“An offensive player who deliberately hangs on his basket ring, net, backboard or support during the game shall be assessed a non-unsportsmanlike technical foul.”
That’s from the NBA’s official rule book. Is that what Clint Capela did here?
I’m with Chris Webber on this one, that’s not enough to earn a technical in my book. But if you want to argue that Capela hung up there and gave the rim a little shake for emphasis — and by a strict definition of the rulebook that’s a technical — then officials need to be consistent with it. And they are not.
Compare them side-by-side (hat tip Celtics at NBA Reddit)
Yes, the Hawks called a timeout after that play (not that it changes the hanging on the rim), but if what Capela did disrespected the rim and violated the rules, then it is far more than just LeBron in this one instance, it’s just the most egregious. We could put together 10 minutes of video from this season alone of guys doing more than Capela did and not getting T’d up.
Consistency. It’s never going to be perfect in a game played by and officiated by human beings, but there needs to be more of it on these kinds of calls. NBA officials have a brutally tough job and generally do it very well, but common sense gets lost now and again. It did with Caplela.
