No Tolerance Rule
At the start of the 2006-07 NBA season, the NBA instituted a new rule regarding in-game player complaints. The "no tolerance rule", as it was referred to by players and the media, allowed referees to call technical fouls when players complained too vehemently about calls.
The season started with a spike in the number of technical fouls and ejections. There were "one-hundred-four technicals and seven ejections in the first fifty-one games," while "only seven games of the first fifty-one games thus far have had no technical fouls". Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony, who would later be suspended for his participation in a fight later that year, was suspended on opening night of the season after two technical fouls.
| “ | Although Anthony wasn't looking at or speaking to referee Ted Washington, he received a second technical with the Nuggets behind by two points in the third quarter. He got the "T" for throwing his headband to the floor after being called for his fourth foul. | ” |
Some observers viewed the rule as unfair and taking the passion out of the game; others believed that it only served to take pressure off of referees who made bad calls.
| “ | I don't like it. Basketball is an emotional game; guys are always going to express their thoughts about calls. ... There are times you are going to disagree. You shouldn't get a "T" for nit-picky things. | ” |
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—Corliss Williamson, Sacramento Kings |
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| “ | Over-the-top complaints and gestures should certainly be penalized, but the rule goes too far. Does David Stern believe that disallowing the players' protests will fool fans into accepting the infallibility of the refs? | ” |
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—Charley Rosen, Fox Sports |
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Others agreed with the rule, viewing it as a much needed policy to cut down on the "whining" by players in the league.
| “ | Nobody likes the scowling, the arm-waving, the stomping and ball-slamming, certainly not after a meaningless call in the second quarter of some game in mid-November. And such ridiculousness was one reason why too many consumers perceived NBA players as self-absorbed, overbearing, churlish and out of touch. ... Too many are out of touch with the people who pay the freight. Who pays to come to the arena to see this demonstrative complaining? Nobody. The notion some players have put forth, that the NBA is trying to take the emotion from the game, is so preposterous it's insulting. | ” |
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—Michael Wilbon, The Washington Post |
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After the initial spike at the start of the season, the amount of technical fouls and ejections declined significantly towards the middle of the year. Several players, including Denver Nuggets guard Allen Iverson, were still ejected on technical fouls; Iverson's ejection came during his first game against his former team, the Philadelphia 76ers, and he was later fined by the league for claiming that referee Steve Javie ejected him on the basis of a feud the two supposedly had.
Read more about this topic: National Basketball Association Controversies
Famous quotes containing the words tolerance and/or rule:
“Persecution was at least a sign of personal interest. Tolerance is composed of nine parts of apathy to one of brotherly love.”
—Frank Moore Colby (1865–1925)
“The rule for every man is, not to depend on the education which other men have prepared for him,—not even to consent to it; but to strive to see things as they are, and to be himself as he is. Defeat lies in self-surrender.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)