Can a referee be fined?

That's a good question but I don't know. I would like to think something would happen, because the ref's are way out of control.

 

I believe that the NBA does have a system in place to censure refs who screw up but that they keep such things a carefully guarded secret. They don't want the public to ever hear about any punishments they might get. I remember after a bad call against Drexler (that was Crawford, wasn't it?), the ref didn't call any games in the playoffs or something. And it was something people noticed but writers never had any sort of formal statement from the league.

That would make some sense. I can see how a ref's credibility could be damaged if he didn't appear to have the league's full backing.

 

Yes and no.

Yes, there are provisions where he can be fined for circumventing the rules or regulations. However, don't hold your breath on that. The league rarely, if ever, airs it's intra-office dirty laundry in public.

The key to control of the referrees is the leagues use of supervisory control (yes it's in their their union agreement) that allows for assignments to be made or changed by managerial (head office) personnel.

In short, if a ref is found to be making repetitive mistakes (bad calls), drawing public ire (being controversial) or thwarting established (read that as usually "unwritten") practices, his assignments suddenly get hectic, he gets passed up on some hometown (or close to home) games, passed up on championship or high-profile "bonus" games, or they split him from his regular rotating crews.

Eventually, he either gets the picture and settles down, or he quits.

 

Referees go through one of the most difficult and complex review systems in all of sports. They have games almost every night in different cities across the country. Every night after a game, they have to sit down with a video of the game as a crew and review everything that happened. They also have to write a report and have it emailed back to the league offices before going to sleep, which is often well after 1 or 2am.

They are then REQUIRED to take the first flight they can get out of a city in the morning meaning usually prior to 8am so that they are guaranteed of making it to the next city on time.

I remember reading this and even hearing Cuban discuss how he isn't against the officials as much as he is against the system that is in place. His beef seems to be more with the league and its policies than the individual referees.

 

As BrianKagy pointed out in another thread, this was Jake O'Donnell. He actually never coached again, ever.

 

This is just r****ded. In every other profession, if youre not doing your job well, you are fired. Can't the NBA just grow some balls and actually take action themselves, rather than force refs out of the league.

 

Jake O'Donnell was a coach???

 

You try firing a union member!

 

I notified the Nba front office today about the poor and lousy officiating citing that Cubans right about these Refs.

You start fining them for mistakes publicly and they stop these calls.

I gave them several incidents about quite a few teams on its questionable calls. If the nba would bring atleast 1 instant replay call per game per team this would be so much better!

I do not feel sympathy for Refs no matter how they stay up late and have to fill out reports. If they cannot handle the job then quit.
Needless to say JOEY CRAWFORDS a marked man now when he steps foot in the Compaq center.

I blame David stern for this lackless effort on making the Nba a better organization than what it is now. The reason Cubans getting fined is because Nba does not want something this serious being a hot topic now. I think Refs have psychological problems when a player pisses them off they seek revenge and they know they can get away with it because they all think their some god with a huge whistle.

Everyone email them call them till their phone lines bust through the roof. I am waiting for barkley to say something good because when he speaks the NBA fans listen and respond!

 

I think they all need to be fined for making bad calls! Don't the players get fined fined for each technical? Whether it's right or wrong? The NBA needs some kind of instant replay like the NFL. Not every call the ref makes is going to be right, and the league needs to clean up some of their dirty laundry anyway. When the fans start paying to see the ref's, then the ref's should be allowed to dictate the outcome of a game! Until then, they need to back off!!!!!