You really have to wonder what the NBA bosses were thinking when they decided to add more guidelines to what should be considered as a technical foul. At the referees' annual meeting two weeks ago, the league announced they expanded their guidelines to include "overt" player reactions to calls. Refs have now been instructed to call a technical for:

· Players making aggressive gestures, such as air punches, anywhere on the court
· Demonstrative disagreement, such as when a player incredulously raises his hands, or smacks his own arm to demonstrate how he was fouled
· Running directly at an official to complain about a call
· Excessive inquiries about a call, even in a civilized tone
· Players who use body language to question or demonstrate displeasure, or say things like, "Come on!"
· Players who "take the long path to the official", walking across the court to make their case

It's a good thing Rasheed Wallace decided to retire in June. And if he had any "coming out of retirement" aspirations, these rules certainly had to have crushed them.

I have always thought NBA refs did a good job handling games. Yes even the sometimes wacky Joe Crawford. They understood that basketball is a very competitive and finicky sport and didn't mind debating at times when a player walked over to them to argue their case even with their hands up in the air. As long as they didn't come overly aggressive, NBA referees were usually cool with it.

So why would the NBA implement these upgrades? When every other sports league out there is doing what it can to speed their respective games up for the enjoyment of their fans, the NBA seems to be doing what it can to slow it down. Or is it that the NBA wants better control on how games are played out? No doubt about it, an even bigger, greyer, subjective cloud now looms around the technical foul rule. That wasn't more evident then the recent game between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks at MSG. While perpetual yapper, Kevin Garnett was shown the exit door for doing what he's been doing for the majority of his 15-year all-star career, 2-year pro Danilo Gallinari was allowed to verbally question the ref closely with no consequence and at one time actually put his hands on the arbitrator.

After the Tim Donaghy debacle, the last thing NBA refs need is to be put under the media microscope again for all the wrong reasons. Something tells me that NBA refs are going to be spoken about and scrutinized a lot this season and if Celtic play-by-play announcer Tom Heinsohn's "This is stupid." tirade that night was any indication, it is not going to be pretty.

You can count me in as a Miami Heat hater. Not because Bosh went to South Beach. I was cool with that. I have always said that Bosh was a Robin that needed a Batman. If Toronto wasn't going to bring in a legit franchise player then it was in his best interest to move on in search of a ring and that's exactly what he did. Good for him. No, I'm a Miami Heat hater because Lebron James went to the Miami Heat as well. From a basketball perspective, James has absolutely no reason being in Miami. In Cleveland, James had the championship pieces coming together and his Cavs were easily considered one of four teams in the Eastern Conference favoured to get to the Championship final this year. For all the talk from James that this was a basketball-decision, the real reason he left Cleveland was to expand his image so he can endorse more products and perhaps get in a major movie or TV series here and there during the year. There are only two other franchise cities you can do that in and that is in Los Angeles, where he is not at all needed and New York City, which was rumoured to be his only other legit option during the off-season. I was a big James fan. It was going to be nice seeing him break scoring records and win championships on a team that he built from the ground up like MJ did with Chicago. But now with Wade and Bosh there, his regular scoring output won't be what it was and if he wins a championship, it's going to have an asterisks over it. For the record I hope he never wins one. How he sold-out and turned his back on the same people who watched him play since his AAU days is unforgivable. The only satisfaction I get is that the ultra-competitive Kobe Bryant, who is always looking for the next big challenge, is over in L.A. thinking how great it would be for his legacy if his Lakers were to beat the Heat for the championship this year.

You know you're in a rebuilding phase when the face of your franchise is a player that averaged just 8.6 points per game last season. Don't get me wrong, Toronto Raptor DeMar DeRozan has a lot of upside being a 6'7", 220lbs swingman but he is far from franchise status. The most notable trait I noticed with DeRozan last season was his demeanour on the court. He was always smiling as though he was just happy to be playing in the NBA. DeRozan has a lot to prove this season. He will have a huge opportunity being the "man" of this Toronto Raptor team. I'd like to see him play with a chip on his shoulder this year. He also needs to consistently knock down his outside jumper as well as take it to the hoop with authority more. He easily has the chance to be a 15 point guy on this squad. Anything less would be a disappointment.

