James Harden: 'Can't have two officials in a professional game'

[Darío SpanishFan]

Until the last seven seconds of the game, the officiating had been awful...against us. Walter McCarty was frustrated, Jay Larrañaga the same, Yabusele wanted to eat those two idiots with the whistle and Stevens had the word ANGER painted on his face (me too). Even the crowd cheered ironically the moment they called a Rockets' foul after some minutes of delusional calls.

I can't believe Harden's words taking into account the whole game and the usual way he is protected by the refs.

[dreamgreen]

Until the last seven seconds of the game, the officiating had been awful...against us. Walter McCarty was frustrated, Jay Larrañaga the same, Yabusele wanted to eat those two idiots with the whistle and Stevens had the word ANGER painted on his face (me too). Even the crowd cheered ironically the moment they called a Rockets' foul after some minutes of delusional calls.

I can't believe Harden's words taking into account the whole game and the usual way he is protected by the refs.

Exactly! The league should fine Harden for being a cry baby he is obviously shameless when it comes crying!

[Roy H.]

I agree with Harden. If current league rules call for 3 officials, then there should be an alternate official on site.

[Big333223]

It is weird that the NBA doesn't have a standby ref for cases like this.

But lol at Harden complaining about refs. Like the thing about Harden is he just doesn't get the calls. Give me a break. And on a night when he shot 15 FT's, no less.

[tonydelk]

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/21907159/james-harden-houston-rockets-critical-late-game-calls-two-referee-crew-boston-celtics-game


BOSTON -- Whistled for two critical offensive fouls in the final 7.3 seconds of play in Thursday's loss to the Boston Celtics, Houston Rockets star James Harden vented about a rare two-man referee crew and the late-game calls against him.

"Well, first of all, I'm wondering how do you only have two officials on a national TV game? That's the first question," said Harden, whose first offensive foul allowed Boston to take its only lead of the game with 3.7 seconds to play. The second prevented Houston from having more than a last-second heave after Boston rallied from 26 down for a 99-98 triumph at TD Garden.

Thursday's game featured only two on-court officials after referee Mark Lindsay hurt his back during pregame warm-ups, according to the Celtics. That left only referees Tony Brothers and Gediminas Petraitis to call the game.

I have to agree with Harden but the Rockets got a ton of calls go their way.  Both fouls called on Harden were legit.  The refs could have called Smart for holding on that 1st call but they usually let them play and get away with those small holds at the end of games.  What you can't do is run a player over and throw him to the ground in front of a ref.

[Rakulp]

I agree with Harden. If current league rules call for 3 officials, then there should be an alternate official on site.

But, since they played the game any way, then those same current league rules must allow for such a situation...otherwise they played an illegal game last night, right?

And the quantity of referees played no part in Harden's two offensive fouls, as a referee was standing right there at both of them.  It's not like the call came from the other side of the field, like in a football game.  The referee had a clear view, and in his judgement, two offensive fouls were committed.

Rak

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Chuck, Shaq, and Kenny actually had a good point about this in the postgame.

They should have 3 officials, but he wasn't complaining about the officiating when he was up 26, and both fouls were the correct calls at the end.

[saltlover]

I agree with Harden. If current league rules call for 3 officials, then there should be an alternate official on site.

Eh, I think only the NFL has standby officials for regular season games, and that’s because they a) play so few games, and b) have so many officials on the field at once.  The NBA would have to increase the number of refs by about 33% to have an extra ref at every game.  This makes no sense for the 1-3 games per year that the standby is needed.  They have a standby for the playoffs.  That’s all they need.

[green_bballers13]

I agree with Harden. If current league rules call for 3 officials, then there should be an alternate official on site.

I think many would agree that the NBA should follow its own rules.

I think the issue is that James Harden looks like a crybaby for blaming his bad loss on anything besides himself. If he had more composure at the end of the game, this wouldn't have been an issue.

[droopdog7]

Harden isn’t completely wrong though.  Having only two officials definitely affected the officiating overal.  It was a bad bad game for the refs.

[Roy H.]

I agree with Harden. If current league rules call for 3 officials, then there should be an alternate official on site.

I think many would agree that the NBA should follow its own rules.

I think the issue is that James Harden looks like a crybaby for blaming his bad loss on anything besides himself. If he had more composure at the end of the game, this wouldn't have been an issue.

Yeah, Harden might get more calls than any guy in the NBA. He’s being whiny because he, in particular, blew the game.

[bdm860]

Having two refs used to be the norm in the NBA. Both Bill Russell and Tom Heinson have said that today's problems with officiating are because they switched to three refs. Harden should learn a thing or two about NBA history.

Ya the NBA didn't go to 3 refs until 1989.  Here's a NYT article talking about the cost and impact of it at the time:

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/22/sports/nba-may-add-a-third-referee.html

''The game has become faster and quicker and is being played by bigger people,'' said Rod Thorn, the executive vice president of operations, ''and it's our opinion that an extra pair of eyes would aid in covering the entire court more.''

''With two officials, there are times now that the entire court is not covered,'' Thorn said. ''With a third official it reduces the decisions each official has to make from one-half to a third of the court. It's also our feeling that with six pair of eyes watching the court, fewer violent acts would go undetected, and the players will become aware that they no longer can get away with some of the cute physical things they may have gotten away with that two officials have been unable to pick up.''

Would that mean calling more fouls and slowing up the game?

''Not necessarily,'' said Thorn. ''There was no appreciable change when the college game went to three officials until the advent of the 45-second shooting clock. It increased then because more shots were being taken.''

The N.B.A. used three officials during the 1978-79 season, but the owners eliminated the practice the following season, saying it was too costly.

According to Thorn, the cost of adding the extra official ''would be in excess of $1 million a year,'' for salaries, travel and the like. The N.B.A., which employs 33 referees, would need 15 additional officials.

Crazy to think how 2 refs was the norm for a while, yet it seems so foreign now.  Personally I think the NBA would benefit from a 4th ref.  One on each sideline and baseline, which I think would help on a lot of fast break calls.

[fairweatherfan]

Chuck, Shaq, and Kenny actually had a good point about this in the postgame.

They should have 3 officials, but he wasn't complaining about the officiating when he was up 26, and both fouls were the correct calls at the end.

Yeah Harden's not wrong overall - 2 officials instead of 3 changes the game, and last night not for the better. A lot of blown calls, some egregious. I think most went against us, but I'm biased, and overall the quality wasn't what you'd want.

Where he's wrong is the implication that he personally or the Rockets overall got screwed by it.

[Darío SpanishFan]

Harden isn’t completely wrong though.  Having only two officials definitely affected the officiating overal.  It was a bad bad game for the refs.

I can't remember many basketball games so badly officiated from the two-referees era. This is not an excuse for Harden, and I'd say even for the two incompetent refs remaining yesterday.

[gift]

Isn't James Harden admitting that his game is dependent on the refs? I mean, it's not like the Celtics played with three refs and the Rockets had two. They had the same refs the whole game.

Harden is saying that an additional referee should result in more fouls called. But shouldn't it result in more fouls called both ways? Unless Harden fully understands that his game is dependent on the officiating and that an evenly called game hinders his production. Likewise, a disproportionate distribution of calls is more likely to favor Harden.

I think that illustrates a bigger problem than just having two officials.

Sure, the nba should have three refs. But that is not relevant to comments on this game.