Canberra Capitals coach Paul Goriss fears basketball will be robbed of its raw emotion and turn "vanilla" if leagues crack down on what coaches can say in televised timeouts.
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The NBL has warned they could fine coaches for swearing during timeouts after an address from Brisbane coach Andrej Lemanis saw expletives beamed around the nation, and WNBL coaches could soon come under the microscope.
Both the NBL and WNBL have made significant strides over the past two seasons in terms of television exposure and Goriss fears watering down a product so few sports can offer because of a rare outburst could have a dire effect.
Goriss could have been forgiven for a blow-up after a technical foul was bizarrely called against Kia Nurse for cheering and waving her towel in Canberra's controversial loss to Perth last weekend.
A cooler head prevailed on that occasion and the only thing captured could have been a look of disbelief on Goriss' face.
"To me you’re putting [television cameras] in a timeout in amongst a team where there is high pressure and whatever comes out, comes out," Goriss said.
"It’s hard to want to stop having coaches and players with that passion. That’s a part we’ve lost in sport, we’re trying to water everything down. It is a high intensity, high pressure, high passion situation.
"The players are used to it and the coaches are used to it. That’s what people want to see too, they don’t want to see a watered down sport where everyone is just very generic and vanilla.
"It’s great for the fans and people being able to see what a timeout is like, how the coaches converse with the players, and the technical and tactical parts of it.
"It comes with the advantage of being able to see what’s going on but the disadvantage of being able to hear some words that may not be appropriate at times."
Coaches in timeouts has become the latest talking point as the WNBL grapples with inconsistent refereeing which coaches fear could see star players abandon the league.
The WNBL is standing firm on its referee education and development policy despite coaches growing frustrated about inconsistencies and officials finding themselves caught in the crosshairs.
Referees are becoming agitated by a lack of direct feedback, while Capitals co-captain Kelsey Griffin admits some officials are more approachable than others but on-court conversations have been relatively easy to come by.
"For me the biggest thing is being able to approach a ref and being able to have a conversation about it," Griffin said.
"I know they’re human, I’ve never played the perfect game of basketball, I think it would be unfair to expect them to officiate the perfect game.
"For me, I appreciate when I can at least have a conversation with the ref and talk about it, understand where they’re coming from, understand what adjustments I or my teammates need to make, and then be able to go from there.
"I don’t think refs come out intentionally trying to aggravate people so understanding they’re human, we’re human, they’re passionate, we’re passionate.
"It’s being able to find that middle ground where we can talk about it and move on. I’m not too frustrated or worried about that, that’s something we can’t control but we can control rebounding, we can control loose balls and we can control defence."
