Enough of the "fix-jobs"

[dorschrm]

I'm fed up with listening to people write about and WEEI have callers nonsensically talk about "fix-jobs."  The NBA, although a business, does not force victories through its officials.  They do occasionally blow calls, more often towards the away team in a very hostile environment where they will be well recieved for doing so.  However, aside from MAYBE a Crawford with the Spurs, there is no possible way the integrity of the game of basketball is jeopordized through the officials.  There isn't a pre-game meeting where they say, "okay we have to make sure to make the margin +15 fouls on the Lakers this game." 

These "fix-jobs" that everyone talks about is just a miserable way to prepare yourself for losing.  There may be a rare game that is unfortunately decided by the referees, but in no way does that mean it was fixed.  We already saw what happened to the fixer himself, he got booted faster than you can read this post and likely will see some time behind bars.

Stop saying that this series was fixed...both these teams deservingly earned the right to play tonight.

[Bankshot]

I wouldn't say the league is fixing games, although they would benefit if the series went 6 or 7 games, it's more the refs, not the league itself.  Have you ever heard of Donaghy? I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe (especially with the way these playoffs have been called by refs) that Donaghy was the one and only ref benefitting from effecting the outcome of some games. The refs that can make loads of money if they "fix" or at least "effect" the outcome of some games, especially in the playoffs.

[Kuberski33]

The mere fact that so many people are talking about the subject of fixing games to me indicates that the NBA needs to do something about its officiating.

Imagine if the C's had lost that series and Game 6 was the turning point. 

[ma11l]

The reffing job in this playoff tournament has been worse than any other sport, any other tournament, any other year.  With the offseason trouble they had, and the convenience of the great rating they're going to get in the Finals, obviously a lot of people are going to say they are fixing the games.



Hopefully now that they have their dream matchup the refs will get out of the way and let the players decide who wins the title.  Aka hopefully Kobe doesn't get the "MJ Treatment."

[NicaraguanFan]

I'm fed up with listening to people write about and WEEI have callers nonsensically talk about "fix-jobs."  The NBA, although a business, does not force victories through its officials.  They do occasionally blow calls, more often towards the away team in a very hostile environment where they will be well recieved for doing so.  However, aside from MAYBE a Crawford with the Spurs, there is no possible way the integrity of the game of basketball is jeopordized through the officials.  There isn't a pre-game meeting where they say, "okay we have to make sure to make the margin +15 fouls on the Lakers this game." 

These "fix-jobs" that everyone talks about is just a miserable way to prepare yourself for losing.  There may be a rare game that is unfortunately decided by the referees, but in no way does that mean it was fixed.  We already saw what happened to the fixer himself, he got booted faster than you can read this post and likely will see some time behind bars.

Stop saying that this series was fixed...both these teams deservingly earned the right to play tonight.

I agree with most of your opinion.  Nonetheless, it is undeniable officiating has been poor.   The problem is refs are so inconsistent, they call one play in some way and next the same play they call in other way. 

NF.

[waiting for #17]

Do the refs get more $$$ the longer a series goes? Are they paid per game?

[iowa plowboy]

The mere fact that so many people are talking about the subject of fixing games to me indicates that the NBA needs to do something about its officiating.

Imagine if the C's had lost that series and Game 6 was the turning point. 

When the primadonna is playing, the games he are in look more like professional wrestling events.  (You know...The scenario where the referee doesn't see something in front of his face...Joey Crawford in game 5, anyone?)  3-sometimes 4-5 steps without dribbling.  Bogus fouls.  Bogus non-calls.  Incredibly bogus flagrant fouls.  

Mike and Mike interviewed Dwyane Wade yesterday morning.  On the highlight reel they showed,  Wade traveled clearly (Three extra steps on one drive, two extra steps on most drives, at least one on all of them) on every single highlight.  Sorry, folks, star calls=game fixing.  Intended or not.

How many bogus calls do Pierce, Tank Carter, the thugster, Anthony, O'Grady, Nash, Kobe, and Wade get?  If traveling was called for real for a month in the NBA,  the length of those games before these players adjusted would last 5 hours from all of the whistles.  If the rulebook applied to all NBA players for a month most NBA games wouldn't be finished before city curfews.

The games have look fixed for a long time.    Donaghy brought credibility to the idea that they are.  The only way it gets fixed, (it's an easy fix), is to apply the rulebook to every player.  The stars will adjust and both the stars and the game itself will be better for it.

