NBA

Watch An NBA Team Get Five Technical Fouls in 10 Seconds

by Brad Cohen | 10:37 am, January 12th, 2011

Remember how the NBA decided to call more technical fouls in 2006, but then quickly realized this policy was ridiculous because it created a bunch of referees on power trips? Well, apparently the NBA thought it was a good idea to expand the technical foul rules once again. That’s how this happened: Referee Ken Mauer went crazy on the Minnesota Timberwolves Tuesday, going on an unprecedented whistle-blowing spree. When all was said and done, Mauer called five techs… in 10 seconds.

So, what’s changed between now and 2006? Apparently nothing. The refs seem to get equally trigger happy as they did back then. It’s hard to really tell what happened by watching the video below. It all went down so fast (well, 10 seconds), but it appears some T-wolves players raised their arms in frustration, which is a no-no by new rules.

First, Darko Milicic and Corey Brewer drew back-to-back technicals for doing, well, something. Minnesota coach Kurt Rambis protested about all the whistle blowing, so he got called for a double technical and got ejected from the game. Seconds later, Kevin Love received a tech for complaining after the refs didn’t blow the whistle on what he thought should have been a foul on Tim Duncan.

The whistle madness occurred in third quarter, just after the T-Wolves had cut into a 16-point deficit to trim San Antonio’s lead to 68-62. Manu Ginobili made all five free throws to raise the Spurs’ lead back up to 11.

When the NBA expanded the technical rules this season, Ron Johnson, the NBA’s senior vice president of referee operations, said the league made the decision largely based on audience research.

“We don’t want our players looking like they’re complaining about calls on the court because it makes them look like complainers,” Johnson said. “You do that six times in a game, it really starts to look bad on television. A lot of these things may not look as bad in the arena. But on TV, when attention is focused on it, it stands out.”

Glad that worked out for you, Ron.