How does the NBA get away with such blatantly biased officiating?

I think the refs call a pretty fair game. They're trying to keep it exciting while being as fair as possible...sure, it seems like we get the short end of the stick but that's how every team feels.
Hell, read the Lakers boards, they all think the refs screwed them out of the win.

 

The Fakers fans.... sigh

They have a monster pipe permanently implanted in their mouth

 

i'm not complaining....we got the last 3 calls today: sura running into odom for the foul, yao's questionable block on the other end (could have been a foul but was not called), and yao getting fouled on the last play.

They could have called sura's play a charge and could have let yao's play go because it did seem like he lost posession of the ball before he got fouled.

They're biased against us most of the time, but i'm glad we got some of the calls today.

 

I don't know. Howard was fouled twice with no call, and the Yao no-call was a consequence of that. Yao was clearly whacked from behind on the last play. Christ, we should not feel bad about getting the benefit of a few borderline calls in our own building. That's how it's supposed to be, people. If we had a more passionate audience at the games we'd get the benefit of even more ridiculous calls, like they do in Utah.

 

You guys do realize that every fan of every team in the league believes that the officials are blatantly biased against them and them alone, and can cite numerous examples of blown calls to prove it, right?

 

The truth is, every sport relies on big judgement calls by the refs. If you think the NFL refs can't affect the outcome of a game much, then you have a short term memory. Plenty of NFL games, including important playoff games, have been blown by the officials on judgement calls. And we're not even talking about when officials want to call holding penalties and when they don't. Baseball is affected less, mainly because other than the strike zone, which the pitchers can adjust to, there's not much umpires can do. Still, have been HRs-turned-into-doubles type stuffs which have screwed over teams. And remember back when Eric Gregg gave the Marlins the NL championship with his ridiculous strike zone?

I do believe the problem in the NBA is more serious than the other sports. It's harder for an NBA to accurately see what happens exactly on the court than other sports. But it's not easy to formulate a solution either.

 

Thank you. It's incredibly flip to suggest otherwise, these guys screw up a lot, but they also get a hell of a lot right and work their asses off while preparing for the game.

It's a constant frustration, their are a ton of blown calls each game, but it's an impossible game to call.

http://www.thebrushback.com/Archives/nbafouls_full.htm

 

To be fair, I've supported the Lakers for many years (before the Kobe tragedy) and we do get some pretty sweet calls.

 

Another thing to watch out for is I believe the refs seem to assist runs by losing teams that are otherwise hopelessly behind in the game. I agree there seemed to be a few questionable calls in the 4th in the Lakers' favor, but nothing that jumped out at me until the game started getting too close.

The first call that bothered me was the jumpball late in the 4th that the TV announcers agreed went off Odom out of bounds following a good defensive play from Howard. A jumpball with Odom is tantamount to giving it back to LA.

But the killer was Odom's "block" on Sura very late in the game that was clearly goaltending, which could have cost the ballgame. As it was, Sura got only one point later in the possession. Something as simple and cut-and-dried as goaltending (when it clearly goes off the backboard first), is inexcusable to miss. If they need another set of eyes on the court (like at the table), then so be it, but get that call right, it might have decided the game.

(Of course, Odom is the star right now for the Lakers, so the "star treatment" theory still holds. Howard and Sura < Odom, therefore he gets the benefit. Anyone that claims the Rockets were the beneficiaries with the free throws at the end, I would submit those were at the very least 50-50 calls, not completely blown calls as were the other ones).

And just because every cities' fans believe they are getting unfair treatment doesn't invalidate the original point. Those fans may think that, but I think it's pretty obvious what's going on when you watch two teams that you have no stake in and thus you can become more objective in your analysis. The Lakers/Kings, Lakers/Timberwolves playoff series come to mind.

