Ron-Ron's Reputation and Inconsistant Foul Calling

Alright people, let's get this thing going again.

I want to talk about flagrant fouls in the NBA, in light of some recent questionable calls and no-calls that have been happening in the playoffs. Namely, I want to talk about the fact that Ron Artest is a victim of a his reputation, and whether there should be any rule changes regarding flagrants and technical fouls.

First of all, I flat out feel bad for Ron Artest. Here's a guy who's been thrown out in two of the last three Rockets games, and even though I'm a huge Lakers fan, I don't think he should have been thrown out in either game. In regards to the fracas with Kobe, I believe both players should have been assessed technical fouls: Kobe for his elbow again Artest, and Artest for his in-your-face retaliatory gesture. Regardless of how benign his intentious actually were in coming up to Kobe, it was over the line, but not ejection over the line.

That's where Artest's reputation is working against him. Joey Crawford pretty much immediately tossed Artest when he saw even a hint of possible aggression from Artest. Obviously the guy is still tainted from the Malice in the Palace and always will be, but it's outrageous to think a guy, any player, would get tossed when he didn't even throw a punch or make any sort of threatening gesture at all.

Same thing for his foul against Pau in Game 3. That was just a tough, hard, playoff foul that you make to prevent an easy layup at the end of the game. Flagrant? Maybe, probably if this was the regular season, but ejection? Absolutely not. He didn't even hit his head, something that Rajon Rondo couldn't say after he clobbered Brad Miller in the face in round 1. And yet Rondo went off scott-free, Miller missed his free throws, and Boston went on to win that series. Again, reputation: Artest is known for going off and getting in brawls, while Rondo is known for keeping his cool.

It all comes back to something I read the other day that I think Phil Jackson said: it's all arbitrary. The rules are written so that the league can retroactively explain away almost anything. I agree that certain amounts of leeway should be written into the rules--subjectivity from refs and higher-ups is an inevitable feature in any sport--but it's tough to swallow when things are being called so inconsistantly.



Finally, on an unrelated note, I started thinking about the fact that technical fouls are not assessed as personal fouls in the NBA, even though they are in many other leagues around the world. I really think they should be. It would further discourage bad behavior among players if they knew that technical fouls could put them on the bench with foul trouble.