The Yao Rules

In the National Basketball Association, Commissioner David Stern fined Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy $100,000 for saying that the referees were "harder" on his star center, Yao Ming, because of complaints about officiating by Mark Cuban, the high-profile owner of the rival Dallas Mavericks. Preferential treatment of star players is the unofficial but completely obvious modus operandi of the NBA, and has been since the halcyon days of "Magic and Larry." Van Gundy is being fined more than what most people earn in a year not because what he said is so outlandish, but because it is so plausible.