Officiating in the Playoffs

[Fred]

From the Bill Simmons mailbag at ESPN.com:
"Q: As we near the two-year anniversary of the Tim Donaghy scandal, is the putrid situation with NBA officiating getting any better?

A: Nah, it's as bad as ever. It's really, really bad. It's "I feel dumb loving this league so much" bad. It's "you lied to us when you said you'd fix this after Donaghy" bad. Let's forget about the consistent incompetence for a second -- it's not like we didn't know the playoffs wouldn't make us want to not punch a wall twice a night, and yes, that was a quadruple negative.

Here's what bothers me: The league promised us Donaghy was a rogue official, promised to clean things up, hired a new leader (the Sarge, Robert Johnson) and promised to get better. The media accepted the league's "investigation" at face value and moved on. (I blame myself as well.) So how can the following two things happen in Round 1?

No. 1: Joey Crawford reffed Game 3 of the Spurs-Mavs series in San Antonio. This guy was suspended for flipping out on Tim Duncan last season. The Spurs are convinced he hates them. Their 2007-08 season ended because of Crawford's non-call on Brent Barry's 3-pointer against the Lakers. There are seven other playoff matchups. How does this guy end up getting assigned to Game 3 in San Antonio? Why even risk it?

No. 2. On St. Patrick's Day, Doc Rivers and longtime nemesis Bill Kennedy got into such a staredown/screaming tiff that Doc was fined $25,000 and Kennedy was fined as well. Heading into Game 4, I was texting my Boston buddies, "The league needs this series to go seven, and they will screw us on the officials. You watch." One of your three officials? That's right ... Mr. Bill Kennedy. It was like seeing Ike and Tina get back together. I mean, why even go there? And that's before we mentioned the Boston Herald's report that two of the three members of Kennedy's Game 4 crew live in Chicago and greeted families after the game who were wearing Bulls gear. No, really."

Do you agree? I felt that the worst call of the playoffs was the no-call in Game 3 of the Mavs-Denver series. How can the officials call everything for 3 quarters, and then ignore an obvious foul. The biggest thing that frustrates me about NBA officiating is the lack of consistency. I agree with Simmons...the worst part of the NBA is the poor officiating, whether or not that's a directive from the league. It's gone overboard now, where physical play is being phased out. I long for the days of Bulls-Pistons (late 80's) and Bulls-Knicks (early 90's).

 

[dougthonus]

Maybe Simmons should quit his whining, because the refs handed his team game 5 by not calling a flagrant on Rondo with the punch to Miller's face, and didn't hand the Bulls game 7 when they should have suspended rondo for throwing Hinrich into the stands.

Really though, I haven't watched that much of the playoffs outside of the Bulls, but I haven't thought it's been that bad. I also thought the Bulls series (minus flagrants) was reffed pretty fairly. The game 4 thing he talks about is ridiculous given that he mentions the ref thing, but doesn't bring up any viable example as to how that game was poorly reffed for the Celtics.

 

[MADman24]

In any sport where there are many judgment calls everything is debatable so there will always be someone complaining about calls and I disagree that certain refs should be banned from officiating games in which they have a past incident with as this basically would side with the coaches and players and would cause even more of a loss of credibility for refs. The playoffs haven't really been alot different from the regular season, or any other year, as far as having some consistency issues but I don't see any real cause for concern.

If anyone thinks the officiating is bad in the NBA, you should see the balls and strikes calls by the umpires in baseball when the strikezone is imposed on the screen. Sure things aren't perfect but they could be alot worse.

 

[Hendu0520]

Great point Fred I've been screaming about the audacity of Mr. David Stern for not at least avoiding controversy. I think he is the best comish but he has an arrogance to him which shows that he is human and this is one of the two big ones.(The other is he is always fiddling with the game making new rules). Why would you put Crawford on any Spurs playoff game unless its the finals and he is on the crew, even if there is one other series going on he should ref that one just to avoid the questions. Also why have those Chicago refs doing the Bulls game, there were 3 other games that day, why even risk it, just send them to Cleveland or Detroit its not that far if it was to keep them close to home.

