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NBA promises zero tolerance for drama queens

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  • NBA promises zero tolerance for drama queens

    The NBA might have given its players something to complain about this season -- something other than the new basketball.

    In an attempt to get players to curtail post-whistle whining, NBA referee representatives have made the rounds early in training camp to emphasize the league's zero-tolerance policy.

    Commissioner David Stern, long fed up with players' histrionics over questionable calls, is threatening to hit them with quick technical fouls -- and later fines -- for those who curse, throw their hands up, or make other gestures that show disgust.

    Rasheed Wallace, for one, told the Detroit News he took the league's crackdown personally.

    "It's just another 'Sheed Wallace rule," Wallace, shaking his head, told the newspaper. "It just means I must be doing something right. Any time they change the rules of the game for one specific player, you must be doing something right."

    Stern's fine system for offenders starts at $5,000 for each instance a player or coach publicly criticizes an official. For multiple technicals, the consequences now are more severe -- $1,000 fine for the first five, $1,500 for the next five, $2,000 for the next five, $2,500 for the ones that follow, and, in addition, a one-game suspension for every other technical after the 15th. The scale was introduced last season.

    "What happens if I am one of the captains?" Wallace asked the News. "Does that mean I can't talk to them? You can't talk back to them like they're your mom and dad. It's like they're saying, 'If you say something to me I am going to put you on punishment.' That's how it is. I will come up with some way to tell them how I feel."

    Wallace was issued 16 technical fouls last season and a one-game suspension. It's reasonable to think, if referees consistently show zero tolerance, he could double that total.

    "It'll be an adjustment for everybody in the league," the Heat's Dwyane Wade told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

    Heat coach Pat Riley believes players will still be able to express their opinions to officials, but will have to police their body language and tone of voice.

    "They are going to be very conscious of player complaining," Riley said last week. "That's one of the big things with them. Every call, there's always 10 guys complaining to the officials. They're just telling them to cut it out."

    Source: AP

  • #2
    Lawrence Phillips convicted of assault, faces prison

    Former NFL and Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips was convicted Tuesday of seven counts of assault with a deadly weapon for driving a car at a group of young men, injuring three.

    The 31-year-old Phillips drove onto a field near Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum after losing a pickup football game on Aug. 21, 2005. He struck two boys, ages 14 and 15, and a 19-year-old man and narrowly missed four others between 15 and 24 years old, according to the prosecutor.

    The three who were struck sustained "severe bumps and bruises and cuts," Deputy District Attorney Todd Hicks said.

    A Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated about an hour before finding Phillips guilty, Hicks said.

    Phillips faces up to 20 years in state prison. A sentencing date is expected to be set Oct. 19.

    The prosecutor told jurors that Phillips became agitated when his team fell behind in the pickup game. He left the field, accused the boys of stealing from him and drove onto the field at a high rate of speed, Hicks said.

    Defense attorney Leslie Ringold argued that her client's actions were neither willful nor intentional and said there was "woefully insufficient evidence of assault."

    She said the car Phillips was driving first hit the front wheel of a bike and fishtailed.

    Phillips was arrested that day and has remained jailed since.

    He has a history of trouble with the law, going back a decade to his time as one of the nation's top college football players.

    The St. Louis Rams released him for insubordination in 1997 after he played 25 games with them. Phillips signed with the Miami Dolphins later in the 1997 season but was released after pleading no contest to hitting a woman in a nightclub.

    Phillips was the top offensive player in NFL Europe in 1999 after setting league records for rushing and touchdowns with the Barcelona Dragons.

    He signed with the San Francisco 49ers later that year but was released for missing a practice. He has also played in the Canadian Football League.

    Source: AP

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