Post by Blaque on Oct 14, 2006 7:11:58 GMT -5
This is some bullshit!
NBA: Players can ask about fouls, but not complain about them
NEW YORK Relax, NBA players. You can still talk to the referees — not that David Stern thinks it does much good.
The NBA commissioner is trying to eliminate complaints and other negative reactions after calls, which he believes are pointless, anyway.
"In my 22 years in the game I have never seen a call, or a non-call, reversed because a player complained," Stern said Wednesday in Germany. "All it does is show a less attractive side to the greatest athletes in the world."
There is no new rule, but players and coaches were alerted through a memo and preseason meetings with referees that their post-whistle actions would be a point of emphasis. The crackdown has been described as a "zero-tolerance policy" — a term which the league objects to.
"We never used that word," NBA spokesman Tim Frank said. "That's not what it's intended to do."
Still, it has players on edge for the second straight preseason. Last October, it was over the newly imposed dress code. This time, it's over the belief that they no longer have the freedom to have discussions with officials, as has been the team captain's right.
Minnesota's preseason opener did nothing to calm those fears. The Timberwolves' Mark Blount was ejected after picking up two technical fouls, and teammate Marko Jaric also was hit with a tech in the victory over Milwaukee.
"The people that get the techs are emotional people. Do we cross the line sometimes? We walk it. ... If you want to fine the individual person, that's what it is," Wolves star Kevin Garnett said after the game.
"To the fact that you can't really speak to the refs, the refs don't want to hear it. That's almost like Communism. That's like Castro."
But Frank said players are still "permitted to approach game officials with professional inquiries about foul calls or other inquiries during the game."
Stern has already been hearing complaints from players over another matter, the NBA's new game ball, since training camps opened earlier this month. He thinks he has a more willing audience on this one — at least from the coaches.
"The coaches don't mind this," he said, "because, as a result, it means the player will get back on defense rather than staying down to argue a call he didn't get on the offensive end."
There's greater reason for concern from the players, who risk financial penalty with every technical foul. Players are fined US$1,000 (€797) for each of their first five technicals, an amount that increases by US$500 (€399)for each five after that, capped by a US$2,500 (€1,994)penalty for each one starting with the 16th. A one-game suspension also comes at that point and for every other technical thereafter.
No wonder it drew a response from the Pistons' Rasheed Wallace, who earned 16 technicals last season and told The Detroit News that it was just "another 'Sheed Wallace rule."
To Stern, the target isn't any individual player, but rather all of those who take away from the flow of the game with needless bickering.
"The thought process is we have the best athletes in the world, playing a spectacular game as well as it has ever been played," Stern said. "In my view it detracts from it, when a small handful of players spend their time negotiating and slowing the game down, at least in the perception of the fans, by engaging in an enterprise which is not productive.
"This is long overdue."
NBA: Players can ask about fouls, but not complain about them
NEW YORK Relax, NBA players. You can still talk to the referees — not that David Stern thinks it does much good.
The NBA commissioner is trying to eliminate complaints and other negative reactions after calls, which he believes are pointless, anyway.
"In my 22 years in the game I have never seen a call, or a non-call, reversed because a player complained," Stern said Wednesday in Germany. "All it does is show a less attractive side to the greatest athletes in the world."
There is no new rule, but players and coaches were alerted through a memo and preseason meetings with referees that their post-whistle actions would be a point of emphasis. The crackdown has been described as a "zero-tolerance policy" — a term which the league objects to.
"We never used that word," NBA spokesman Tim Frank said. "That's not what it's intended to do."
Still, it has players on edge for the second straight preseason. Last October, it was over the newly imposed dress code. This time, it's over the belief that they no longer have the freedom to have discussions with officials, as has been the team captain's right.
Minnesota's preseason opener did nothing to calm those fears. The Timberwolves' Mark Blount was ejected after picking up two technical fouls, and teammate Marko Jaric also was hit with a tech in the victory over Milwaukee.
"The people that get the techs are emotional people. Do we cross the line sometimes? We walk it. ... If you want to fine the individual person, that's what it is," Wolves star Kevin Garnett said after the game.
"To the fact that you can't really speak to the refs, the refs don't want to hear it. That's almost like Communism. That's like Castro."
But Frank said players are still "permitted to approach game officials with professional inquiries about foul calls or other inquiries during the game."
Stern has already been hearing complaints from players over another matter, the NBA's new game ball, since training camps opened earlier this month. He thinks he has a more willing audience on this one — at least from the coaches.
"The coaches don't mind this," he said, "because, as a result, it means the player will get back on defense rather than staying down to argue a call he didn't get on the offensive end."
There's greater reason for concern from the players, who risk financial penalty with every technical foul. Players are fined US$1,000 (€797) for each of their first five technicals, an amount that increases by US$500 (€399)for each five after that, capped by a US$2,500 (€1,994)penalty for each one starting with the 16th. A one-game suspension also comes at that point and for every other technical thereafter.
No wonder it drew a response from the Pistons' Rasheed Wallace, who earned 16 technicals last season and told The Detroit News that it was just "another 'Sheed Wallace rule."
To Stern, the target isn't any individual player, but rather all of those who take away from the flow of the game with needless bickering.
"The thought process is we have the best athletes in the world, playing a spectacular game as well as it has ever been played," Stern said. "In my view it detracts from it, when a small handful of players spend their time negotiating and slowing the game down, at least in the perception of the fans, by engaging in an enterprise which is not productive.
"This is long overdue."