Spurs join debate on technical fouls
 

Spurs join debate on technical fouls
By Jeff McDonald - Express-News
Web Posted: 10/16/2010 12:00 AM CDT


When Cleveland's Daniel Gibson was slapped with a quick technical foul early in Thursday's preseason win over the Spurs, it might have made George Hill feel a little bit better about his own run-in with the NBA's decorum police two nights earlier. Might have, but it didn't.
After being teed up in the final 30 seconds of a tight game against the Clippers in Mexico City, Hill — like seemingly the rest of the league — is still coming to grips with the league's ultra-sensitive new technical rules.

“You don't think you're going to get one if you don't actually say nothing, or even look at the person,” said Hill, the Spurs' third-year guard. “Got to learn to control your emotions, I guess.”

Hill's crime: throwing his hands in the air and running to half court after being whistled for a reach-in foul. Nobody in the Spurs locker room Thursday seemed to know what Gibson did to deserve his technical.

Kane Fitzgerald, the official who whistled Gibson, was the same one responsible for ejecting Boston's Kevin Garnett from a game the night before. In the same game, New York's Timofey Mozgov was assessed a tech for muttering in his native Russian.

Through the first 59 games of the preseason, there were 69 technical fouls called on players and coaches. Twenty-three were called Tuesday night alone.

Billy Hunter, director of the NBA players union, has issued a statement condemning the new rule as “an unnecessary and unwarranted overreaction” and threatening legal action.


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