The blazers were probably feeling that way since in OT, the refs actually called the game like it should have been called the entire game. They wouldn't let Ratliff maul Yao, and called two quick fouls on him and got him to foul out. They didn't let Dale Davis even attempt to guard Yao with the two-hand in the back technique, and called those fouls. And on the other end, they stopped calling the overly cheap ones on the Rockets, as they realized that we're just too good of a defensive team to have the refs bail them out on silly fouls on even worse shots. I guess the refs realized that there was no more needing to keep Blazers out of foul trouble since the game was almost over. I just wish they would have come to that conclusion earlier... would have saved us the extra 5 minutes of OT.
I'm thinking of starting a website that records every bad calls or no calls from each game, and hopefully it will get NBA's attentions someday, anybody want to help out on this project?
Before u waste your time, you should know the league realizes their best officials still miss 10% of the calls and they think that is pretty good. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.hts/sports/2345644 Jan. 10, 2004, 12:23AM Out to separate fact from fiction NBA hopes to dispel officiating myths By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle NEW YORK -- Jeff Van Gundy is wrong. But he is in good company. The NBA director of officiating and the league's vice president for basketball operations believe Phil Jackson is wrong, too. So is Rick Adelman. And especially Mark Cuban. There are myths about officiating that Ronnie Nunn and Stu Jackson want to end. Getting rid of myths was a motivating factor for Friday's NBA media seminar on the extensive daily review process of referees. Van Gundy's myth -- and he might prefer that Yao Ming still believe it -- is that "men of size" must accept that they will receive more contact than other players. "That's a myth, and I want to remove that myth," said Nunn, who was an NBA official 19 years before becoming director of officials this season to help lead the increasingly intense and involved training process. "They deserve at 7-6 what people deserve at 5-6. Sometimes, there's a natural tendency to put certain contact into an incidental area where maybe it wasn't. "You have to work with people with size and give them the same due process you do with people that are smaller." There are myths that come up much more often. The reviews of every whistle -- first by "standard observers" in the arena, then on tape that night and again on tape the next day by the officials and the league staff -- offer chances to separate fact from fiction. "Conspiracy theories," Jackson said of the myths he would like to end. "Big market, small market. "That the referees have an agenda going into a game against a team or a player. Those are the strongest myths we wish would go away." Nunn argued that a late whistle is usually the sign of a good official. "You don't want a quicker whistle on any contact in the NBA," Nunn said. "You want to absorb the play. Late whistles are good. A great official always has a later whistle. "Sometimes people look like they're grabbed for a moment, and they're not. And we think, `was the grab that strong?' We call it the `RSBQ.' If it doesn't change a player's rhythm, speed, balance, quickness, we will let it go." But most of all, the two-hour session was to dispute the notion there is no accountability for NBA officials. A year ago, Nunn said observers attended 40 percent of NBA games. This season, he said they will file reports from 99 percent of games, missing only for scheduling problems or illnesses. Their work is treated like the scouts: they gather data. The information is then reviewed and processed in the league office, with every call analyzed for accuracy -- labeled a good call, incorrect call, not sure, non-call incorrect or non-call correct -- and technique. Nunn and Jackson said the emphasis is on training, but there is no way to have that much data without judging performance. "I hear every day, `if a referee misses two calls, did you fine him or do something to him,' " Jackson said. "I say, `if a player is 0-for-6 in the first quarter, did you suspend him or did you fine him.' This is not to be punitive. It is for education and development, to help him be the best official he can be." Of course, if coaches suspended players for 0-for-6 quarters, games would have to be canceled because teams wouldn't have enough players. But Nunn said officials are more aware than ever about how closely they are being watched. It turns out to be much easier to ignore a screaming fan in the arena than a boss in the office with his thumb on the rewind button. "We're all accountable," Nunn said. "I talk to my officials about being accountable. I'm here to coach them and to train them. I'm supposed to be the expert in the office. When Stu (a former Knicks coach) and I talk to coaches, he can bring a coach's perspective, which I think is great. I can bring an official's perspective. That's the kind of blend I think we have. I think there's a lot of accountability. Are you kidding me? "We're a better staff. The young people we get today are better than we were when we came along, the (Steve) Javies and the (Joey) Crawfords and (Bennett) Salvatores and the (Bernie) Fryers. They are better trained. But we have also kept up with the issues and training and improved. Right now, we are rising to another level. Even the staff is recognizing they are being watched closely. Believe me it's tough. I'm sweating to get them to recognize we want to be better than we were." But with that said, he also revealed the truth that makes his officials' jobs so thankless. No matter how much evaluation and training officials get, the best will be wrong 10 percent of the time. "We want to make sure the staff is somewhere near the 90 percentile, 88 and up," Nunn said. "And of course, the more pivotal game, more high focus. We have better officials of course. We want to make sure they're at least in the low 90s, between 91 and 94. "But also, I think besides wanting to get to the 90 to 94 percentile, we hope the mistakes are not the pivotal mistakes of the game, i.e. a sixth foul on a critical player, judgment late in the game on a block-charge, a steal when it was really foul, and a team wins the game because of that."
Coaches have to show they have their backs too it cuts both ways JVG hasn't shown to be out there complaining for his guys this is the 1st time it has happened . . . It is like being on the other person side in an argument with your wife. . . . though u maybe right. . .u still gotta go home with her. Rocket River
You really believe that BS? Refs are screwing every players who dissed them. VC, Ray Allen, Shaq, and now Francis. Watch their team play before and after, it's not coincident!!