My main problem with the refs are the fact that they blow calls because they just aren't looking. I can't stand when they miss a double dribble, a guy step on the out of bounds line, traveling in a scuffle. Should they add 2 refs? How can they miss such blatent calls, my best example was the three pointer by Ben Gordon in Game 6 against Boston. The one they added on in the 4th quarter. Ben WAS 5 FEET BEHIND THE LINE, ARE YOU KIDDING ME REFS, HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU POSSIBLY CALL THAT A 2. I SAW IT RIGHT AWAY AND WAS FLABBERGASTED WHEN I REWOUND THE PLAY ON MY DVR AND SAW HE WAS A MILE, REPEAT A MILE BEHIND THE LINE.

The only explanation for plays like that is that they were not watching, HOW CAN THEY NOT BE WATCHING THE GUY WITH THE BALL? HUH? THAT MEANS THEY JUST PLAIN SUCK, WAS THERE A NICE RACK IN THE FIRST ROW?

I would love to sit down with that stupid guy on NBA TV that explains the refs, or the new ref Overlord and ask him how the hell they miss that, and then why it took till the 4th quarter to correct it. Really even the rest of the 1st quarter, all of the 2nd, all of Halftime, and the 3rd quarter wasn't enough time to see that Ben was so far behind the line that if he fell down forward his head wouldn't have touched it, ABSOLUTELY THE WORST OFFICIALS IN ALL OF SPORTS.

 

[Hendu0520]

MADman24 wrote:

In any sport where there are many judgment calls everything is debatable so there will always be someone complaining about calls and I disagree that certain refs should be banned from officiating games in which they have a past incident with as this basically would side with the coaches and players and would cause even more of a loss of credibility for refs. The playoffs haven't really been alot different from the regular season, or any other year, as far as having some consistency issues but I don't see any real cause for concern.

If anyone thinks the officiating is bad in the NBA, you should see the balls and strikes calls by the umpires in baseball when the strikezone is imposed on the screen. Sure things aren't perfect but they could be alot worse.

Overall they do a good job, but I just don't understand when they blow calls that all they had to do was see it and they didn't. Maybe put sideline officials sitting somewhere watching the lines to atleast take some responsibility off the others I don't know. But I can't stand it when they don't see something.

Oh and if David didn't put them in the situation it wouldn't be the teams winning because nobody would even notice. If Crawford refs another game that day do you think Tim Duncan is going to realize that and chuckle to himself, no. Regular season is fine, or the Finals but the playoffs when there are other games, c'mon Stern. If you put the refs from Chicago in Cleveland then no one would have said a thing, its not a big deal its what you should just do. How can they not at least be a little biased towards the teams where they live. That should be rule number one by the new Czar, refs can't ref the games of the closest team to their main residence, I would think that would already try to be avoided for some credibility. I know not everyone is a fan of the team they live in but oh well that would be my rule, its just common sense to me. Maybe that's not always feasible but all 3 refs were from Chicago rt? Damn all three c'mon who would do that?

 

[??? ??????]

The thing that bothers me is that the refs refused to call the flagrant on Rondo, and technicals on Garnett throughout the series, and then they went on a parade of flagrants and technicals in the second round, for much less.

 

[MADman24]

Yes it's terrible when they miss an obvious call like that Gordon 3 and maybe they should add a 4th ref but I think the NBA's officiating is far better and more consistent than the MLB and NCAA Basketball's so can't possibly be any worse than 3rd worse in major sports and 2nd worse in pro sports. Adding a 4th ref would probably decrease the chance of them missing obvious calls and I've felt that way for a while but given the current system I think they are doing ok.

The one horrible thing about the refs I see is that it seems they are getting close to players and coaches personally, I think there should be less chatter back and forth between the refs and players and coaches.

