The Curse of Violet Palmer

[Bahku]

Great stuff, Chief! (TP) Gotta love Leslie Nielsen ... a true Stooges freak who took up the torch of dumb, slapstick comedy ... love it! 

[casCELTIC]

Violet Palmer was a nightmare. That call on Ray was nonsensical. The man was directly under the basket. Loads of bad calls by Violet. She must hate the Celtics. We just have to play harder next game.

First off, the call against Ray was probably the only good call Violet made all night.  Regardless of where the defender is standing, you simply cannot kick him.  You cannot use any extremities (i.e. arms or legs) to ward off defenders.

While the feet play is usually called in favor of the shooter, she actually did make the correct call by the book.

That said, the officiating was pretty poor in last night's game; however, I distinctly remember (and have said to numerous friends throughout the year) that Violet has been by and large an advocate of the Celtics the entire year.  Don't believe me?  Go and play back some of the games (sans the Utah one mentioned by the OP).

I do find it rather...curious..that this is the same officiating crew as the one in Utah when the same shot clock issues occurred.  Hmm...

[jaketwice]

WPOC: "Worst Possible Officiating Crew"

Ken Mauer
Violet Palmer
Bennett Salvatore

[Bahku]

WPOC: "Worst Possible Officiating Crew"

Ken Mauer
Violet Palmer
Bennett Salvatore

Wow ... good choices ... TP! You picked the exact same refs I would, though I'd add Joey Crawford as a reserve.

[BASSTHUMPER]

leave that sista alone yall...she doing her job...

[CoachBo]

The kick, quite frankly, is a home-court call made by an official caught up in the emotion of the moment.

And Violet's a terrible official.

With that said, when you don't defend in the playoffs you lose. We're going to struggle until we put out enough defensive effort to keep the Hawks away from the rim.

[guava_wrench]

The kick, quite frankly, is a home-court call made by an official caught up in the emotion of the moment.

And Violet's a terrible official.

With that said, when you don't defend in the playoffs you lose. We're going to struggle until we put out enough defensive effort to keep the Hawks away from the rim.

What is the relevance of the home-court? Ray extended his leg and arm to keep a player away. That is not allowed.

Seems to me the home-court call is the homerism in this thread. The horrible officials are the armchair officials complaining about good calls just because they went against us.

[Bankshot]

The kick, quite frankly, is a home-court call made by an official caught up in the emotion of the moment.

And Violet's a terrible official.

With that said, when you don't defend in the playoffs you lose. We're going to struggle until we put out enough defensive effort to keep the Hawks away from the rim.

What is the relevance of the home-court? Ray extended his leg and arm to keep a player away. That is not allowed.

Seems to me the home-court call is the homerism in this thread. The horrible officials are the armchair officials complaining about good calls just because they went against us.

I agree.  Violet Palmer is a horrible ref, imo, but Ray did extend his leg like a karate kick and pull a "Bruce Bowen."  I was shocked to see Ray do this too.

[nickagneta]

Did Doc and Violet go to the same high school together and Doc not ask Violet to the prom or something?

This woman just has it in for the Celtics. And it's not just this year. I distinctly remember a couple of games last year when the Celtics sucked that she was pretty blatantly anti-Celtic in her officiating. Good or bad, we just can't get any calls going our way from Violet.

[sns0274]

While I almost completely refrain from looking at a ref to directly effect the outcome of a game. This one was/is making it difficult to refrain from.
I was in the front row of the balcony, center court at this game and must say that the officiating was horrible, but only sightly favored the Hawks. There were calls and non-calls made by Violet that even had the other two officials shaking there heads. I really don't want to get into an official tirade, but I am going to put one thing out there. Even my wife (very green basketball fan and I don't mean bleeds green) Looked at me during the 1st quarter and said "I thought you couldn't jump over someones back" I said you can't to which she replied, then what is wrong with the women ref? At this point I focused in on everything violet was doing. She allowed Josh Smith to go over KG's back all night long. We counted no less than 16 times  that were obvious, another 12 times not so obvious. My point is that Violet was never any more than 4 feet from the offense and called it once!! It was bad enough enough that I saved the tape to send to the league office, I know it wont get anything done, but if everyone did this it might at least get some forward momentum.

