension for every other technical.



Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/basketball/nba/10/14/nbapa.suit.ap/index.html?xid=si_topstories#ixzz12dWYcaTL

NBA's tough stance on on-court behavior unlikely to last

... the league will “walk back” the new policy, gradually easing it throughout the season until few remember that it was a policy to begin with -- just as by the time the 2007 Finals came around, no one remembered the goofiness of the new ball. We’ve seen the same thing in the past with supposed crackdowns on common violations like palming and traveling. Watch a game and see just how much the league actually has cracked down on either.