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Friday, October 26, 2012

Draft: The Inaugural Technical Foul Fantasy League (TFFL)

Close Call Sports and the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League introduce our newest league, the Technical Foul Fantasy League (TFFL), a league charting technical fouls administered during the NBA season and playoffs.
In its initial state, the TFFL will operate in a fashion similar to that employed by the UEFL during its infancy; Because the sport of basketball is highly subject to Quality of Correctness interpretation and a technical foul is less likely to consistently be directly attributed to one call as would an MLB ejection, the TFFL will not address this factor of officiating. Likewise, the TFFL will take into account the cohesive properties of NBA rotating crew dynamics and the actual administration of technical fouls on the floor as a crew call, as opposed to an individual action (for instance, because basketball players/coaches are prohibited from requesting an unofficial "time out" to argue, as in baseball, this prevents the arguer/umpire dynamic seen in baseball). Accordingly, the TFFL points structure will be fairly simple and resemble that of the UEFL's Crew Division.

TFFL Points Structure
+1 point for any technical foul called by any official during a game in which an owned official is working. Technical must be assessed to a player, coach or other team personnel (e.g., 3-sec = 0 pts).
+1 bonus point for a crew's second technical foul resulting in ejection (3 points total [1 + 1 + 1 bonus]).
+1 point for any appearance during a singular round of the NBA playoffs by an owned official. The maximum allocation is one point per round, regardless of number of series/games worked or round # of playoffs.
+1 bonus point for any appearance during the NBA Finals, regardless of # of games worked (2 points total).
+1 point for an on-floor/court working appearance during the NBA All-Star Game, if applicable.
+0 points for "Alternate" status during the postseason ("Alternate" shall not constitute an "appearance").
+0 points for any flagrant 1 or 2 fouls assessed, regardless of ejection status (auto in 2). We're not there yet.

*Appeals/Disputed Information: All appeals or challenges will be decided by the TFFL/UEFL Commissioners.
*Injuries: In the event of injury, league participants may not draft a replacement referee.

TFFL Registration & Draft
Registration for the TFFL is now open, as is the draft. To sign up for and draft your officials in the referees' TFFL, click the below link ("Read more »") to view the entire post. The roster from which to choose officials reflects full-time NBA officials and does not include "non-staff" (WNBA, D-League ... MLB's AAA) officials; MLB jersey # equivalents have been included, just for fun. Registration/draft deadline is October 30, 6:00 AM PT.

6 comments:

  1. Sean Corbin is back in the NBA? Awesome. He did college for a little while after leaving pro-ball the first time around and you could tell his talent level was much higher than D1. Should be a welcome sight back in the NBA as is Bennett Salvatore, coming off injury to work another season.

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  2. This would be awesome if I actually liked the NBA! If they start calling a travel I might start to watch it again.

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  3. Kickersrule's is understandably ignorant. Why? Sadly, most amateur referees (NCAA, High School, etc.) have a tacit agreement with the fans, players, and coaches. It goes as follows, "We'll call traveling if it looks bad and you will agree with us." This is a terrible way to officiate and results in much greater inconsistency. Do NBA referees miss traveling violations? Sure. But when they call traveling, it is almost always correct. See the following link: http://www.nba.com/videorulebook/category.html?cid=71

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  4. Well, in an effort to prevent exactly that (more travel calls), the NBA a little while ago changed their traveling rule to allow for one more step on reception of the ball and the terminal stage of the dribble.

    It's not that college or high school has more violations and it's not the disgregard of rules 10:01 seems to think it is, "obvious" travelling is called more often at those levels because the rules are different and more actions constitute travels. At NBA level, they're moving so fast that it basically forced the NBA's hand in allowing them that second step.

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  5. If only this were true. Yes, high school and college are governed by limits on the pivot foot and NBA is governed by a "1-2 step count."

    However, NBA referees are accountable to observers and video--not coaches and fans. Why do you think this website is focusing on technical fouls at the pro level? Simple...those referees do not tolerate abuse.

    A long time ago, Jack Nies told me, "If Bobby Knight were in the NBA, he would get ejected every game." Amateur referees pander to the coaches--especially in the NCAA. How often do you see techs on D-1 coaches? And ejections? The horror! The horror! NBA and D-League referees do not get caught up in this.

    If you watch enough NBA and watch it closely, you will see referees call traveling and three-second violations when they occur--and only when they occur. They are NEVER allowed to guess. Amateur officials, on the other hand, will, and indeed DO, in fact guess. It is easier for those officials to call traveling, fouls, and other violations if they look bad. They are not accountable to video. They do not have to stay in shape (check out the muffin tops Steve Welmer and Tim Higgins). They do not take weekly rules tests on line. NCAA referees are accountable to supervisors who are accountable to coaches. NBA refs are accountable to the video and the league supervisors who critique them.

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  6. Ask Jeff Van Gundy who they are accountable to....

    NBA officials are a joke

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