I’ve been away from watching the NBA for a while so may have missed the reasoning why, but when did the NBA get so soft and start dishing out tech fouls for pointing at people after a 3 point or strutting after a poster dunk? Other sports thrive on this sort of emotion from the players. For example, Cricket is built on sledging of your opponent so you can get in their head and mentally fuck with them.

Could you imagine MJ getting a tech foul for his finger wagging at mutombo ? Probably would under these current soft rules.

Can anyone tell me what the catalyst for this change was?

The NBA needs to let the players show some emotion, NBA is all about entertainment. I want to see the players do the metaphorical equivalent of Maximus Meridius from gladiator and yell out after a dunk “are you not entertained?”