it never was fair and it will never be fair. but in the past, homecourt meant you were immune to bad calls, now, divas get calls home and away.
This is one of the main reasons I was reluctant to get back into the NBA a few years back. I have almost zero trust in the integrity of the league and its officials. The fact that a guy like Joey Crawford still has a job is a severe indictment of the NBRA, and indeed, the NBA as a whole. But beyond that, it's a ridiculously difficult sport to officiate, maybe the most difficult in all of pro sports. That's the other half of the equation. There will always be bad calls, and just as importantly, bad no-calls, because the rules are simply too subjective and vague, and the pace is too fast, for anybody to come anywhere close to 100% accuracy. Still, I can handle that half of the problem as long as the vagueness and missed calls even out in the long term to be fair and equitable to all teams. What really bothers me is the favoring of superstars and veterans, and my suspicion that the league occasionally rigs games or even playoff series in favor of one team or another.
Not under Stern, at least. We'll see about Silver. The bottom line is that you have to hold the referees themselves accountable, and it needs to be transparent. What's so frustrating about officiating is that it's one of the few professions that defies the logic of supply and demand. There's an almost limitless supply of potential officials -- just look at all the college levels across the country -- yet it's basically unheard of for an NBA official to be replaced by a method other than retirement. Joey Crawford has zero business ever officiating another NBA game in his LIFE after some of the stunts he's pulled. He continues to do it because other than the occasional anger management course, he's never in fear for his job. If the biggest offender repeatedly receives slaps on the wrist, it's not hard to imagine what the "in-between" guys get. Nothing. Likewise, the "flopping fines" are great, but they're only going to be effective if they're directed to both the player doing it and the officials who stare right at them and let them get away with it. And a $5K fine would be a lot more threatening to someone who isn't getting paid $10 million per season. The overarching issue is the lack of transparency. The NBA says it has a review process. They owe it to the fans and players to let us see the "discipline" that's handed out. After the Donaghy scandal, Lakers-Kings, Wade-Mavs, it's clear that there's a serious credibility problem between the sport and the public. The easiest solution, and I think it would help the players become more respectful as well, is to show the public that you're doing something about it. The logic of "criticizing behind closed doors" is great in theory, but the NBA has a credibility problem that permeates throughout the league and its fanbase. It needs to do something about it.
There needs to be an age restiction for courtside refs. Perhaps as an olive branch they introduce a video referee role for the overaged guys.
Good point... Notice that some of the young officials call it as they see it while some of the veterans officials seem to make some controversial calls and non calls. Like I said, I'm not asking for any favoring of the Rockets. All I want is fairness in every game. If its a foul regardless of who they are, how many fouls that player has, who that player is, how many times that player went to the line etc, they should blow the whistle. I notice that Lin and Asik often gets hack a lot in the painted area and sometimes I don't really mind it but when Lin and Asik gets hacked and no whistle were blown, and on the other end, the officials would blow the whistle on the smallest bumps or ticky tack fouls, that's when I really get annoyed...
In the past, the fans that bought tickets to the game were the majority of revenue. Now, there are a flurry of gambling websites that I'm sure the NBA receives a revenue from.
Actually, you be surprised at how the NBRA works. The way the NBRA is running right now, it will never improve the officiating in the NBA. They never really do much to address the problems. Every pre-game, the league would email information to the officials about status, and what they should look for and such. But the league never really addresses a poorly officiated types of games. The League knows that certain officials have a good close relationship to certain coaches, owners, players, teams etc. But they never tried to address that problem in order to prevent biased calls or favoritism. Instead, the league would do anything to make it look like there's no such thing. Most of the time, referees, not the players decided the outcome of the game. The League could do plenty of things to improve the officiating of the NBA. But that is not Stern's focus right now. David Stern has a great business mind, but he never really had a feel for the game of basketball. After game 6 of the 2002 series between the Kings and Lakers, David Stern was protecting and covering for Dick Bavetta and his crew. Nothing was addressed or done after that situation. Stern never did anything but denied it all the way til the end. That's why the officiating will never improve because the league doesn't care about the integrity of the game.
Agree. The NBA is the only place where an official would get fired and then, get hired again to a higher position. The fact that the league never did anything to address the problems throughout the years. The Donaghy scandal was basically Tim Donaghy betting on games and his gambling problems. But because Donaghy got caught up in the mess, Stern decides to point all the fingers directly at him and blames everything on Tim without ever addressing the other problems that was going on. Its funny how Stern made it seem like Donaghy was the "rogue" to all the controversial games but the Wade/Mavs, Kings/Lakers series, Donaghy wasn't even officiating any of those games. Tim Donaghy has stated that he place bets and won about 80% of it because all he had to do was look at what official was officiating what games and such. Basically, Donaghy knew which officials favors who, or which players, coaches or owners that the officials dislike.... The fact that the league never addresses the problems and the credibility of the game and instead, uses Tim Donaghy's mistake as a scapegoat to all their problems. I love the NBA and basically, that's all I think about. But to see my favorite sport integrity and credibility goes out the door and the league doesn't care about it and does nothing really hurts. But maybe when Stern retires, the league can change a little bit but for now, nothing will change for the better of the game.
Lakers gettin murked in Boston, down 30 pts in da fourth lol. Kobe has 27 pts and ZERO assists lmfao Somebody on clutchfan said somethin true bout kobe not havin no balance to his game, dude either passes and only passes all game to look like he "tryna play team ball" or hell just shoot all game and never pass, which is da normal Kome
Every official is graded on every call in every game already. The NBA sometimes admits when a call was blown. While officials are not publicly reprimanded, I am sure that they regularly get lots of grief, in private, about bad games. And if their performance rating goes down, they can get their pay cut or lose plum assignments. People will always whine about officiating, but it is no worse than it has ever been.
