ABL Officials Pull No Punches in Cracking Down on Foul Play

Agonizing over a punch-related concussion suffered by a player in their first all-star game, executives of the women’s American Basketball League are telling referees, coaches and players to cut out rough play.

“It is far too physical,” Ernie Yarbrough, the league’s head of officiating, said Tuesday. “We don’t want to have the bad-boy reputation that some of the players in the NBA have.”

The soul-searching was prompted by the concussion suffered by Seattle’s Cindy Brown, who was playing for the West in Sunday’s all-star game in Hartford, Conn. New England’s Clariss Davis-Wrightsil, a forward for the East, punched her on the side of the head. Brown fell to the floor, taking a second bump on the head.

The league suspended Davis-Wrightsil without pay for two games and fined her $1,500. She later publicly apologized.

Gary Cavalli, the league’s chief executive and co-founder, said Brown is contrite too.

“She felt she was partly responsible because she had been pushing and shoving all night,” he said. “But we can’t have players punching each other on the side of the head.”

On Monday, Yarbrough put out a directive to all 54 game officials, telling them to clamp down on rough play. The same day, coaches and general managers of the league’s eight teams heard the message at a general meeting in Hartford.

Yarbrough said the responsibility also falls on the players.

“The players have got to make a conscious effort to back off of one another,” he said.