[BballTim]

I'm fed up with listening to people write about and WEEI have callers nonsensically talk about "fix-jobs."  The NBA, although a business, does not force victories through its officials.  They do occasionally blow calls, more often towards the away team in a very hostile environment where they will be well recieved for doing so.  However, aside from MAYBE a Crawford with the Spurs, there is no possible way the integrity of the game of basketball is jeopordized through the officials.  There isn't a pre-game meeting where they say, "okay we have to make sure to make the margin +15 fouls on the Lakers this game." 

These "fix-jobs" that everyone talks about is just a miserable way to prepare yourself for losing.  There may be a rare game that is unfortunately decided by the referees, but in no way does that mean it was fixed.  We already saw what happened to the fixer himself, he got booted faster than you can read this post and likely will see some time behind bars.

Stop saying that this series was fixed...both these teams deservingly earned the right to play tonight.

  So you're saying that the officiating is always even-handed and never favors particular teams or players?

[Bankshot]

Do the refs get more $$$ the longer a series goes? Are they paid per game?

Not positive, but I'm sure they get more money if they ref more games.  But I don't think they make that much money which is why a guy like Donaghy did what he did to make more money.

[cuckroller]

Just a general consideration.  I have seen a whole lot of games this year, not only those involving the Lakers, or the Celtics, and I certainly think that in general the competence of the officiating has been this year, to put it mildly, under par.  Perhaps the League should really have a formal arbitration school (don't know if they have one already).  My sense is that these people more or less do a sort of in-game apprenticeship.  Perhaps, D-League is their last stop before arriving to the NBA.  In any case, I do not buy into all of this hokum about fixed games.  I think the refs are just making too many mistakes.  There will always be those that wish to make those mistakes into some kind of nefarious conspiracy.  Without doubt the League has to raise the competency level of arbitration.

Certainly, there are also rule changes that must be contemplated at the League level regarding certain things.  First, there needs to be established stop-motion replays that can be reviewed in certain restricted cases, e.g., plays where a good view is needed for determining the shot clock count.  It would have been nice, for example, that the referees would have had the wherewithall to review one of the major botch jobs in the playoffs this year.  I speak of Game 4 of the WCF.  Had Fisher's shot been reviewable, then the whole conspiracy diatribe of the "foul" on Barry at games end would have never taken place.  Another thing that must be made reviewable by the league, are the instances of "clock malfunction", v. the Billups 3pt'er at the end of the third period of the second game in the Detroit-Orlando series.  It must also be made clear the vetting process whereby the "clock-keepers", or whatever they are called, are selected.  Who are they, how are they assigned to the game, etc., in other words, their being super partes must be in some way transparent to all.  One last thing, why in the world do the referees have to throttle fast-break situations when the defending team defends well enough to get attacking teams to run out the 24-second count, only to have that stupid whistle blow, and then they blow the whistles, and everything grinds to a screeching halt.  In this way, you give an unmerited advantage to the team that just blew their offensive set, because you allow them now to get back and set up on defense rather than have the team that just defended well have their well-merited fast-break attempt!

[BrickJames]

I'm fed up with listening to people write about and WEEI have callers nonsensically talk about "fix-jobs."  The NBA, although a business, does not force victories through its officials.  They do occasionally blow calls, more often towards the away team in a very hostile environment where they will be well recieved for doing so.  However, aside from MAYBE a Crawford with the Spurs, there is no possible way the integrity of the game of basketball is jeopordized through the officials.  There isn't a pre-game meeting where they say, "okay we have to make sure to make the margin +15 fouls on the Lakers this game." 

These "fix-jobs" that everyone talks about is just a miserable way to prepare yourself for losing.  There may be a rare game that is unfortunately decided by the referees, but in no way does that mean it was fixed.  We already saw what happened to the fixer himself, he got booted faster than you can read this post and likely will see some time behind bars.

Stop saying that this series was fixed...both these teams deservingly earned the right to play tonight.

If you talk to anyone who was gambled via sportsbook in the past 40 years, especially on the NBA, they would vehemently disagree with you.

[dorschrm]

  So you're saying that the officiating is always even-handed and never favors particular teams or players?