Even though our Canadian senior men's national team hit a new low losing to Lebanon this past summer at the World Championships in Turkey, Canadian fans should be very excited about the future of our men's national program. When the FIBA World Championships in Spain roll around in 2014 expect names like Myck Kobongo, Tristan Thompson & Cory Joseph to be on the roster. As well as Kevin Pangos who recently verbally committed to NCAA Division I Gonzaga University. All four of them are NCAA high-majors and all four of them have NBA potential with Pangos already garnering similarities to future Hall of Famer and fellow Canadian, Steve Nash. Every year, more of our young Canadian ballers are being recruited by major D1 schools to not just fill a spot on a team as a role or specialty player but as significant contributors. Keeping on pace with Canada Basketball's 2020 Vision plan implemented years ago, I predict a top 10 finish at the next FIBA World Championships and a top 5 finish at the 2018 FIBA Finals.

A new prep league has popped up in Canada which includes five Canadian prep schools and two US-based prep schools. The league, which begins league play Nov. 3rd at Hamilton's St. Mary's High School, is called the "National Prep School Athletic Association" (http://npsaacanada.wordpress.com). It includes Toronto-native Ro Russell's Faith Christian Centre Academy from Creedmore, North Carolina, Southwest Academy from Lansing, Michigan, Toronto's Metro Prep, Y.A.A.A.C.E. and PHASE 1 Academies, Oakville's Next Level Basketball Academy and finally Hamilton's REDA Prep. With the migration of Canada's best high school players to prep schools south of the border, there has been an explosion of prep schools opening here in attempts to slow that trend. As more and more open every year, the creation of a league to house these new schools was inevitable. But the question that comes to my mind is "What does this exactly mean for traditional high school basketball programs?". In my opinion, this is the beginning of the end. In 5 years, the best of the best in each city will choose to go to their local city prep school(s) because A) They will get the exposure down south they're looking for. B) They'll be playing against all-stars every day in practice and C) If they don't go, they'll end up playing at an inferior level at a traditional program that post-secondary schools will seldom go to looking for talent. It's not all negative news though. In actuality, this will further help in the development of more Canadian basketball players as this will give players maybe not yet good enough to enter a prep program, a chance to play more significant roles on their respective high school teams, albeit at a lower level. I assume those that thrive at the high school level would certainly make the jump to prep given the chance. In essence, a tier system is being established here in Canada for basketball similar to that of hockey. I don't know how it is now but back in my day the best hockey players that attended St. Jean de Brebeuf didn't play for the high school team but instead played for an outside program that was more likely to get them in front of OHL scouts. I think it is safe to say a lot of NCAA scouts will be very interested in what's going on at this new N.P.S.A.A. prep league. As this game evolves in this great country of ours, there are going to be some areas of the game negatively affected. In this case it's traditional high school basketball which will unfortunately be dead in five years time.

LOCAL

The defending Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic league champions ACMT Jags are in rebuilding-mode this season having graduated 10 players from last year's squad. Despite the massive turnover and a soon-to-be roster filled with nine grade 11's, opposing teams still shouldn't sleep on them. Led by the backcourt combo of junior Hamid Nessek and senior Richard Momat, expect a fast, aggressive style of basketball from the small French mountain school. 6'2" Jean Victor MukaMa will provide much of their perimeter offence. According to ACMT head coach Martin Valliancourt, MukaMa could be the best shooter they have had since 2006-07 Catholic All-Star Alain Grubac. The ACMT Jags surprised a lot of people last year winning the catholic title and although expectations aren't that high this year, they could still surprise teams that are already looking past them.

The most talked about team during the off-season has been the MacNab Lions who will have one of the most athletic and talented rosters in the province. Super athletic 6'4" forward Mark Rutledge along with 6'5" Ogi Stanivukovic will start down low while 6'0" Shaquille Bedminster, 6'4" O.J. Watson and 6'3" Francis Kiapway will get the starting nod on the perimeter. The start of the 2010-11 season will mark the much anticipated varsity debut of grade 10 guard Kiapway, who has been called Hamilton's next big player ever since winning the Hamilton elementary school title 2 years ago. He helped the Lions to a junior city title last year and although he hasn't played a minute of varsity ball, he is already drawing attention from NCAA Division I teams in the Horizon league and the Pac-10. Except for 6'10" Peter Van Elswyk, who played centre for the Hill Park Rams back in the early 90's before going to Stanford University, I can't remember a Hamilton player that drew this much interest from NCAA high-majors at such an early age. Hamilton fans will get their first chance to watch Kiapway play against some of the best players in the province when his Lions participate at the Southern Ontario Shootout Invitational (SOSI) in early December.

Welcome to the first edition of The Alfaro Blog! If you are someone that would like to contribute to this site by writing articles, submitting rankings for your region or simply wanting to pass information, please email me directly at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Cheers!

Kirk

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