I cannot express enough how I loathe what is going on in the NBA, in regards to the officiating, and the league-wide mandates emanating from Commissioner David Stern's league office in Manhattan. Today the Orlando Magic were told that Dwight Howard's sixth technical, assessed in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, was rescinded after a review by the league. A seventh technical foul would have forced the Magic superstar to miss a future playoff game - another United Nations Security Council Resolution imposed by NBA Commissioner/Grand Poobah David Stern. 

NBA Commissioner/Grand Poobah David Stern

Apparently David Stern's NBA did not devise the playoff technical foul rule to prevent young superstars, such as Dwight Howard, from competing in the playoffs and providing the NBA with higher television ratings. It appears this rule was put in effect to curtail the histrionics of  bogeymen Ron Artest and Rasheed Wallace, but the NBA has recognized it needs Superman. Lois Lane needed the Man of Steel and so does David Stern. If Stern can't keep the Man of Steel in front of the cable television masses, he needs to hire a Judge Sotomayor to codify the NBA rule book.

Whatever happened to allowing the officials to call the game on the floor? It's a strange and foreign concept that once was used in the NBA, but now that Commissioner David Stern has decided to turn the NBA into something resembling FIFA's World Cup, we're stuck with Flagrant 1 fouls, Flagrant 2 fouls, technical fouls galore and exorbitant fines for criticizing the officials. Stern wants to make the game more palatable to the casual fan, but he's losing the respect of hardcore hoopsters. The Commish is 100% correct that a hoops addict like myself will tune in, because I love the game, but when  does the NBA's United Nations High Commissioner of Flagrant Fouls put the genie back in the bottle?

The balance of the game is more and more being placed in the hands of the officials. I've watched enough playoff basketball to know what points of emphasis the league is looking for from the officials and I am convinced it changes from series to series. Each series should be officiated differently, but an event in the Cavs-Magic series will impact the next night's game in the Western Conference Finals.

The NBA referees have become emasculated automatons. It's clear to this observer that NBA referees have very little latitude in officiating the action on the court. The NBA has diluted the power of the referee. A game is no longer officiated based on the feel of the refs on the court, but from league-wide dictates that inhibit the action and reduce the authenticity of the game.

The abundance of technical fouls, alone, makes me reach for another bottle of Wild Turkey. Kenyon Martin of the Nuggets and Pau Gasol of the Lakers locked arms in the waning minutes of the Western Conference Finals' Game 4 - technical foul on Martin. How about a simple foul on Martin? If that wasn't the sinister Kenyon Martin locked up with the effete Gasol, does the player receive a technical foul? When did that type of play become a technical foul? Pat an opponent on his ample butt - technical foul! Talk smack to a mentally and physically inferior opponent  - technical!

Is that a Wild Turkey cowboy hat?

If technical fouls were issued for talking smack when Michael and Larry played, neither player would have completed the playoffs without seven technical fouls.

All of this is a heavy-handed reaction to the Malice at the Palace, but when are the folks in the NBA's League Office going to allow the players to be human beings? This is a heated physical game, the stakes are incredibly high, the NBA has lengthened each series to seven games creating more friction between the two opposing teams and David Stern expects his players to be emotionally-detached cyborgs.

Let's get back to fouls and technical fouls. The NBA does not need Flagrant 1 or Flagrant 2 fouls. An unwarranted hard foul, which injures a player or places a player in danger, should be rewarded with a game ejection that could be done with a double technical foul on the offending player. You still want a Flagrant 1 - it's called a technical foul.

After reviewing film from Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals, Denver guard Dahntay Jones received a Flagrant 1 for tripping Los Angeles's Kobe Bryant. For once, I agree with David Stern's minions because Jones pulled a Martin Brodeur kick save on Kobe. A dirty play, such as Kobe being tripped by Jones should be punished, but Andrew Bynum's hard foul on the Birdman flying down the lane did not warrant a Flagrant 1 in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals. A hard foul is part of playoff basketball.

I'm not some Old School dinosaur that wants to see McHale clothesline Rambis again, but playoff basketball is different. Let's not over-legislate the game to appease the NBA's new fans in Oklahoma City, but the NBA needs to retain the hardcore fans in Seattle, Baltimore and Cincinnati.

McHale vs. Rambis