By Ben Carter
It should be a kinder, gentler NBA this season. Or at least a quieter one.
The days of loud, profane arguments between players and referees should be over. The refs just won?t stand for it anymore.
A new rule will be in place this season, which got underway Tuesday night, that prohibits profanity of any kind from anyone on the court. The rule also restricts the ways in which players and coaches can react to calls.
Before the Utah Jazz?s final preseason game last Thursday, referees showed Jazz staff a video of the kinds of reactions that will land players with a technical foul. They weren?t bluffing. Just minutes into the first quarter, Indiana Pacer Jermaine O?Neal was hit with a tech after he argued a call just a little too aggres-sively.
A few game minutes later, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle got a technical for the same reason, coming out of a time out. After that, everyone behaved. And that?s the way it should be, a number of Jazz players said.
?Of course we?re going to react,? said Jazz forward Mehmet Okur. ?But we need to keep a distance between referees and players.?
Okur is not alone. His teammates, Carlos Boozer and Gordan Giricek, both said players and coaches just need to adjust to the new rule.
?What the league wants to do is have more basketball and less arguing with the calls,? Boozer said. ?You can?t change it [the call] so it?s just something we?re going to have to get used to.?
Boozer said the new rule could have an unintended positive side effect for the players.
?Guys are going to have to respect the referees a little bit more and hopefully the refs will do the same with us,? he said.
While Giricek didn?t seem to be quite as happy about the rule, he has a similar attitude.
?What can I say? It?s the new rule. We have to adjust,? he said.
Giricek said he doesn?t think the new rule will have a long-term effect on the number of technicals that get called.
?I think players will adjust and refs will adjust throughout the season,? he said. ?There won?t be so many.?
One Jazz player seemed more concerned about the new rule. For-ward Andrei Kirilenko said he was worried that refs will give out techni-cals to players who show any emotion.
He said if a player directly disrespects a referee it should be a technical, but if it?s just an emotional mo-ment in the game, the refs should let it go.
?Sometimes they don?t want to recognize those moments,? Kirilenko said.
