Oklahoma City Thunder big man Steven Adams believes that the absence of fans will cause a spike in technical fouls in the NBA 2019-20 season restart in Orlando.
According to Adams, the referees would be able to hear everything the players will say about each other or about them. As such, more technical fouls will be slapped to players and the coaching staff.
“You might see an uptick in more technical fouls because [the referees] can hear what players are saying,” the Thunder star said on Monday, per Royce Young of ESPN. “Because you see, we like to talk behind their backs. But they can actually hear us now. So there's going to be a lot more T's. Should be the only difference.”
Trash-talking and all sorts of banter is pretty common in games. In fact, it's part of the tense competitive atmosphere. However, the referees have to make sure that no player or member of the coaching staff crosses the line.
Veteran official Scott Foster seems to agree with the forecast of the Thunder vet. In the bubble with no ambient crowd noise, the referees would be able to catch things that they don't usually hear.
“There's going to be some assistant coaches that we haven't really heard from before sitting in the second row that we'll be able to hear now, so there's going to be some adjustment there,” Foster said. “And then I think we're going to need to really talk about and analyze what is OK for the public to hear and how we're going to go about our business.”
Steven Adams' former Thunder teammate Russell Westbrook leads the league in technical fouls with 14. He's tied with Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green, but he's not entering the bubble as the Dubs had the worst record in the league this 2019-20. DeMar DeRozan has 13, followed by Kyle Lowry (12) and Marcus Morris (12).
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