In fact, here's an example that happened at a game last year where a young man's father had been killed three nights before, and he was at the free throw line. Most sports people would say that's gone beyond what the game is supposed to be about. We could change it if we wanted to put a higher premium on cleverness, on rudeness, on abrasiveness or intimidation. If we want to make that part of the game we can define it so, but for the most part we want skill. When we look at the skills that we like to admire in basketball, for instance, it isn't the ability to say nasty things and upset your opponent.
Officials expect athletes to bend and break rules.
To expect something means you can predict or anticipate it as being something that people do. The question of ethics is what one should do. Discussion eventually turned to the Women's World Cup championship game last summer in which U.S. goaltender Brianna Scurry intentionally broke from her position early to block a penalty kick. Scurry subsequently claimed that she had tested the referee earlier and discovered that an early break would not draw a penalty. She was then asked about that by The Los Angeles Times and her reply was that it's only cheating if you get caught.