Slap On The Wrist: Why The NBA Can't Control It's Players

Open Wide Kobe, Your Feet Are Big

Kobe just recently threw a temper tantrum after not getting the call he wanted in a game. He threw his towel. He punched his team mate Joe Smith. Then in rage called the ref a "Fucking Faggot." Was he thrown out of the game? No. If there's ever been a better example that 'respect for the game' rules are nothing more then a bunk marketing ploy designed to give already incompetent refs more control to 'enhance' the NBA via the whistle, I have not seen it.

But this article is really not about Kobe or his slur. He should have been suspended games for screaming slurs on national television. Had he called the ref a "Kike" or some other ignorant, hate filled term I'm sure this would be the result. But this article is also not about how the NBA not so secretly condones a league of ignorant homophobes.

No, this is about the league's ineffectiveness to do administrate itself in any kind of disciplinary fashion. This failure results in players/staff who do, say, and behave any way they please. It's about why this happens.

The league fined Kobe yesterday for his offence. 100,000 USD. It sounds steep for one word, even if it was hate filled and ignorant. But was it? Last year Kobe made 25 million dollars from playing basketball making the fine 1/250'th of his total salary. Did Kobe even blink when he got the fine? I doubt it considering the blatant behaviour on national television. He knows he got off easy.

The average American makes 32,000 USD per year. 1/250 of 32,000 means Kobe was fined the equivalent of 128 dollars. Lets compare this to a normal response. Isiah Washington got fired after winning awards for Gray's Anatomy. His infraction was not hate filled. There was no malice. The gay dude he was joking with was cool with it. He got fired. In reality, they fined Kobe less a speeding ticket. People still speed and players will still scream bigoted remarks in games.

That's not even the beginning of the issue. The league loves to make a show of spanking it's players over it's knee. But the fines they hand out are actually just books players can stuff down their pants. Kobe makes much more money from endorsements then from playing basketball. In 2011 Kobe is reported to be grossing upwards of 64 million dollars. 1/640'th of that went to his 'punishment'. The equivalent fine Joe Average would pay is 50 bucks, or, about what Kobe makes every 30 seconds.

When Questioned About This Enormous Yacht,
Mikel Prokorhov Did Not Even Know Where
In The World It Was. Would a 16 Cent Fine
Phase You? Think About How Absurd This Is.

It's not just Kobe though. So lets break down some recent actions by the league in it's effort to pretend like it does anything to induce good behaviour.

The League fined the Nets $50,000 for Jay-Z's contact with underclass men during the NCAA tournament. The Nets owner is an oligarch worth over 9.5 billion dollars. Yes, they fined him for 1/190,000'th of his net worth. The average American net worth is around that $32,000 mark again. So the NBA fined Mikel for roughly an average man's 16 cents. 17 cents if you round up. Why bother fining at all?

But these are just the crazy rich people, right? The exceptions? Sadly, no. JR Smith was fined $25,000 for a nasty flagrant foul. About 1/268'th of his 6.7 million dollar salary. That translates to about 120 Bucks for intentionally hitting Raja Bell in the head on a play.

25k for hitting a guy in the head? But what happens when you merely speak honestly in an interview about the officials. The guys who have been given 'more' power. Stan Van Gundy and Shaq have both received $35,000 fines merely for commenting on the mediocre job refs were doing. It's still irrelevant since Shaq is one of the richest athletes in history and at 4-5 million per SVG won't be losing much sleep.

Their idea of discipline is sending a child to a room full of toys. The only reason they do that is to look good in front of all the other parents at day care. There's little point to fines and the bigger a star/richer you are the less you have to give a damn what anyone thinks.

Shaq's Reaction To Being Fined More Then The
Average American Makes In A Whole Year. Does He Care?

The league favours stars to the point of embarrassment. Kobe punches people and uses hate speech on TV and is not even thrown out of that particular game. The league fosters an environment where players feel they are actually above the laws set up by the state as Gilbert Arenas thought it was cool to bring guns to work as a joke.

Stephen Jackson fired his piece into the air outside a strip club and Delonte West thought it was cool to just drive around with a shot gun on his motor cycle.

Is there a better way? Of course there is. Instead of fining cash amounts or simply suspending players, fine them for a percentage of their salary. Then instead of a 30k fine for talking about the refs it's only x%. Actually, lets just stop fining players for expressing their opinions. Then fine heavy when players actually do something wrong.

It's obvious the league is aware the system is not even close to working since they are the ones who sign the cheques. The players know that they're above their employers anyway with massive contracts. Want proof? Kobe just made a little over $30,000 (a third of his fine) in the short time it took me to write this article.

One More Way To Fix The NBA

The Refs Are Functioning About As Well As Livingston's Knee Is Here(You can read the first article, 5 Ways To Fix The NBA For Next Season Here)

Who ever claims that the NBA fixes every game or every finals? No one. I think claims they've fixed 'some' games, and 'some' finals are reasonable though. I'm not even sure if it was done in a sinister way. Sometimes it backfires. Sometimes not.

Making calls to extend a series to 7 games (which likely happened to the Kings, Blazers and Mavs) and making calls in favor of star players (which happens every single game) is game fixing. Its letting something other then competition decide games.

