Revamping the referee system

[reggie35]

I ve felt like the NBA and officials should be under separate hats,the NBA (commissioner)would have very little input to officiating.I think they should(officials)be ran by a Refs Organization that is owned by private business,with a lot of the old NBA rules incorporated,alone with some of the new,but the main thing is,David Stern has less to do with it.

This is a great idea but there's no way Stern lets that happen. It would improve the integrity of the game if say, the NCAA and NBA refs formed a separate organization that policed itself.

As for rules changes that could improve things, I'd add one more ref (at the minimum in the playoffs like baseball). I'd get rid of the no charge zone under the basket and perhaps charges and blocking all together. It's called so inconsistently.

I really like the idea of getting the refs off the floor and in front of the TV, but then how will Kobe whine to the refs and how will Rasheed pick up technicals?

[cuckroller]

All we need is consistency within games. Watching Game 3 last night I can't  help but think there has to be some truth to Donaghy's words. I remember Powe just getting hammered by Turiaf and the announcers went "great block"! Then there was a replay of Kobe from 2 possessions earlier, and the same thing happened  for every questionable call (thankfully I have a DVR so I confirmed the fouls). And it was more than the non-calls and phantom calls, PP was getting mugged on double teams and called for every possible foul, and it took him out of the first half.

I'm not saying this just to complain about the loss. I'm sure if I watched Game 2 more closely, and without a Boston bias, I would see similar tendencies going against LA. The disparity of calls in that game too big a red flag to ignore.

I've always thought the crowd and atmosphere motivated the refs to make calls for the home team, but ever since the scandal I've been more observant. And it's obvious the refs have a significant impact on the final outcome of the game, and either often have a bias or are incapable of doing their jobs well.

What really bothers me is that right after the game every member of the media, local and national, made sure to start off by mentioning that LA deserved all the calls because they were more aggressive. Van Gundy was even forced to backtrack on a 2002 outburst that he knew Yao Ming was being targeted by refs, just because he didn't want to validate Donaghy. Its like there was a league mandate that the refs cannot be criticized and no one can comment on the fact that the Celts got the majority of calls against them just as everyone had predicted it. Before the game the media was saying, let's see if the refs impact the game and when they blatantly did it was swept under the rug. I smell a 7 game series.

Good observations.  As far as the old maxim that in basketball aggressiveness translates into fouls called, I rather think we have been trained into thinking this by the League, and by the media, much like Pavlov's Dogs.

This is a red hot subject, and one destined to have an impact.  The integrity (and the popularity) of the game that all true fans, of whatever affiliation, love so much is now being threatened by some rather murky dealings perhaps involving the League.

We are talking about it also in Lakerland.  I have been trying to bring up the subject with mixed results.  I think the older fans get it.  The younger ones seem to think that burying their heads under the sand is the best thing to do.  They are wrong.  Something must be done about this.

Some things from Lakerland:


http://lakers.topbuzz.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-15372.html
http://lakers.topbuzz.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-15343.html

I wonder if there is some way to band all of the true fans, regardless of franchise affiliation, together and somehow influence the League on this.  Tough, as it seems that they are the ones with dirty laundry to wash, but who knows!

[Change]

1st) The league needs to clean house start from the top yes: David Stern should be FIRED!
2nd) Fire every referee the good ones with the bad ones.
3rd) Hire a separate agency that Employees the referees.
4th) Communicate better with the players, coaches, and even the fans.
5th) Don't be so secretive



thats all i can come up with for now.

[BringToughnessBack]

How about banning players complaining/talking to the refs about fouls..no talking to the refs allowed might allow the refs to focus on the game without worrying about stepping on stars toes. Refs are human, like everyone else, I am sure emotion and constant complaining from the players get to them whether they want to admit or not. I think by banning talk from Players to Refs in the game, it would improve things vastly. I for one am sick of seeing the stars constantly up in the faces of the refs and showing them up with facial gestures and large arm movements.

The Players need to worry about playing the game, not officiating it and The Refs need to worry about watching the game, not having a 48 minutes conversation with the stars.

Let the League review game performances of the refs on a regular basis as well.

[BballTim]

How about banning players complaining/talking to the refs about fouls..no talking to the refs allowed might allow the refs to focus on the game without worrying about stepping on stars toes. Refs are human, like everyone else, I am sure emotion and constant complaining from the players get to them whether they want to admit or not. I think by banning talk from Players to Refs in the game, it would improve things vastly. I for one am sick of seeing the stars constantly up in the faces of the refs and showing them up with facial gestures and large arm movements.

The Players need to worry about playing the game, not officiating it and The Refs need to worry about watching the game, not having a 48 minutes conversation with the stars.

Let the League review game performances of the refs on a regular basis as well.

  The league does review the game performances. in fact, they review every call and every play. For better or for worse, they're getting exactly the kind of refereeing that they want.

[Finkelskyhook]

Pull out the rulebook.  Give the directive that the rulebook applies to all players at all stages of the game without exception.  Technicals for flopping. 

[Yakmanev]

Have a lottery at the begining of the year to determine what refs call what games and when. This way there is no human manipulation of putting a certain guy with a certain team to make things happen.

[Finkelskyhook]

The solution to this is patently simple.  Apply the rulebook as it is to every player in every situation the same way.

The reason Donaghy got away with what he got away with is because subjectivity and officiating standards by player became the norm.  He didn't stand out at all.  In the pre-Jordan era, he would have been busted maybe not the first outrageous call....But definitely the second.  Because pre-Jordan, a foul on Magic was a foul on Joe Bryant.  No difference.  Somebody fouls the messiah and it's a flagrant II. The same fouls committed on Brian Scalabrine is a no-call. 

It's easy to get away with a lot in that environment.

[Manzana]

After the allegations that Donaghy put out there yesterday, I was thinking about this situation and wondered. Do the referees fall under the NBA? Are they paid by the NBA or are they an outside source? I just wonder if the refs were hired as a contractor or as an organization that ran itself and the NBA had nothing to do with the group.. I don't know if I can really explain it.

But if the referees were totally separate from the NBA, maybe they could police themselves better and be less biased? Just throwing that out there.

[BballTim]

  I'm not in favor of the separate entity. The nba would be paying for the refs with no control over them. And they do need control over them. They need to control their training and they need to control how they call the game. They just need to insist that the refs make the same calls for all the players and for all the teams and (hopefully) at all times. The NFL controls their refs, and you don't hear many complaints about systematic bad calls that favor individual players.