The Globe had an item in its blog about the Celtics hoping the NBA rescinds two technical fouls from Joey Crawford on Saturday night.
examine Kendrick Perkins' bizarre technical foul Saturday against
Indiana, called by Joey Crawford. And they will also look at Doc
Rivers' technical called 21 seconds later as he waved his hand in
disgust and then walked back towards the bench, also called by Crawford.
We know the rule about NBA players when it comes to techs: 16 of them and you start getting suspended. Call it the Rasheed Wallace rule if you want… but that's the league's way of telling guys to keep themselves in check.
Ok, fine.
So how about we create the Joey Crawford rule? Let's start counting up how many technical fouls get rescinded… and if a ref hits a certain threshold, then he gets suspended too? Why shouldn't the NBA keep its refs' emotions in check too?
It's nice that the league will rescind a tech so they don't go against the player's total. Sheed and Perk each have 4 already… so anything that will avoid those guys missing time is great. But the technical foul can change the game, too. The techs on Perk and Doc came at a critical time. They stop the flow of the game. They can throw a player off for the next trip down the floor… or even get him ejected.
The NBA is already admitting its refs make mistakes by regularly rescinding technical fouls. Why not take the extra step in policing them by making sure they are handing techs out to the people who earn it. The NBA doesn't need to deal with hothead refs who tech someone up for looking at them wrong. If one ref's techs keep getting rescinded… then suspend him. Hit him in the wallet to make sure he's doing what he's supposed to do: officiate the game… not be one of the game's stars.
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