So I followed a bunch of different sides of this and the Bucks fans were complaining just as much.
Lots of pushing off by the Jays, for example.
Leads me to one conclusion;
REFS ARE TERRIBLE IN THIS LEAGUE
System is broken
I think the biggest issue is a) lack of consistency and b) lack of accountability. I think most fans and players would be ok with refs making mistakes, they're human after all. And fans and players will always complain when decisions don't go their way, that's ok too. But the worst thing is when there's a perceived lack of consistency when it comes to decisions e.g. letting someone push off and not letting someone else. The whole "stars get good whistles" syndrome. That's where the feeling of unfairness comes in for people. Or they choose to referee the game a certain way and then change in the 2nd half. It's bad enough to have inconsistency in how the rules are interpreted by different referees, but I think players and fans can get used to that as long as individual referees are consistent, which most often they aren't. Then there's the "make up call" - where they make a mistake and make it up by making another mistakes. It just introduces the idea that they are managing the game vs refereeing the game.
Then the lack of accountability is another annoying one. Obviously it's a tough job. I don't know how many aspiring referees there are out there, or how big the pool of referees they can pick from are. But when you see the same names making the same mistakes for years upon years, you wonder if there is any accountability for them. There is for players, they can get benched. Coaches can get fired. It doesn't seem like referees are held accountable. Maybe they are in the background, I don't know. We don't need public hangings and floggings of referees that make mistakes, God knows they are human and doing a tough job, but taking steps to make the profession more accountable for mistakes would be a step in the right direction.