The point is not that refs fix games anyway. The league is set up in such a way that the officials often has more influence on outcomes then the players. The x-factor in any game is which team gets the most important calls. Assignment of refs to garner outcomes and questionable front office rulings to force game 7's are only a tiny proportion of the litany of ref's mistakes swinging entire games, series and thus seasons.

Can you blame the refs? Okay, you can. But its much harder to hold it against them when you consider the lack of help they get from the league. I don't count Stern's unfailing stock quotes of support. Smarmy "You know, I root for the officials" lines only make me hate them more. He claims they get it right 95% of the time when even refs admit (due to... logic!) that 20% of calls could go both ways. If refs were trained better, or you know, were not trying to keep up with athletic freaks 40 years younger then them, maybe we'd understand.

Pic Of The ACTUAL Act TD Was Thrown Out Of A Game Determining The #1 Seed For: The Refs Have Too Much PowerThere is a simple solution: decisions by the league have to start being made to improve NBA competition instead of the NBA image. The league needs to experiment with ways to reduce that power so mistakes are not so costly. I suggest one way is to stop fouling players out.

A team's best player going to the bench due to foul trouble or getting ejected later is just too harsh of a punishment for the way refs are told to call the game now. Stars expect to get touch fouls called that would be 100% non-fouls in the 90's. Whistles control games more then ever. In a 48 minute game played at the insane speed/size/power of the NBA 6 fouls is just WAY too little.



5 and your out? Even 6? Its a rule created 80 years ago when the style of defense and abilities made it difficult to foul out. The number was totally arbitraryTWEET!!!!! I Say! We The Official Old Timey All-Stars Hereby Decree On This, The Good 'Ol Day Of Jan. 13'th, 1898, That Players In 100 Years Will Be Dis-Lodged From Thou 'Playing Surface' Ere They Be Charged With 6 Fouls, One Per Old Timey Allstar! Aye, It Be Good, And God Fearing Men Shall Abide!
and since people making it were sporting mustaches, waist coats and pocket watches it was a rule made with 0 regard to the game as it's played in any modern context.

A guy who gets 2 fouls early, something ridiculously common, has to sit for a whole quarter or more, but only if he's really good. So bad players with fouls stay on the floor. Is that competition? I want to see the best players competing and outperforming each other as much as possible, not one team going up 20 because the opposing best player is sitting.

1 blown call can be worse then 10 bad plays by an individual player. Through no fault of their own refs have way too much power over the course of a game. People only complain when the end of a game is affected but the foul calls in the first directly affect the outcome more then many in the 4'th. Every game you watch key guys hit the bench or play with much less aggression for fear of picking up another touch foul.

Why not change fouls to work more like team fouls. A player gets 5 fouls. You foul in the act of shooting they get two shots. Every foul committed over five is an extra free throw for the victim. Make a shot and draw someone's 6'th foul, its 2 points and 2 free throws. For every foul over 8 or 9 the bonus shot is worth 2. I've never understood forcing players off the floor so less talented ones can suck up fouls.

It makes the game more choppy and violent as the scrubs who go in are there know they're getting minutes to hammer people with foul. They intend to use them too preventing the other team's stars from playing. The only reason the stars sit: they are too important to risk losing for crunch time. This keeps them on the floor and is just as much an incentive to keep it clean.

No wonder half the league's stars get injured every year when much less talented players are being subbed into games for the soul purpose of hitting stars as they jump through the air to the basket. There is no impediment for a guy who won't be closing to not foul and it ruins the quality of the league. The past decade is much better if Gilbert Arenas and Dwayne Wade didn't spend 2 or 3 years each playing crappy or off the court? A rule that reduced thug fouls would also reduce those injuries.

How does this not make the game better? Instead of gaining an advantage by playing a weaker version of your opponent, it gives teams an advantage to beat them at full strength. To win via athletic competition. Mano a mano, not mano a backup scrub. Get Howard in foul trouble and you can force potential four or five point plays at the end of regulation.

We need more ways for teams that are down to get back in it. Don't you want teams way down attacking the rim with fury instead of jacking desperation 3's? Should we not reward such play? Does it not improve every single blowout instantly?

This Is 4'th Quarter Excitement For More NBA Games Then Stern Would Like To Admit, Why????
Who's going to leave for the exits when they know Wade driving the lane as hard as he can is what they'll see, every play, in the last 2 minutes. Its a shame the league is terrified to experiment with it's sacred striped cows.

If they instituted a rule like this, everyone wins but the front office is too concerned with any admission of a mistake. The NHL has tweaked it's rules around continuously even changing the size of the nets and finally eliminating the neurtal zone trap to huge benefit. Hockey looks like hokey again. Not this NBA. Its the Nostalgia Basketball Association.

You can claim changes tarnish the legacy of the game but not adapting a sport's rules as it changes tarnishes the game right now. Perhaps we should go back to soccer balls, peach baskets and scores in the 20's? Or, maybe use our heads, make intelligent changes that improve the game, and create a new legacy firmly grounded in common sense and a drastically improved product for all.