 

[clonetrooper264]

Needless to say, officiating will always be the subject of controversy. While there are several no calls that anger me greatly, on the whole the officiating isn't THAT bad. It's hard to ref a game you know, sometimes they mess up. It's just those times when something seems really obvious (Rondo punching Miller, Rondo throwing Kirk into the scorer's table) that really irk me because those are really obvious calls that anyone could make without reffing experience.

 

[Hendu0520]

MADman24 wrote:

Yes it's terrible when they miss an obvious call like that Gordon 3 and maybe they should add a 4th ref but I think the NBA's officiating is far better and more consistent than the MLB and NCAA Basketball's so can't possibly be any worse than 3rd worse in major sports and 2nd worse in pro sports. Adding a 4th ref would probably decrease the chance of them missing obvious calls and I've felt that way for a while but given the current system I think they are doing ok.

The one horrible thing about the refs I see is that it seems they are getting close to players and coaches personally, I think there should be less chatter back and forth between the refs and players and coaches.

Well I think it may be a product of the game. They have to make a lot more judgement calls then MLB umpires do. The strike zone really isn't a make or break part of the game like the refs can be in fouling out someone and calling or not calling a foul on a last play in the NBA. The reason for my logic is that if a ball comes in that close where an umpire gets to decide that batter should have swung. I don't really watch a lot of baseball but I don't think they call a lot of horrible obvious balls as strikes or vice versa, its usually close ones, where if its a 3-2 count that batter better swing. The calls at bases are not always called well but they are so rare it seldomly matters. So the NBA is also the toughest job in all of sports so maybe I was a little harsh calling them the worst in sports. That Ben Gordon play just gets my blood going, lol I was with my family and I wouldn't shut up about it all game. Ha, and when they added a point in the 4th everyone cheered, it was great.

Yes college is worse especially to big men, it is terrible what they call on someone down low. I just don't really consider college when talking about the pros, different level to me. College is JV.

 

[Diddy1122]

Everything changed for the current NBA on Nov. 19, 2004 at the Palace at Auburn Hills. A combination of a pointless hard foul, a stupid retaliation shove, and a drunken, classless fan turned the basketball world on its head. It was a sight we rarely ever see in sports, other than soccer where all the fans are batsh*t crazy. It was embarrassing, disgusting, and a giant black-eye for the league.

Since that night, the NBA has not been the same. The officiating and rule changes have been geared toward high scores and less physical contact. The days of Lambeer and Rodman throwin players into the stands are long gone. Refs blow their whistles so much now, sometimes they just do it to hear it. ahem*! inadvertent ahem*! I'm still waiting for Stern to institute a grading system for all NBA refs. It's done in the NFL, and the best Zebras officiate the premiere games. This needs to be done, and done quickly.

And it needs to start with Joey Crawford and Bennet Salvatore getting the axe.

 

[2ndcitydiehard]

MADman24 wrote:

Yes it's terrible when they miss an obvious call like that Gordon 3 and maybe they should add a 4th ref but I think the NBA's officiating is far better and more consistent than the MLB and NCAA Basketball's so can't possibly be any worse than 3rd worse in major sports and 2nd worse in pro sports. Adding a 4th ref would probably decrease the chance of them missing obvious calls and I've felt that way for a while but given the current system I think they are doing ok.

The one horrible thing about the refs I see is that it seems they are getting close to players and coaches personally, I think there should be less chatter back and forth between the refs and players and coaches.

I agree with a lot of what you have to say. Really though you should get off the MLB umps considering calling balls and strikes accurately is probably the most difficult thing any ref has to do. Just get behind the plate for a high school or little league game and then remember the guys in the MLB throw a lot harder and have a lot more movement on their pitches.

But lots of people ripping the refs for missing obvious things... well a lot of them are obvious given TV angles and a view of the whole court like we get but with how many things a ref needs to watch for in an NBA game... 10 moving players always pushing the boundaries on the rules, it's not hard to see how some things are missed.

Also, that sort of interaction between ref and coach/player is important. Like I said before these guys are always going to be pushing the boundries so it's important to have a given and take so everyone has an understanding of how things work.