Stern Rules

Since the infamous Pacers-Pistons brawl erupted around the sports world a few years ago, David Stern has been slowly trying to implement NBA codes and rule changes to make things more "clean" and family-oriented for fans. Last year it was the dress code which had mixed reviews (but seemed to do well to promote players in GQ and other Fashion arenas). Now it is the brand new "no-nonesense"/"zero tolerance" technical fouls being called on players. They nickname it the "Sheed Rule", after Piston bad-boy Rasheed Wallace who is constantly getting t-d up or tossed from games.

Stephen A Smith's "Quite Frankly" talk show had the hot debate between two guests last night. Intelligent hoops columnist/writer/reporter, Scoop Jackson, and another reporter/columnist who I am not as familiar with. They both had valid points, with the latter commenting that the players need to stage a walkout day or a day where they refuse to play games. He said they need to have a players union meeting with their leader Billy Hunter and talk to Stern about the subjectivity of referees in making these calls. I don't know that this drastic approach is necessary, yet.

I believe that since the system is new, it probably is going through the feeling out process. The problem is that even though considered "impartial" judges on the court, refs do take a lot of flack from fans and players, causing stress in their role. There are some players who whine alot about foul calls, but this occurs in other sports as well. (I've seen many strike out calls questioned in MLB). The stat that Stephen A displayed on the screen last night is staggering though. There's already been 62 technical fouls called, in just 1 week of games! There needs to be a serious training session for the refs, so that they can really mete out what needs to be called and what shouldn't. For example, I saw a NJ Nets game in which Jason Kidd was able to argue a call and get it overturned. Maybe he was more diplomatic, but there has been other instances where guys barely said anything and got a T.

Mr. Stern please hold a meeting, arrange a training session and school the refs on how to administer this policy in a more uniform and fair way.