Did anyone else see what happened on ESPN? Tim Duncan was upset about a call and got a T, then the official gave him a stop sign to prevent the 2nd. His teammate, Stephen Jackson, SLAPPED AWAY THE STOP SIGN. One of the craziest things I have ever seen. He was promptly ejected. Would you have just given him a T for light contact or is that an automatic ejection (according to NFHS)? I think the ejection was certainly justified but of course the ESPN announcers did not.

Roll of the dice.
 

When it is time to go, it is time to go. Ejection is in order.

Peace

That would be the easiest ejection ever. A player slapping the official's hand? By the way, what is "light" contact? Any contact or an attempt to contact is way over the top. Whack! Gone.

WHACK! Get out!

My guess is there will also be a suspension.

This would be the easiest ejection ever - under any set of playing rules.

BTW, maybe someone should send this excerpt of the NBA rules to those ESPN announcers:

12.A.V.
d. A technical foul shall be assessed for unsportsmanlike tactics such as:
(1) Disrespectfully addressing an official
(2) Physically contacting an official
k. A technical foul, unsportsmanlike act or flagrant foul must be called for a par-ticipant to be ejected. A player, coach or trainer may be ejected for:
(2) Any unsportsmanlike conduct where a technical foul is assessed


And, from the comments on the rules:
Any player or coach guilty of intentional physical contact with an official shall automatically be suspended without pay for one game. A fine and/or longer period of suspension will result if circumstances so dictate.

This is an absolute no-brainer at any level of play. Contact with an official, whether it be "light" or not would be an immediate flagrant "T" and the offender is immediately headed to the bench for the duration.

The NBA
 

NBA is bad for your health. Don't you think a lot of the high school coaches and players pick up bad habits from this league?

I actually had that game tuned in for about 2 minutes and saw the episode. At first the announcers thought the 2nd T had been called on Duncan. My guess is that since they didn't get their call right, they tried to cover themselves by deriding the call made by the refs.

Nobody ever said that announcers had to be bright. And please, no comments about how bright coaches are.

Think you're reaching for that explanation for their stupidity. But it scares me that anyone who knows anything about any sport would think that slapping a ref should not be an ejection . . .

An observation as it relates to announcers. First it seems as though in my opinion most of them have absolutely no idea what they are talking out when it comes to rules interpretation and are far to quick to single out the refs as the ones who errd. Second I wonder if they are told to do this as it makes for good TV??? (all the while hurting our appearance/status in the public eye) Here in minnesota the HS state footbal finals are broadcast live on state wide TV. Two years ago there were several inferences to officials and how (erroneous I must add)they screwed up calls. This year they put a state clinician in the booth. He gave interpretations... problem solved. Maybe announcers should have to take a class on the sport they call before they in fact call it.

Re: The NBA
 

Couldn't agree with you more. As a coach, I have strictly forbidden any of my players from watching NBA games during our season. All they do is pick up horrible habits that don't apply to the high school game.