A while back, I mentioned that when we first came back from the Pandemic, everybody was so happy to be back on the court that there were no issues of poor sportsmanship, let alone threats of violence. But things have begun to unravel, not just at the league, but in society at large. I don't do a whole lot of driving (back and forth from home to Amphi or Flowing Wells for my girls' basketball team), but a day doesn't go by that I don't see at least one person run a red light. And not just barely; I mean by a couple of seconds, at least. The other day, I saw two idiot racing each other on La Cholla and they both had to have been going at least 75 miles per hour. 

Now it is seeping into the League and I'm not going to stand for it. We're seeing a little bit more rough play and lame-ass chest-to-chest nonsense. IT STOPS NOW!

I am instructing our refs that if they see any non-basketball activity--hard pushing, body bumping, verbal threats--that player will be removed from the game and will not go back in. The game will not resume until he is gone. And I don't want to hear "Oh, that's part of my game." If being a jackass and a bully is part of your game, then your game sucks ass and you don't belong in an organized league.

Far worse is that last Sunday, two different guys--and they're both guys whom I genuinely like--used the word "gun." Starting immediately, if anybody--refs, other players, scorekeepers, venue workers--hears the word gun, the person who uttered that foul term is OUT OF THE LEAGUE FOREVER. No, "My bad" or "He started it." Obviously, guns are deadly serious and there is never a reason to invoke their presence, let alone their use, because of something that happens on a basketball court.

I have long said that the League is not designed for someone to come in and try to take out a week's worth of frustration and anger in one hour. We're here to play ball.

I am seriously looking at ways to cut the number of teams in the League down to a more manageable number. Believe me, the ones who can't just play ball, have fun, and conform to the rules and a sense of common decency will be the first ones to go.