 

while it may be true everyone thinks the refs screw them, i don't see how anyone can seriously dispute the fact that some teams get the calls. the poster-child for this the last few years has of course been the lakers. and it's not really up for debate that they got/get the calls.


kobe and shaq had (and continue to have to some degree) virtual carte blanche during those years. they could get their 4th fouls in the 3rd quarter (or 5th in the 4th) and phil wouldn't even dream of taking them out b/c there was just no way they were going to call that next foul unless they committed murder on the court. i remember kobe with 5 going up against rasheed one time for a jumper and when he saw sheed was going to block it, he just stuck his hand into sheed's chest, obvious push off. do the refs call the offensive foul? of course not. but hey, kobe's a star, no call, play on. but nope, they actually call rasheed for the damn foul. luckily portland went on to win that game, but damn that was a bad call. and the problem isn't so much that kobe and shaq got those calls (because all stars in the nba get those calls*), it's that it extended to the entire laker team.

of course the pinnacle of favoritism was game 6 against the kings in the WCF when the lakers shot 27 4th quarter free throws to stay alive in the series. scot pollard was called for no less than 3 phantom fouls in that game and chris webber picked up his 5th foul on a charge that was so obviously a block on horry (he was turning away from the basket and horry just lunged into webber and fell) that walton and snapper had trouble not laughing as they went to commercial break watching the replay. it was a travesty and in my mind does illegitimize that lakers championship (it may not be a widely held view but i have a hard time as seeing anyone other than sacramento as the best team that year and the rightful champion). that was pretty much stolen from the kings. and essentially every writer who reported on it agreed. bill simmons said it was the worst biased officiating of the last 10 years and maybe more, david aldridge talked about lakers fans saying they wanted to win "but not like that." it was a joke.

and i originally thought game 1 in that series was one of the most lakers biased games i had seen. to be fair, game 5 was very heavily kings-biased (shaq fouled out while not shooting one free throw) but that just equaled out the horrible second half of game 4 where the lakers played rugby with bibby and got away with it. if game 6 wasn't about keeping the lakers going, at the very least it was about ratings as the nba knew game 7 would be one of the most anticipated matchups in a long time. and it was. and it was actually an evenly officiated game that was a thriller to watch (probably the most i've been into a game not involving the rockets). the fact sacremento forced OT in a game they shot an unbelievable 2-20 on 3's and something like 16-30 on ft's only further served to show how much better the kings could be than the lakers on a level ref playing field.

then there was that one game against minnesota where it seemed the refs tried to top themselves with each call against minny. i think even doug collins was starting to think the refs were helping the lakers (and that's hard to do).

so anyone arguing the lakers, or the bulls during their run, didn't get immensely favorable officiating i would have to argue wasn't watching. and it's not because i think the officials are stupid or suck. i see them make calls that clearly indicate they aren't and don't. i know that they know that that's how the league wants it.

*as for star player calls. that's sort of an accepted part of basketball and i kind of like it. it's often so hard to tell if a guy actually blocked or stripped a ball cleanly that if kevin garnett goes to the basket and misses a layup and joel pryzbilla was challenging him, you just assume kg must've been fouled. or if tim duncan probably goes over a guy's back but the guy gets the rebound anyway, you just let the foul go so the star can stay in the game. not really fair, but since i see it as a jersey-independent thing (if you have a star, they get the calls, unless it's yao) i tend to not have a big problem with it. i'm sure cleveland got all sorts of calls against it for years, but now that they have lebron i'm sure they love star treatment. and some other team will get a star and they'll love star treatment. and on it will go.

it's the big market catering that hurts the integrity of the league. and lest you think i just think everyone who wins gets favorable treatment, i don't. i hate the freakin' spurs and though it seems they're starting to get more calls, i didn't think either of their titles were tainted by refs. they were just better. and just so you think i don't only think this about teams i root against, there's duke. i'm a huge duke fan and i know they get craploads of favorable calls. i sometimes feel bad while watching to see how bad the refs screw the other team. once the game is over you tend to forget about it and be happy they won, but during the game it can be pretty ridiculous.