Luka Doncic was among the league leaders in technical fouls at the end of the season. For dissent towards the officials. The sixteenth came in March. A one-game suspension. It’s on the sheet.
He had been given a suggested technique: sing his favourite songs in his head to keep his emotions in check. He tried it. “Tried that. Didn’t work,” he told BasketNews.
I understand the principle. At the table, we sing in our heads too. Me, it’s during the last two minutes, when the coach is looking for his time-out and I’m looking for the button. It changes nothing on the clock. The clock doesn’t argue. Neither do I.
In the same article, his team-mate Austin Reaves says he thought about paying spectators to wind him up, because it takes him to another level. I have no opinion on that. I have no column for spectators. They talk, I don’t write.
Martine, if he’s singing in his head, at least give him a jingle.
A technical, at our place, is a box, a T, a red biro. Sixteen is sixteen boxes. Over there, after the sixteenth, they take a game off the calendar. For us, there’s the provincial committee on a Wednesday night with a jug of coffee. The buzzer’s gone. After that, it’s just talk.
Noted: technical number sixteen, March, song in his head, no effect.
It’s true, we checked: BasketNews.