Every fan, coach, or player believes that his team is screwed by the officials. Yes, including Lakers fans. I know. I live in LA. I've never heard anyone say his team got special favors from the refs. It just tells you we are all biased. I am glad that the league is doing something to improve officiating. Up until last season, I felt that poor officiating had come to a point where the league's credibility would be questioned.
That artical is purely BS. Jackson and Nunn can go to hell. Flopping still runs rampant in this league and it's ruining the integrity of the game.
You normally don't lose your balance or rhythm if you get PUSHED in the back using TWO hands by a big strong guy....nope.
HHHMMMMMMMM.......a late whistle is the sign of a good official? I often believe they'll wait to toot the whistle based on whether or not the ball goes in the basket.....and THAT ain't right. Yao is too good from the freethrow line to get a lot of fouls........
Lets get this one clear. I don't think the 10 percent includes non calls that they missed. It's 10 percent of all calls ONLY correct? I've seen so many games where the refs were too scared to get boo'ed by the home crowd and so they let things go. I wonder if they factored those into that 10 percent? They probably made up the 10 percent number anyway so why am I wasting my time.
I think you're missing the point of what the people are trying to say here. Everyone knows that officials make mistakes. If they're natural, UNBIASED mistakes, things will even out in the long run. No one here will criticize officials for missing some calls. Hey, it happens. But it's when officials are becoming unfair that you start to wonder. Look at the number of FTs the Rockets have shot the last few games, against opposing teams. There was even an instance in the 4th quarter last night when the whistle blew BEFORE a Blazer went up with the shot, and he got FTs for a shooting foul. There are "mistakes", and then there "calls that are blatantly biased".
Free throw in our Recent 4 games: Road vs blazers: 9/11 : 21/33 Road vs kings: 12/13 : 23/31 Road vs warriors: 16/19 : 25/31 Home vs suns: 29/40 : 18/25(Rox the latter) OMG! This is Ridiculous!
In yesterday's game, the refs cancelled two AND 1 for Rox, one by MO in the 3rd quarter, another by Yao. While in the 4th quarter, when Blazers led us 79:78, ref blew the whistle, called Spoon a defensive foul on Zach Randolph. Right after the whistle, Zach jumped up and made a shot. The ref gave him a 2+1! When the same thing happens on us, we've received no 2+1, even no 2 free throws!
Whenever I hear the NBA defend its officials, I think of game 6 of the NBA Finals between the Lakers and Pacers. And I remember how obvious it was that Kobe Bryant was consistently getting foul calls when he was really getting blocked clean. LA might have won any way. But there is not an iota of doubt in my mind that Indiana got screwed. I was routing for LA, by the way.
There are two relevant facts of NBA life: 1) Lobbying matters. It doesn't get you the last call, but it gets you the next. Artful lobbying changes what the ref looks for. 2) The rules change to tame the best players. Refs will let defenders do stuff to Yao just because that's the only way to stop him. This bias will get worse, not better, as he improves. And we will still win. Get used to it.
Really? I think the officiating is worse. However, I also think the refs tend to be more even, at least in conference games... and they're also less shameless in making make-up calls, which I think are generally a good thing. There's one thing I actually think is far worse in college: college referees will not foul out a team's best player early in the game, if it's remotely possible. They usually don't even put them in bad foul trouble if they get 2 or 3 early. The most obvious example to a Texas fan was Carmelo Anthony last year. In the Final 4 game, he picked up 3 pretty quickly. Then, he kept fouling... and fouling... and fouling... and fouling... without any more calls until the game was pretty much over. At first, I think it's ok. But once Anthony had realized that they weren't going to call the foul, and was taking advantage of it... it got ridiculous.
You are exactly on point with Shaq. He initiates 85% of the contact on the offensive end, so the refs have no choice. They can't foul him out on offensive fouls, so the only way to even up the fouls with Shaq is to let the defenders bang on him because he does so much banging on the defenders. Yao is suffering from the Shaq effect. He's a truly dominant big man, so much bigger than the defenders. And the refs are in a Shaq state of mind. They have been letting Shaq get banged on for so many years that they are putting Yao in the same category, without realizing that he doesn't initiate all the contact like Shaq does. But instead of giving him the calls on offense, they are hitting him with any little ticky tacky foul because they don't want the game to get away from them the way it has gotten away from them the last 10 years with Shaq hooking defenders and knocking people over left and right in the post. On top of that you have Francis who has a bad rap as a whiner, so Yao is having to pay for Francis' mouth too. I agree with someone earlier who said it was pretty stupid for Van Gundy to call out his own players for being whiners. All that did was give the refs an excuse to not call anything. Stevie gets absolutely zero calls on his drives to the hoopssave the offensive foul call. And he gets mugged 90% of the time that he goes inside. It's a shame when supposedly grown up old men have to resort to those kinds of tactics with players thinking they have to get even instead of worrying about preserving the integrity of the game. It is ridiculous that we have to talk about the refereeing. And it is ridiculous that the refs keep teams and hand games to teams because of their bias against a player. It destroys the integrity of the game. But sad to say, in this era of the NBA, and children playing the game, we have immature and unethical referees blowing the whistle. Maybe they deserve each other, the whining cry baby spoiled kids playing the game, and the immature, unethical, oversensitive, egotistical referees making the calls. Last night was a perfect example of a game warped by the referees. They kept Portland in that game until they finally forced overtime. If that game had been called fair and square, the Rockets would have won by at least 10 points and would have come down the stretch coasting. Instead, fortunately for us, they have to pull one out of the fire in overtime. The game was not that close. Anybody watching could see that the Rockets were dominating the Blazers the whole live long night. The only thing they couldn't do was force the refs to blow the whistle even..........................and the refs did not blow the whistle even. They discriminated...........................against the Rockets.............again.
