Anyway, when you’ve been in combat in the jungles of Nam and fought hand-to-hand on Chicago playgrounds, a little hollering by high-paid hoopsters isn’t a big deal. Olesiak was so self-assured that he’d often go years without calling a technical foul. "Why do I need to call a lot of techs?" he asks. "It’s better for the game if I can talk to the player or coach. I don’t use techs as a weapon."

That’s a sentiment echoed by many of Olesiak’s peers. Ken Mauer, who’s entering his 25th season as an NBA referee, says finding resolution to a confrontation before it reaches the ‘technical’ stage is paramount. "If it’s something where I can say to the player before he overreacts, ‘Talk to me, c’mon, talk to me,’ now we’re talking," Mauer says at the NBA referees’ annual meeting in Jersey City, NJ, in mid-September. "I avoid an overreaction; therefore, it didn’t escalate."