It later emerged that school officials had fired Jarvis in part due to a series of embarrassing off-court incidents.

Though most of Sprewell's on- and off-court incidents have been documented, he addressed them personally during the hearing last year.

Hunter feels the league has contributed to the problem by increasing the level of discipline of players for on- and off-court incidents.

Bonzi, however, did have his share of on- and off-court incidents.

For example, Hunter said, if a player exposed himself in the middle the court, that would constitute an off-court incident because it had "nothing to do with the game itself."

Instead, the focus has been on a disappointing regular season marred by suspensions of a couple of players for off-court incidents.

Pierce missed three preseason games recovering from what the Celtics described as "injuries in an off-court incident."

However, another off-court incident, this one involving a player being severely beaten, led to Pasiak's departure from Herkimer.

There is concern about off-court incidents.

As much as Stern wants to cleanse the game of on-court distractions, off-court incidents still seem to dominate the perception of the league.