(ESPN) Stern: Teams must adjust to tighter officiating

That sure seemed the case last night for the Heat/Cavs game. Seemed to last forever and I was playing basketball myself and it still wasn't done when I finished.

 

Does this mean the superstars will get 20 free throws a game instead of 15?
There is still no way Stern will let the superstars foul out, and that is what I hate about the NBA. Get rid of the preferential treatment for superstars!

 

Does this mean they're gonna start calling more than 15% of the fouls committed against Yao in the post?

 

No noo I belive he said Yao is the exception. They will continue to let them "play" against Yao.

 

So I guess this is another attempt to increase scoring. Blow the whistle on everything so guys can't guard anybody. I hate Stern. Probably another Colangelo initiative, so his small team can compete. Get rid of Stern.

 

Though I only watched the 1st quarter and a half of the Heat/Cavs game, it still doesn't seem like this "officiating" applies to Shaq. I saw him lower his shoulder into Ilgauskas at least 5 times, with no calls. He only had 2 fouls last night.

Yep, I think Stern is implying that Yao will always be called for the foul on contact, whether that be him lowering his shoulder into someone or someone jumping into him.

 

Can we get rid of Colangelo instead?

 

Get rid of them both Deuce! Do it!

Btw ... every time I see a post from you now, I've got the opening riff from "Deuce" in my head. Thanks.

 

stern is awesome, do not get rid of him.

colangelo is a douche for coming up with the zone. get rid of him.


i like this ref initiative, just like i liked the attempt at a higher strike zone in baseball. i don't like artificially doing anything to change the game (i.e. trying to score more so fans who can only handle jump shots and 110 point games and not defense will be happy) but to me this is trying to correct a problem that has gotten out of control. plus, it's not a rule change to superficially change the game, it's a redirection of the interpretation of the rules (like the strike zone) so i can handle it and i like it. one reason offenses suffer so much and defenses are so good is because you can get away with so much on D. you can pound guys in the post, you can hand check, you can stick out a forearm to stop a penetrator. it's become accepted at this point but it probably shouldn't be. just like it was gradually allowed to get that way, it can gradually be allowed to shift back away from excessive contact. at first it must seem very weird to not stick an arm out to impede a guy. almost like you're not doing your defensive job if you don't. but eventually, when it becomes accepted that that will always be a foul, it will become acceptable to not hinder the person with the ball. and that will become the norm on defense and it will help open the game up more. i don't think offense should be helped just to do it, but i do think this is a problem and hope they stick with it to get things more back to how they should be. baseball didn't seem to really stick with the high strike so we'll see.

 

Well, my understanding was that they were going to call fouls on perimeter defenders using a forearm to impede the progress of guys on the dribble. That's not going to affect Yao either way. It should help the likes of McGrady a lot though.