quote:
Originally posted by Brian Watson:
If we look at the rule as it stands today...of course it is "unfair". That is the point, the penalty is supposed to prevent someone from being dumb and getting a T. It is just a shame most of the players don't consider the severe point swing before they slam the ball, pop off their mouths, etc.
I'm also a big fan of the T being counted as a personal. I had a situation this year where the player got called for his fourth, ran his mouth at me, and the T was number 5. After we reminded the coach T's count as personals and he was gone, I thought he was going to code right there on the floor. Best part was, I don't think he was half as pissed at me as he was at the player ( we missed the triple whammy though, they were already in the bonus).
What I mean is that is should penalize a team the same amount regardless of whether a team is on offense or defense.
Also - and here I put on my "Mr. Nit-picky" hat - a technical does not count as a personal, but it does count toward the five fouls for disqualification (NF rules).
Why is this distinction important? Older score books sometimes don't have a place to cross off technicals in the same place personals are crossed off. Sometimes a scorer will ask you if a technical is a personal meaning should he mark a foul in the personal section (so it counts toward the 5). If that's all they do, they may lose track of the technical being called against that player for future reference.
If that's the case, I always tell them that the technical doesn't count as a personal, but it does count toward the five and that they have to somehow mark it that way in the book, while still indicating that the player has one T.
Newer scorebooks eliminate that problem for the most part, because they have the 5 personal boxes and the 2 technical boxes in the same place and it's fairly obvious that a total of 5 is a DQ while a total of 2 technicals is also.