Tacky Technical Fouls Grind My Gears

The NBA has decided to expand what rules they will use in handing out Techincal Fouls for the upcoming season. Are they kidding?!? They tried to do something similar last year, but didn’t really stick to it thankfully. It will be grinding my gears all season if they actually stick to these god awful rules that are solely based on a refs opinion! Some of the refs already head hunt for certain players they don’t like, and now they can T them up for looking at them the wrong way! Simply ridiculous! Here’s what officials have been instructed to call Technicals for this coming season;

• 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.

• Players who use body language to question or demonstrate displeasure, or say things like, “Come on!”

• They can also consider technicals for players who “take the long path to the official”, walking across the court to make their case.

So are they going to turn the players into a bunch of stiffs and mimes? Would yelling at your own teammate like Kobe constantly does a lot get you a T? I’ve always despised the NBA for changing the rules from its heydays where the Detroit bad boys and those mean Knicks teams ruled the 80’s and 90’s with their overly tough play. Those teams were exciting and fun to watch even if I was only 10 years old. I was young, and their style of play didn’t ever offend, scare, or influence me as a boy, it really just showed me what true competitors look like. The NBA took steps to make it tougher on defenders, and I get that, it made sense since some of those games were slightly too physical for a basketball game, and you were constantly wondering when the two tangled up guys were going to fight. Now though, I feel like the league is giving waay too much power to the officials that weren’t all that good to begin with. Shouldn’t the officials be an afterthought rather than the deciding factor? Of course they should, that’s why these rules don’t make sense.

I know Stern is protecting his BFF’s (the refs), so that they can get him the matchups he wants in the playoffs, but stepping up the technicals rules is above and beyond bad. It’s taking the fun out of the game. I don’t want to watch a bunch of robots on the court, unless that’s their style, I’m looking at you Tim Duncan. I like it when guys get fired up and argue calls showing you that they care about winning. If you don’t like any confrontation, maybe you shouldn’t be watching sports, because it’s a big part of every game. I know I get heated when I play pickup games, so I’m sure if a player is getting shafted at their job/on the court they will get pissed too, and rightfully so! I understand rules that protect players from getting injured like how the NFL babies quarterbacks, but what is this supposed to do? Clean up the NBA’s image? I didn’t know that they wanted their image to be as soft as a Justin Bieber song. Sure a lot of the players are “thugs” or trashy people, but who cares, that’s not why we are watching them. We are watching them because of their amazing talents on the court, and if they happen to get pissed off they shouldn’t be penalized in the heat of a battle, unless it’s warranted. I’m not against the technical foul in general, because you need some order, but the new way of handing them out is going to make guys too passive. They already added suspensions for excess technicals during the season. Now for players that probably didn’t deserve a T to begin with are going to be suspended, because they had too many technicals… They will regret implementing these rules in the playoffs when five or six key guys are suspended for games when their tempers are flaring on the ultimate stage.