NBA hilariously explains how players are allowed to curse at referees

The NBA has done a lot in recent years to try to improve the way its referees are perceived. There has been an increased use of instant replay to make sure calls are correct, and a Last Two Minute Report is produced the following day that details every call (and non-call) made in a tight game, while pointing out the ones that were missed.

There's also been a push to improve the relationships officials have with players and coaches.

In the past, a referee almost always would issue an immediate technical foul if an f-bomb was used in a conversation, mainly because of the way it can escalate a situation. But in a Sporting News piece from Sean Deveney, the league's vice president of referee operations and director of officials humorously broke down how that's no longer the case.

“We’re going to be understanding that, if there are words used, cursing is not an automatic technical,” Bob Delaney said. “It’s how you say it, it’s where you use it. We said this to the players. If you used it as an adjective, you’re probably going to be all right, if you used it as a noun, you probably have a problem. If you don’t know the difference, we’re going back to diagramming sentences. You have to have knowledge of how you are presenting yourself. There is a difference between someone saying, ‘Is that a (expletive) foul?’ and, ‘Hey, (expletive), is that a foul?’”

“This has been a big thing with [commissioner Adam Silver], how we handle things,” Delaney said. “It doesn’t mean we are less authoritative, it means we are taking our authority and doing it in a way that makes a lot more sense.”

It's not always going to work, because emotions run high during NBA games, and referees are in fact human. But if the league is indeed instructing its officials to be a bit more lenient and understanding in their discussions, the next time your favorite player or coach gets T'd up, it means they probably did something to deserve it.