Thats not the argument.  When I say fixing I'm saying the influence is coming from higher up personnel in the NBA.  There's a valid argument that referees may have a personal bias towards a certain team (see Crawford and the Spurs) that can favor or hurt a team. However, my point is that I am refuting the argument "The NBA is fixing this series," inferring that David Stern or someone of similar authority is sitting in his office telling the chief of officials to call the games so that a certain team wins.

In response to Vegas and sportsbooks, they mean nothing in terms of the integrity of the game of basketball (unless one of them is per chance working as a referee), which is the game I love and care about.

[BballTim]

  So you're saying that the officiating is always even-handed and never favors particular teams or players?

Thats not the argument.  When I say fixing I'm saying the influence is coming from higher up personnel in the NBA.  There's a valid argument that referees may have a personal bias towards a certain team (see Crawford and the Spurs) that can favor or hurt a team. However, my point is that I am refuting the argument "The NBA is fixing this series," inferring that David Stern or someone of similar authority is sitting in his office telling the chief of officials to call the games so that a certain team wins.

In response to Vegas and sportsbooks, they mean nothing in terms of the integrity of the game of basketball (unless one of them is per chance working as a referee), which is the game I love and care about.

  So you don't think that certain players (like Kobe or LeBron) get more calls in their favor than other players? You don't think teams like the Spurs get more calls in their favor in general than teams like the Hawks?

[dorschrm]

  So you don't think that certain players (like Kobe or LeBron) get more calls in their favor than other players? You don't think teams like the Spurs get more calls in their favor in general than teams like the Hawks?

In terms of star treatment, that is absolutely apparent, but its due to a deficiency in the referees themselves (Kobe is able to sell a foul a lot better than Tony Allen is).  I don't believe the Spurs get more calls in their favor in general, unless you have a statistic to support that.

[iowa plowboy]

  So you don't think that certain players (like Kobe or LeBron) get more calls in their favor than other players? You don't think teams like the Spurs get more calls in their favor in general than teams like the Hawks?

In terms of star treatment, that is absolutely apparent, but its due to a deficiency in the referees themselves (Kobe is able to sell a foul a lot better than Tony Allen is).  I don't believe the Spurs get more calls in their favor in general, unless you have a statistic to support that.

Since you brought up Tony Allen... And the most glaring throwing out of the rulebook happens when the primadonna is on the court.  In the 2007 season Tony was guarding the primadonna by the Celtics' bench and in plain sight of the official, poked at the ball and was whistled for a foul.  Only problem with the call was that the official was closer to the primadonna  than Tony was.  (He was almost in between them...about 2 feet away facing the play with the Celtic's bench at his back.)  The only other problem was that Tony's "poke" missed the ball and the primadonna by at least 3 feet.  The primadonna doesn't have to sell anything.  His mere presence (and an obvious mandate) sells these calls for him.  It gives the games he's in the appearance of being fixed because it's obvious to anybody who watches.

The Spurs, as a team, (Nash is the unparalled champion of flopping) are simply the best team at taking advantage of these ridiculous flopping calls.  They also "sell" better because they get fouled more often because their game is played inside out.  So they have more practice at "selling".  It'll be interesting to see how they adjust to the new flopping rules.

That never entered into the discussion pre-Jordan.  Since Jordan was the only player in his era getting calls it was rarely discussed then.  But today there are different rules for one player, different rules for a select group of players, and the "rulebook" then applies to the rest of the NBA.  Donaghy got away with his actions for so long because of the subjectivity of the rulebook.  He made terrible calls at critical junctures...But they weren't any worse or any less typical of obvious star calls.  Had he not been caught, he'd still fit right in to todays officiating the way he has since he started fixing games.  Donaghy wouldn't have gotten away with anything in the Bird era and back.  Because there was no star calls.  His innaccuracies would have stood out. 

Do I believe the officials are corrupt?  Well, in a way, yes.  It's pretty clear that the rulebook, as it is written, applies to only non-stars.  I'll never be convinced that certain players "sell" better than others.  They're simply officiated different.  A normal playoff foul on the primadonna is a flagrant 2.  The same foul on the thugster, tank Carter, O'Grady, Wade, etc is a flagrant 1.   The same foul on a 3rd tier player is simply a foul.  A travel is only a travel as it applies to certain players.  Does anybody think the primadonna is "selling" his four steps to the basket without a dribble?  Or when he gets fouled when there is nobody around him?  That's coming from somewhere.  Because the officials get about 99.9% of the calls right when a star isn't involved in the play.  The officials are as good now as they were back then.