What would you change about NBA officiating?

[CoachBo]

Eliminate Skeletor, Dick Bavetta, Bennett Salvatore and Violet Palmer.

and Eddie F. Rush, and Kenny Mauer, and Joey Crawford, and the list goes on..

I wonder how much Dick Bavetta's crypt costs the NBA to take on the road.

[Brickowski]

Actually, the officials are calling a good game tonight in Denver.  It's like a throwback to the 1980s.  No harm, no foul, and it has been highly entertaining.  Sure, they've swallowed the whistles and missed a few calles (both ways), but that is a GOOD thing. The officials have also had the cojones to call charges on the home team.  Those calls were 100% right.

I just hope they keep it up in the second half.

[Celtic]

Everything has been said here, but quite simply call EVERYTHING by the book for EVERYONE. The rules for basketball were made for a reason, use them.

It really is sad that fans just want things to be called the way they are in the rulebook, that should be something that, at the very least, the league attempts to uphold.

[liam]

I'd add a video official, who was watching all the camera's and could over rule really bad calls on the floor.

[Brickowski]

I'd add a video official, who was watching all the camera's and could over rule really bad calls on the floor.

That's not enough.  They ought to give the video official a gun, with the power to execute guys who make really bad calls.  You would tie the offending ref's hands behind his back, blindfold him, lead him to center court and shoot him in the head.

After a few of those, the officiating would improve markedly.

[Schupac]

I'd add a video official, who was watching all the camera's and could over rule really bad calls on the floor.

A good idea.  I think if the video official and floor-officials were in direct communication (not so complicated give 'em all blue-tooths or something) then it wouldn't even slow the game.

[xmuscularghandix]

I'd add a video official, who was watching all the camera's and could over rule really bad calls on the floor.

A good idea.  I think if the video official and floor-officials were in direct communication (not so complicated give 'em all blue-tooths or something) then it wouldn't even slow the game.

and i think that if its close but the head honcho doesn't agree they shouldn't interfere, if the ref makes a bad call on a Charge where its a Block the big cheese could jump in, or if he goes out on somebody they can rectify it. this could get out of control though, maybe those two parts can be on video. but shooting fouls theres too many to go to video.

[Steve Weinman]

With star treatment already addressed quite thoroughly here, I'll go to my other pet peeve, one that FWF touched on tangentially in his OP: situational officiating as far as the last few minutes of a game are concerned.

This idea that the best way to "let the players decide the game" is by swallowing the whistles at the end of games drives me insane.  The way to "let the players decide" is to let them play by the same rules for 48 minutes every night.  A foul is a foul is a foul, whether it happens on the first possession or the last.

This is one that I've written a Babble on before and could end up with me destroying our forum bandwidth, so I'll stop there because I think the concept is clear.  But that annoys me to no end.

***

Also, since some names come up, my triumvirate of must-go officials, in no particular order is as follows (and you know it's bad when Bavetta doesn't even make my star trio): Ken Mauer, Violet Palmer, Bennett Salvatore

Bennett gets special recognition for making the single most absurd call I've ever witnessed, waving off a would-be four-point play for Pierce and calling an offensive foul in Game 6 of last year's ECF.

-sw

[xmuscularghandix]

With star treatment already addressed quite thoroughly here, I'll go to my other pet peeve, one that FWF touched on tangentially in his OP: situational officiating as far as the last few minutes of a game are concerned.

This idea that the best way to "let the players decide the game" is by swallowing the whistles at the end of games drives me insane.  The way to "let the players decide" is to let them play by the same rules for 48 minutes every night.  A foul is a foul is a foul, whether it happens on the first possession or the last.

This is one that I've written a Babble on before and could end up with me destroying our forum bandwidth, so I'll stop there because I think the concept is clear.  But that annoys me to no end.

***

Also, since some names come up, my triumvirate of must-go officials, in no particular order is as follows (and you know it's bad when Bavetta doesn't even make my star trio): Ken Mauer, Violet Palmer, Bennett Salvatore

Bennett gets special recognition for making the single most absurd call I've ever witnessed, waving off a would-be four-point play for Pierce and calling an offensive foul in Game 6 of last year's ECF.

-sw

i also hate when they swallow their whistles at the end of quarters, although tonight they made the call for the Melo foul on R2.

[Brickowski]

With star treatment already addressed quite thoroughly here, I'll go to my other pet peeve, one that FWF touched on tangentially in his OP: situational officiating as far as the last few minutes of a game are concerned.

This idea that the best way to "let the players decide the game" is by swallowing the whistles at the end of games drives me insane.  The way to "let the players decide" is to let them play by the same rules for 48 minutes every night.  A foul is a foul is a foul, whether it happens on the first possession or the last.

This is one that I've written a Babble on before and could end up with me destroying our forum bandwidth, so I'll stop there because I think the concept is clear.  But that annoys me to no end.

