Celtics's center Kendrick Perkins will be suspended if he gets one technical foul during the finals against the Lakers. If that happens, it will be the worst and most unnecessary suspension since Amar'e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were suspended for taking a step off the Suns bench after Robert Horry hip-checked Steve Nash in 2007.
The NBA allows players 7 technical fouls over the entire post-season before earning a one game suspension. Under the current rules, the players most likely to be punished are guys playing the most minutes for teams going deep in the playoffs. So on the biggest basketball stage at the most crucial time of the season, a player could be suspended for trivial matters that happened in April while battling a scrub.
In the case of Kendrick Perkins, his 6 technicals are the result of his clashes with Shaq and Dwight Howard, 2 of the most physical and borderline dirty centers in the NBA. He got another tech that should have been rescinded after Orlando's mediocre backup Marcin Gortat overreacted to an inadvertent elbow resulting in a double tech, aka a referee's cop-out.
Perkins effectively battled and outlasted all of them. His reward is the baggage of 6 technicals, partially earned because of his disinterest in backing down and partially because the referees appear to have it in for him because of his stern-faced demeanor.
On the way to the finals on a road lined with technical temptation, Perkins also received 6 stitches in his mouth from Shaq followed by subtle elbows and egregious hard fouls from Dwight Howard.
"Every single guy in a uniform has a responsibility for us winning," said Celtics' coach Doc Rivers. "Perk is our defender. He's our offensive lineman. Never gets any credit, always in the trenches. Probably takes the most punishment of any player on our team and he just does his job."
Perkins said, "I think I'm the best defender in the post. All of it's mental with me. I just got finished dealing with Shaq and then it was Dwight. You've got to approach it with the right mind-set, because if you don't, you can get dominated.
"I'm just trying to make it tough on them. I'm not overreacting. If you make a shot on me and it's a tough shot, then I'm living with it."
Now Perkins will be faced with guarding Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol. Neither brings anywhere near the physicality or bruising play of Shaq or Dwight. Yet one wrong glance at a sensitive ref like Joey Crawford or Eddie Rush and Perkins could find himself suspended for a crucial finals game.
The technical foul rule should be changed. Even Lakers' coach Phil Jackson said so when he rejected the notion of intentionally going after Perkins to get another technical.
"I dont even like to think about those kind of things," Jackson said. "Those things I think should be wiped out. Flagrant fouls. Technical fouls. It just means the longer you've been in the playoffs, the more penalized you are. It seems like that's not a really good code right now."
He's right. The league needs to reset the technical and flagrant foul count at the start of each new playoff series for all players. A good start would be if a player gets 5 techs in one series, he's automatically suspended for a game, even if that game falls in the subsequent series. That would allow the best players to play their hardest when the fans want to see them at their best.
Kendrick's test is to survive these finals with no suspensions while shutting down Bynum & Gasol. If he follows his coach's advice, he'll succeed.
"Doc always says that the bigger man walks away," Perkins said. "You've got to go out there and play basketball. You can't let guys get in your head. There's going to be a lot of things trying to distract you. You've just got to go out there and play Celtic ball."
David Stern and the NBA need to address and change the rule. For now, here's hoping Perkins isn't further penalized for surviving the dirty tactics of Shaq, Howard & Gortat.
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