Technical foul
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In basketball, a technical foul is an infraction of the rules usually concerning unsportsmanlike non-contact behavior, and is generally considered a more serious infraction than a personal foul, but not as serious as a flagrant foul.
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[edit] Infractions
Many violations can result in the call of a technical foul. One of the most common is the use of profane language toward an official or another player. This can be called on either players who are currently active in the play of the game, or seated on a team's bench. It can also be assessed to a coach or another person associated with the team in an official capacity such as a trainer or an equipment manager. Additionally, coaches or players can be assessed a technical foul for disputing an official's call too vehemently, whether or not profanity is involved. Occasionally, in their home arena, a coach may intentionally try to get a technical foul (or even an ejection) to spark energy in the spectators.
Other offences can result in technical fouls, such as fighting or threatening to fight, illegal substitutions, deliberately wasting time (e.g. throwing the ball into the stands or batting a made shot away from the goal so that the scoring team can have more time to get into position on defense); and more technical issues such as uniform violations, having six players on the court, calling a timeout when no allotted timouts remain, or players remaining in or returning to the game after being disqualified.
Additionally, home teams can be assessed technical fouls on their crowd for excessive use of artificial noise or for dangerous offenses such as throwing items (particularly ice) onto the court.
Usually a fight results in "double technicals", a technical foul on both teams. Any player that leaves the team bench can be charged with a technical foul or ejected; as can any coach that does so without the beckoning of the official.
[edit] Penalty
In college basketball and lower divisions, the penalty for technical fouls has been increased over the years. Initially, the opposing team was awarded one free throw. This was later increased to one free throw and the retention of possession of the ball. For a while, "bench technicals" assessed on a coach or non-active player were considered more serious and resulted in the award of two shots; now this is the case for all technical fouls at most levels, including international basketball. Also, technical fouls are now counted in most leagues toward the number of fouls a player can be allowed prior to his being disqualified, or "fouling out". In the NBA, the penalty remains simply one free throw for the opposing team and retention of possession. In college, the opposing team can choose who they want to shoot the two (or four for a second technical) free throws (usually only the fouled player can shoot the free throws) and then retains possession of the ball. A player or coach assessed with two technical fouls is ejected from the stadium.
In the NBA, an illegal defensive formation is a technical foul charged on the team. Until 1980, a coach could be disqualified for three such violations in a game, and until 2001, a zone defense was forbidden. Currently, an illegal defense technical foul is charged towards a team if a player stands in the restricted area for more than three seconds and not appearing to be guarding an opposing player (called "defensive three seconds" in current NBA rules).
In the NBA, certain rules violations result in a technical foul, but are not included in a player or coach's count towards ejection. These violations include:
- Illegal defense
- Coach accidentally leaving the coach's box
- Delay of game
- Hanging on the rim too long (unless dropping from the rim could lead to injury)
- Re-entering the game after fouling out
- Having a "scratched" player playing on the court (a rule adopted in 2005 where up to two "scratches" are permissible with a 14-man roster)
- Attempting to call a timeout when the team has no timeouts remaining.
In FIBA play, no technical fouls on a player may eject a player (only a disqualifying foul may do such), and two coach or combination of three coach and bench technical fouls will eject a coach.
[edit] Famous instances
One of the most famous technical fouls ever assessed was called on Chris Webber of the University of Michigan late in the 1993 NCAA championship game. Down by three points to North Carolina with only seconds remaining, Webber called for a time out when the team had already used all of their allotted time outs. The resulting penalties ended any hopes Michigan had of claiming the championship.
A technical foul against Indiana head coach Bob Knight led him to his infamous chair toss in 1985 against Purdue.
In what has been called the greatest game ever played[1], Game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals between the Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics, the Suns found themselves one point down with one second left in double overtime, no time outs remaining and possession of the ball under their defensive basket after a John Havlicek bucket. Faced with the near-impossibility of sinking an 80 foot desperation shot, Suns' guard Paul Westphal hit upon an unusual solution. He intentionally called a timeout the Suns did not have. While this gave the Celtics a free throw, which Jo Jo White successfully converted to increase the lead to two, it gave the Suns possession at halfcourt. This enabled Gar Heard to sink an 18-footer as time expired to force a third overtime. NBA rules were changed the following year to prevent a repeat occurrence by not advancing the inbounds pass to halfcourt in similar situations.
Another instance of a famous technical foul occurred in the 2000/2001 NBA season where Rasheed Wallace of the Portland Trailblazers, the league's leader in technical fouls, was charged with a technical foul for simply looking at a referee.