***

Also, since some names come up, my triumvirate of must-go officials, in no particular order is as follows (and you know it's bad when Bavetta doesn't even make my star trio): Ken Mauer, Violet Palmer, Bennett Salvatore

Bennett gets special recognition for making the single most absurd call I've ever witnessed, waving off a would-be four-point play for Pierce and calling an offensive foul in Game 6 of last year's ECF.

-sw

They ought to let the players decide the game for the full 48 minutes, not just at the end.  Yes, you want consistency, but you also don't want a whistle every time there's incidental contact.  I thought last night's Denver game was reasonably well officiated.

Violet Palmer isn't that bad any more. She used to be. I would replace her on your list with Derrick Stafford.

Here's an idea: put Tommy Heinsohn in charge of the officials. 

[CoachBo]

With star treatment already addressed quite thoroughly here, I'll go to my other pet peeve, one that FWF touched on tangentially in his OP: situational officiating as far as the last few minutes of a game are concerned.

This idea that the best way to "let the players decide the game" is by swallowing the whistles at the end of games drives me insane.  The way to "let the players decide" is to let them play by the same rules for 48 minutes every night.  A foul is a foul is a foul, whether it happens on the first possession or the last.

This is one that I've written a Babble on before and could end up with me destroying our forum bandwidth, so I'll stop there because I think the concept is clear.  But that annoys me to no end.

***

Also, since some names come up, my triumvirate of must-go officials, in no particular order is as follows (and you know it's bad when Bavetta doesn't even make my star trio): Ken Mauer, Violet Palmer, Bennett Salvatore

Bennett gets special recognition for making the single most absurd call I've ever witnessed, waving off a would-be four-point play for Pierce and calling an offensive foul in Game 6 of last year's ECF.

-sw

Salvatore should have lost his job right then and there for that call. It is indeed the single worst call I've ever seen.

[papa shuttlesworth]

People always complain about the refs, but NBA refs really are very good compared to high school, college and the little international reffing I have seen during the Olympics and other tournaments.  I think it is just a hard game to officiate.

I do like that the flavor of officiating changes every game.  Some games players can get away with a lot more than others.  This adds an element of intelligence to the game, where players have to figure out in the first few minutes what kind of game it is.  Now when that flavor changes throughout the game and from player to player, that is when problems occur.  As others have said, consistency is key, but I think it only really matters on a game level, not a league level.

The one thing I'd change is to give officials a way to answer questions.  Maybe they get 5 questions from each team to explain a call.  (I would imagine there are usually only five really questionable calls per game).  That would give the players and the audience a chance to learn more about the rules (I bet many of the calls were legit according to rules we don't fully understand).  It would also give the ref a chance to say "Hey, my bad, it happened really fast and this is what I thought.  Now that I've seen the replay in slow motion, it's clear that I'm wrong.  Sorry."  I think many fans would respect that.  And finally it would allow us (and the league) to see which refs are being questioned over and over again... maybe it is because they are bad.

The frustrating part is that a few simple changes could change the whole perception of refs for the better without significantly altering the game.  And yet the NBA refuses to do that.

[the_Bird]

There's got to be accountability.  If the refs screw up, acknowledge it instead of acting like we're a bunch of idiots.  Guys who consistently screw up - get them out of there.  There's got to be some good officials working the collegiate circuit that would love a shot at The Show.  It's most frustrating to see the same bad officials year after year after year....

[Brickowski]

People always complain about the refs, but NBA refs really are very good compared to high school, college and the little international reffing I have seen during the Olympics and other tournaments.  I think it is just a hard game to officiate.

I disagree.  The officials in the NCAA tournament do a better job than NBA officials, and so do the officials in the Olympics.  College officals don't have a union and the coaches in the various conferences have much more say in who gets hired and who gets assigned to games.  The bad ones are weeded out immediately. In the NBA, once a guy achieves a certain level of seniority it's impossible to get rid of him, although Stern certainly tried with Joey Crawford.

[papa shuttlesworth]

People always complain about the refs, but NBA refs really are very good compared to high school, college and the little international reffing I have seen during the Olympics and other tournaments.  I think it is just a hard game to officiate.

I disagree.  The officials in the NCAA tournament do a better job than NBA officials, and so do the officials in the Olympics.  College officals don't have a union and the coaches in the various conferences have much more say in who gets hired and who gets assigned to games.  The bad ones are weeded out immediately. In the NBA, once a guy achieves a certain level of seniority it's impossible to get rid of him, although Stern certainly tried with Joey Crawford.

True, once a Crawford or Salvatore reaches a certain level of tenure he can do anything and not get fired, but I still maintain that NBA refs on average are better than others.  All of my evidence is just anecdotal, but I've watched a lot of games.  Much of it may because of the larger pool of refs in college.  The NCAA tournament gets better reffing because it is the best of the best (sans Eric Roberts).