I'm so sick of this crap. These playoffs have officially solidified NBA referees as the worst in sports. The worst part is that these terrible technical fouls COST TEAMS GAMES. Those points matter in the end.
its quite simple, keep it clean and don't taunt in the direction of other players. I have no sympathy if you can't control yourself and prevent that from happening.
Agreed that's it's getting out of hand. Some of this crap they're calling is beyond weak. Whether it's last night's flagrant on Bynum, Dwight's taunting technical tonight or whatever. Unless it's an EXTREME violation/technical or obvious flagrant foul these refs really need to consider biting their whistle and letting these guys play. What I don't get is how Dwight gets T'd up tonight for taunting yet J.R. Smith is allowed to make a three then scream & gesture to every single person in the building. Is facing your opponent when you showboat really make THAT much of a difference that these two situations are as black & white as they seem?
they've defined it pretty clearly. If you're taunting is directed towards your opponent, it's a T. If you give a crap about the rules, how about you just do your taunting to the crowd or to nobody? It really isn't that hard. Like shasta said, I have no sympathy. You guys want the rule changed--fine. But it's been defined, and they're not changing the way they're calling T's. Now flagrants, that's a different story--they haven't gotten those right often enough.
You're right that it's clearly defined and I wasn't calling that much into question. What i'm calling into question is how sensible that rule really is. A showboating technical shouldn't hinge on what direction the person is facing. Maybe what I would like to see is an excessive celebration warning kind of like there is in football. Only instead of an automatic penalty they could give a warning (like delay of game) then a technical later if that behavior continues.
they should add a douchebag clause. Taunting is permitted in this case, since it was towards Varejao. Honestly though, I think they'll retract or rescind DH's tech tonight.
My issue is that i don't think Dwight was taunting. It seemed like he slightly looked down at Varajeo when he was in the midst of celebrating his shot. He was just really excited. It wasn't anything like when JR stares down his opponent after a 3.
Long lost is the nba of the 80's and early 90's...now we have this soft, ratings and profit driven, reward the perimeter player with freethrows in an attempt to recreate Jordan NBA. Too bad. I was just thinking tonight that the way flagrants and techs are called these days is ridiculous. These are grown ass men playing a sport. Give me a break!
What's wrong with taunting? These are grown men. If someone is taunting you, a person tend to use that as motivation, which leads to greater plays. Who doesn't want greater plays? Flagrant fouls are joke; refs are real inconsistent with those. I'm tired of a perimeter player barely beating his man off the dribble, then switching his body towards the defender... BAM foul... What? Greater offense beats great defense. They don't need the help from the refs, especially LeBron....
I really think the NBA has sent a terrible message by having all these AFTER the game activities such as assessing retroactive along with taking away technical fouls and also assessing flagrant fouls or upgrading/downgrading them. By doing this they are basically saying to the refs, you are allowed to have a quick trigger in terms of calling these things and if your wrong we will clean your mess up later leading to so many of these calls
Yeah apparently now it's even wrong to give a little congrats for drawing a foul on court to your fellow team mate in Beijing...just wow it was not like Carmelo was about to pull a Dahntay Jones and trip Kobe.
That was nothing short of awful. And tonight's bogus tech on Dwight Howard was just as bad. All he did was get a little fired up after an And 1 play. He wasn't taunting at all. The refs are doing everything within their power to alienate fans. Truly a shameful display.
This is just like the finger wagging with Deke. Doing it to opposing players taunts them, and I guess belittles them. Doing it to the crowd pumps everybody up.
The technical fouls will start to matter some of Howard has to sit game 6 or 7 and Cleveland comes back to take the series. All they need is for Joey Crawford to call one of the next two games...
I get what you're saying. But they put it in there because they wanted to get away from things that escalate from small to big quickly. So by making it a very strict rule, you don't even get the small stuff that escalates (unless they want to take a punishment with it) If you start to allow it and put in your excessive celebration warning...people get pissed that they got shown up, and then someone gets decked on their next trip to the basket. (i.e. someone admires their homerun, next hitter gets a pitch at the head) Then you've escalated the situation, and the refs have to take serious control of a lot of games by tightening up even more. I think they're smart to nip it early to prevent the bigger stuff. Of course, if you WANT the bigger stuff (and I know you're a hockey fan), different story.. but that's what the NBA is aiming to stay away from.
The problem with technicals and flagrants are they are rarely called consistently. There have been two calls that I can remember that have been against the Orlando Magic that aren't called on the other end. One is the Anthony Johnson elbow. Body contact caused Johnson to stumble and he used his upper body to balance himself, connecting with Mo Williams. It was called a flagrant 1 in the game, giving Cleveland two FTs. It later rescinded. Last night's game, LeBron connected on an elbow to Pietrus in the face that would've knocked any one of us out cold. It was just an offensive foul, which is the right call, but it is not called consistently. Howard's technical last night for getting the and1 with Varejao on his back. That is not a technical. It is a player making a strong move, getting the basket, and being excited. Now, personally, I would amend the NBA rules to allow taunting in Varejao's face because I hate the guy, but that's neither here no there. On the other hand, game 2, Mo Williams clearly threw the ball at Dwight Howard after the whistle was called. That has to be a technical by all accounts and it was not called. Translate that into the end of the game, the Magic would've been up 3 when LeBron made his ridiculous shot and the game would've gone into OT. The problem I have with these calls is they're so inconsistent and they can have such a great impact on the game. Call it fair, call it evenly, and there will be less public outrage or it will look as if there is a fix from upstairs. And don't even get me started on the Bulls/Celtics series.
I think the logic behind the 'no taunting' foul is that it is more likely to incite a fight when you direct it towards a single person. Clearly the NBA is terrified of any altercations since the brawl.
