David Stern's Quest for Technical Fouls

 The NBA has announced that referees have been instructed to hand out more technical fouls for a variety of petty infractions this season. Refs have been ordered to call technicals for players making air punches anywhere on the court (Kendrick Perkins), demonstrative disagreement like raising hands or smacking his own arm to show how he was fouled (Dwight Howard), running directly at an official to complain about a call (Rasheed Wallace, Retire In Peace) and making excessive inquires about a call regardless of how calm the player is (Kobe Bryant).

 Players are also not allowed to say things like, "Come on!" to a ref. They're also no longer allowed to walk away from a ref to make their case. 

 So basically players should be docile servants to the czar and his minions of control.

 Ron Johnson, NBA senior vice president of referees, said that audience research was the motivating reason behind the crack down. He says that NBA fans don't want the fights of hockey or the childish behavior of baseball managers. 

 Who did David Stern, Ron Johnson and the rest of the top dogs in the NBA survey? Did you see a survey? Do they only survey the bluebloods in the luxury boxes? 

 Maybe the league really is strapped for cash as Stern claims and they're trying to get more fine money from moody players. Maybe Stern wants more free throws from techs to help increase scoring. Or maybe Stern and his ilk aren't comfortable seeing young black men express themselves passionately against the inconsistent calls of power hungry jackasses like Joey Crawford and Steve Javie.

 Stern tried to increase technical fouls in 2005-06 but repealed his law mid-season after complaints from players, teams, the media and most of all, the fans. Five years later, he's at it again and this time he plans to make it stick. 

 Rasheed Wallace has retired and Ron Artest is in therapy. Who's going to help Kendrick Perkins steer clear of the whistle happy refs as they compete to see who gives the most technicals? 

 In Stern's wet dream world, we'd see less passion and fire from players like MJ, KG and KB24. We'd have more players fined and suspended, even at the expense of putting the best teams and ballers on the floor during the playoffs. 

 And we'd have more players loving up on the refs like Charles kissing Dick.

    

Lakers Celtics - Game 1 con Mojo

The Hug Zone Defense

KG's hands are in the air because:

A- He don't care

B- The police just showed up

C- Joey Crawford is on the court

Steve Nash must have loved Sheed for this

Phil Jackson asking Joe DeRosa to throw a ball at Chris Rock

Pierce is missing Trevor Ariza

Kobe is not missing Trevor Ariza

Kendrick Perkins doing all he can to avoid a 7th technical

Sheed auditioning for Dancing With The Technicals

Uh oh. Rondo put himself on Fisher's hit list with this move.

KG prays to the Basketball Gods for intervention in game 2.

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Free Kendrick Perkins

  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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Referee Eddie Rush Should Pay A Fine For Game 5

NBA Referee Eddie Rush should have to pay a fine for the 2nd technical foul that was called on Boston's Kendrick Perkins in Game 5 against the Magic. In fact, all bad techs should cost the offending refs money. Whatever they would've gotten paid for that game, they should pay it all back in fines. 

The league already admitted that Rush made a bad call by rescinding it. But that's not enough. It doesn't bring Perkins back on the court in a game the Celtics lost without him. Rush should personally pay for that out of his check.

 Players, coaches and owners have to pay fines when their personal issues with the league or an opponent cause them to behave in a way that's detrimental to the action on the court. Referees should have to pay as well. 

If Phil Jackson and Dwight Howard can be fined $35,000 each for comments questioning the consistency and fairness of the officials, then refs like Rush should also be fined for openly disregarding the rules in order to punish players and fulfill their personal vendettas.

In 2007, former ref Tim Donaghy admitted to fixing results in games he called for the NBA. In reference  to that case, Commissioner David Stern was asked about increasing the transparency of the referee system in the league. 

"We're not transparent enough," Stern said. "Transparency is a good thing."

A fine for Eddie Rush would be a great place to start for establishing transparency. By erroneously T'ing up Perkins and disqualifying him from the game, Rush gave the Magic a decided advantage. 

A heavy fine would make the punishment fit the crime. It would send a message to coaches, players and fans that the league won't stand for referees making bad, subjective, behavior-related calls that affect the outcome of games.

I don't believe Rush or the rest of the ref crew from game 5 wanted the Celtics to lose. I do think Rush wanted to send Kendrick Perkins a personal message that he doesn't like him and he used a technical foul to do it. In that way, Rush ruined a playoff game by using the league's rules for his own agenda. 

Whatever he was paid for butchering a conference finals game, half should be paid back to Perkins and the other half paid back to the Celtics. 

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Thanks Pinhead for your eye on the game within the game

    

Celtic Meltdown

 

KG: Paul we can DO this! Remember, anything is possible. Or wait, is it impossible is anything? Whatever it is. It's possible!

Pierce: Man, 3 years you've been putting that stank South Carolina breath in my face. I'm over here trying to figure out how to stop LeBron and you quotin' Adidas.

 

LeBron: I told you boy. You got nothin' to stop this. I'm bustin' threes on you. I'm wreckin' you in the paint. I'm playing up injuries better than you. You not even the best player on your team anymore.

Pierce: I'm not? Who is?

Rondo: Me dumbass! Y'all fools done messed it all up. I get y'all out to an eleven point lead, making free throws like I'm Steve Nash and y'all can't make shots or get stops. Big three this, big three that. It's Big Rondo in this bitch! Me and Kendrick are the only ones playing defense and we makin' less than Nate Robinson. That's messed up.

Perkins: You mean I got Shaq's fingers all up in my mouth giving me stitches all night and I make less than that DNP-CD waste of cap room Not Robinson? 

Meanwhile, in Cleveland:

Varejao: LeBron, why for you cut your hair? I give you half of mine. We make extensions.

Antawn: Shoutout to Agent Zeroooo! You and your guns got me traded to the best team in the league. Thanks bruh. Yo KG, Impossible is nothing!!