Summer League Whistle-Proned

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

      Boston Herald

      Summer games afoul with whistles 
      by Mark Cofman 
      Thursday, July 22, 1999
      Theoretically, NBA summer league games should run more quickly than 
      regular-season games. Quarters are just 10 minutes long, timeouts are 
      limited to one minute. There are no commercial breaks. 
      But fans attending next week's Celtics summer league games at UMass-Boston 
      should plan on bringing comfortable seat cushions. And a degree of 
      patience. As a result of the league's experimentation with rules changes 
      this summer, some games could more closely resemble funeral marches.
      Players competing in the Fila Summer League in Long Beach, Calif., have 
      struggled at times to adjust to the crackdown on rules, the latest attempt 
      by the NBA to loosen offenses during these scoring-challenged times.
      The league has instructed referees working summer league games to make 
      liberal use of their whistles, pushing the average time of games in Long 
      Beach to 2 hours, 15 minutes through the first 63 exhibitions. The average 
      number of fouls called per game is more than 53.
      The Celtics, who departed from the Long Beach circuit with an 8-0 record, 
      were involved in a game against Toronto last week in which 91 fouls were 
      committed. The second game of the doubleheader between Seattle and 
      Portland had 92 calls, totaling 183 fouls for the twinbill. That's a lot 
      of whistles for one afternoon.
      ``Clearly there's going to be an adjustment period on the part of everyone 
      involved,'' said veteran official Dick Bavetta, who will supervise the 
      referees in the Boston league, which begins Monday and runs through Aug. 
      1. ``(The new rules) are recommendations that are under experimentation 
      this summer - they're not etched in stone.
      ``Ultimately the goal of the league is to improve the quality of the 
      product, but that's going to require the cooperation of the players, 
      coaches and refs in these summer games. Some of the new rules might not 
      work out or could need further tweaking when they're put under review (in 
      September).''
      Until then, players competing in summer league games will continue to make 
      the difficult defensive adjustment to a kinder, gentler NBA. The 
      adjustment will be hardest on big men, accustomed to wrestling matches and 
      excessive physicality in the low post. Not surprisingly, Vitaly Potapenko 
      was whistled most often among Celtics in Long Beach (38 fouls in eight 
      games).
      But don't let it be said summer leagues don't offer any relief. Players 
      aren't disqualified after six personal fouls. They can foul as much as 
      they want and remain in the game.
      Gentlemen, start your whistles.