Stern's Got it All Wrong with the "Rasheed Wallace" Rule

I've been a huge supporter of NBA commissioner David Stern ever since he accepted the position over two decades ago, and I must say that the majority of the moves that he's made during the course of his tenure have been absolutely ingenious.
Stern has helped the league prosper tremendously and has been innovative with many of the ideas that he has instituted. To say that Stern has had the Midas touch would probably be an understatement.

Having said that, I am unequivocally going to say that Stern is making a mistake of epic proportions by instituting a new rule that states that the league's officials now must have a "zero-tolerance" level when it comes to demonstrative displays by players following questionable calls - a rule that has been correctly labeled, the "Rasheed Wallace" rule.

Now I, as much as anyone, respect the integrity and history of the game, but I am also going on record as saying that if something isn't broke, then it doesn't need to be fixed - and the NBA has operated under the same officiating rules (at least when it comes to players' reactions involving calls) almost since the game began.

Stern, unfortunately, sees things differently, hence, his institution of the new rule.

"The thought process is we have the best athletes in the world, playing a spectacular game as well as it has ever been played," Stern said in an interview.

"In my view it detracts from it, when a small handful of players spend their time negotiating and slowing the game down, at least in the perception of the fans, by engaging in an enterprise which is not productive."

So, let me get this right, Stern wants to institute a league-wide crackdown on demonstrative acts following questionable calls because of the actions of a few players, like Wallace, who correctly said the ruled was instituted because of his often idiotic behavior.

"It's just another 'Sheed Wallace rule," Wallace, shaking his head, told the Detroit News last week. "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." (Huh?)

I realize that Wallace is one of the biggest head cases in all of sports, but why make every player in the league suffer for his lunacy?

Because, Stern said, a crackdown was long overdue.

"All it does is show a less attractive side to the greatest athletes in the world," Stern said last Wednesday. "The coaches don't mind this because, as a result, it means the player will get back on defense rather than staying down to argue a call he didn't get on the offensive end."

That's where Stern is dead wrong. Instead of having the best basketball players on the floor to finish games, players that fans pay good money to come see play, many of these same players may be watching the finish of games from their teams' respective locker rooms.

Just last Wednesday alone, referees called 17 technical fouls and tossed four players in the season's first three nights. Carmelo Anthony, Rasheed Wallace, Mike Bibby and Maurice Taylor were all victims of the unofficial rule, although I saw the Clippers' Sam Cassell arguing several times during Thursday's night's Nuggets-Clippers game, while not even getting so much as one technical from veteran ref, Steve Javie.

The thing that bothers me so much is the fact that Stern is taking away the ability of the referees to make their own judgment calls as to when a player crosses the proverbial line, when the referees have had that ability almost from the time that Dr. James A. Naismith created the game.

The major problem I have with the "Wallace rule" is that each official is still going to have to decide when enough is enough - and there is no absolute way for any referee to define when a player has crossed the line.

I believe that Stern's edict will actually have officials handing out more questionable technicals and ejections, until both Stern and some of the league's owners realize that by having the league's best players getting tossed out of games early, is actually hurting the game and - pissing off the people who pay to see their team's respective superstar players.

"What is the line?'' Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. "You can't talk to anybody anymore or you can't show emotion? That's going to be the biggest thing. It's scary, because with anything you're going to react. If I have a bottle of Gatorade right here and I knock it over, I'm going to react."

I have to say, that, for a guy who has turned everything he has touched into gold, better yet, make that platinum; Stern has made two bad moves this year alone. First, changing the league's leather basketball, when no one asked for, or wanted, a change - and now, trying to take out the emotion of a sport that has thrived on the emotion of its players - and all because of Rasheed Wallace - a career underachiever who should be on his way to the Hall of Fame but is instead, on his way to the outhouse.