[X Man]

I know I'm a little late but this is a direct quote from Wikipedia which I think all of us here would agree is as impartial as it gets,

"Palmer has been the frequent target of sports critics, including ESPN columnist Bill Simmons who sharply complained about her officiating in various entries in his "More Cowbell" blog during 2004 and 2005. Objectively speaking, her integrity has never been seriously questioned, but her work as a game official has been criticized for its quality."

Enough said, period.

[Section 87]

I know I'm a little late but this is a direct quote from Wikipedia which I think all of us here would agree is as impartial as it gets,

Whaaaaat? I would definitely NOT agree that Wikipedia is as impartial as it gets. I think it's absurd to consider Wikipedia to be an impartial source.

"Palmer has been the frequent target of sports critics, including ESPN columnist Bill Simmons who sharply complained about her officiating in various entries in his "More Cowbell" blog during 2004 and 2005. Objectively speaking, her integrity has never been seriously questioned, but her work as a game official has been criticized for its quality."

Enough said, period.

Nice weasel words from Wikipedia. Every official in the NBA has been criticized, at one time or another, for officiating quality. There's no mention in the article of her middle-of-the-pack rating from the players. Just that she's been criticized by a rabid pro-Boston fan who writes for ESPN, and that her work "has been criticized" with no references to the nature, context, or source of the criticism.

As usual, Wikipedia can be useful, but it has little value as a definitive or impartial source.

[X Man]

In retrospect I knew I shouldn't have included the Bill Simmons quote even though the next sentence specifically begins with, "objectively speaking". Even stating that she is, in know way biased, she's just not good at her job.  I mean is that so hard to believe to the point that you question a universally credited source of info on the web?? Man I'm having rough week!!!

Anyway, you might also want to check out covers.com for her referee stats, I think they support my argument.

[Section 87]

... you question a universally credited source of info on the web??

"Universally credited" ?????????? That's hilarious! Wikipeida can never be considered a reliable source. Handy, useful, but never definitive. Covers.com doesn't rate NBA refs for officiating. Just stats. Games officiated by Palmer tend to be home-team wins, and low scoring, when compared to the point spread and the O/U, both of which are gambling stats, not refereeing stats.

I understand that Violet Palmer is despised in many circles, including some CelticsBlog.com circles. Much of the criticism, on this website and elsewhere, is clearly gender-based rather than performance-based. I have not seen any objective evidence to support the claims that she is biased against the Celtics, or that she's sunstantially more incompetent than other referees.

[nickagneta]

... you question a universally credited source of info on the web??

"Universally credited" ? That's hilarious! Wikipeida can never be considered a reliable source. Handy, useful, but never definitive. Covers.com doesn't rate NBA refs for officiating. Just stats. Games officiated by Palmer tend to be home-team wins, and low scoring, when compared to the point spread and the O/U, both of which are gambling stats, not refereeing stats.

I understand that Violet Palmer is despised in many circles, including some CelticsBlog.com circles. Much of the criticism, on this website and elsewhere, is clearly gender-based rather than performance-based. I have not seen any objective evidence to support the claims that she is biased against the Celtics, or that she's sunstantially more incompetent than other referees.

That night I think all the referees sucked, not just Violet. Re watch the game there were a ton of non calss that were her responsibility and some very questionable calls as well. In both directions. She had a bad night. But so did everyone else in the crew.

As for Violet's overall body of work I can't really say how good or bad she is. She's had some pretty decent Celtic games, those being the ones that I didn't even noticed the refs because they weren't being awful. That to me is a good game for a ref.

But she has had her share of god awful games doing the Celtics also, and those are the times that stick in people's minds.

As for the gender biased comment, I'm rather insulted by it, but I'll leave it at that.