sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5609817

Again the NBA is trying to stomp out whining to the refs. Again it certainly won't make a difference. I've said this before here but the fundamental flaw is the in game and working relationship that players and refs have.

Solution: Have 2 NBA employees watching every game remotely from the league office. Via DVR they can always be within 5 minutes of real time. There will be a new purple light on the scorers table that goes on when there is an incoming call from offsite. Like the bat-phone but for technical fouls. The offsite refs will only be reviewing what they can see from what is one TV which is really all Stern cares about.

Ideally the offsite feed would have the score and time of game hidden.

Agreed, what a joke. They can start by getting better/more consistent refs. Until then, things won't change with complaining. Sterns answer is to simply penalize players further for arguing about legitimately bad calls. Ridiculous.

Instead of worrying about the whining could they maybe fix something with the flopping going around in the nba? that is starting to get out of hand as well.

I like pants solution though. Off-site refs would be the best way to go if they really want to make a difference

"Demonstrative disagreement, such as when a player incredulously raises his hands"

Looks like Tim Duncan will be thrown out of every game after his first two missed shots.


This is just more bullshit that they can implement that will end up getting the super star treatment (The big names aren't going to get kicked out of many games and they usually do the most complaining). I'm all for them trying to get the players to stop bitching (it's just another thing all my friends who prefer the college game bring up), but there are more important things to fix.

- Traveling - So ridiculous now. Players switching their pivot foot 3 times during post moves. Players taking 5 chop steps leading up to a dunk. Players whose feet move every single time they ball fake. Players who dive on the floor for the loose ball gain control and then STAND UP WITH DRIBBLING (I still don't see how no Commentators for anything called that out for the blatant travel that it was).

- Superstar treatment - It's so blatantly obvious that it happens and it's incredibly annoying. It's just going to make these new Superstar teams more crappy because anytime the Heat are losing LeBron or Wade can just drive to the basket and they'll get to go to the free throw line.

Yeah, I don't care what Stern ever says otherwise... the Superstar Treatment in the NBA is absurd. It needs to stop, like now. It just ruins everything.

The traveling has gotten a little better, but still needs work.

The flopping is still pretty bad too. (Solution = call only blatant charges. And change a charge into a turnover only, but not a foul. Let's see how long people keep trying to flop.)

College Wolf wrote:
I think they should use my same offsite solution to hand out technicals for flops.

The superstar treatment doesn't rile me up too much. It has been there since I remember the NBA and it just seems like part of the game. I do always chuckle at one exception to the superstar rule. Is it just me or did KG get more traveling calls than any other star?

pants wrote:
Not to be biased because we are Minnesotans, but I definitely agree that it always seemed like KG got called for more travels than any other "stars" during his time in MN.

What about the new dress code for coaches aka the Stan Van Gundy rule? Poor bastard - always seems like everyone is picking on him.

More on the Van Gundy Rule:

sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/...-dres?urn=nba-273614

The best part is when he says he hopes they at least name the rule after him. What a guy!

BonK wrote:
Hahahaha poor Stan.

I always kinda liked him in a Red-headed-step-child-with-down-syndrome sort of way.