Stern ready to suspend coaches, players who criticize refs

[makaveli]

I wouldn't have a big problem with this decision if it was made before the season started, but making such rule during the playoffs is crazy

[Eeyore III]

Unbelievable that implementing more rules to protect the refs  from criticism takes priority over actually improving the quality of the reffing. I bet all America wishes they could have a cushy job like this where their boss overlooks their incompetence and goes the extra step of penalizing people who complain about it.

Amen.  There is one area in "real life" where the same arrogance exists: judges.  The trial judges do crap jobs, the higher judges overlook and camouflage the lower judges' incompetence, and woe unto any lawyer who tells it like it is.

[jdpapa3]

A couple of years ago Stern went out of his way to assign an overseer of the refs, some Colonel from the US military, to ensure that officiating would be kept free of scandal and that the officiating would improve. After that, we never, I mean not ever not even once, saw this man's name in an NBA communication again. Yet, in many people's eyes the quality of the officiating is as bad if not worse than ever with a TON of video evidence to prove it(LeBron crab dribbles, Celtics being penalized for Portland playing with 6 players, Durant being fouled without a call that decided a game and playoff pairings this year, etc. etc).

Exactly! Is this guy even a real person? Was it just a made up name to try to get the fans off of their backs? This guy should be all over the place with all of the poorly refereed games I've seen lately.

[Mike-Dub]

A couple of years ago Stern went out of his way to assign an overseer of the refs, some Colonel from the US military, to ensure that officiating would be kept free of scandal and that the officiating would improve. After that, we never, I mean not ever not even once, saw this man's name in an NBA communication again. Yet, in many people's eyes the quality of the officiating is as bad if not worse than ever with a TON of video evidence to prove it(LeBron crab dribbles, Celtics being penalized for Portland playing with 6 players, Durant being fouled without a call that decided a game and playoff pairings this year, etc. etc).

Exactly! Is this guy even a real person? Was it just a made up name to try to get the fans off of their backs? This guy should be all over the place with all of the poorly refereed games I've seen lately.

Sounds like he tried to do a Mitchell Report like the MLB did except he actually didn't do it and just said he was to appease the fans.

[EJPLAYA]

I know I am likely in the minority with this comment, but I would have to defend Stern in this case. I am willing to bet that if you figured out the % of mistakes made by refs they are MUCH lower than those made by the players in the game, coaches, and quite honestly the rest of us in our own jobs. There is no way with the physical strength and speed of these guys that they can be perfect. It just isn't possible. There are very rare circumstances where the refs mistake costs a team a game. Usually it is just an excuse for losing.

Consider Sterns dilemma. His only goal is to build the league and put the owners in a position to make money on their investment. He does that through trying to put a product out there that the rest of us want to see. When their own coaches and players make comments that insinuate that things are fixed, it hurts the league. He has to stop it, and he is definitely right. If they don't like it they can go elsewhere. No one forces them to play or coach and earn obscene amounts of money. Expecting perfection from referees is not a fair demand. Telling the players and coaches to not undermine the integrity of the game, whether something is justified or not, is a fair demand. Your employer wouldn't allow you to make these kind of accusations to the public about your own company, and neither should he.

[Birdbrain]

In other news, Rasheed has been banned from the NBA.

Banned?  He'll be lucky Stern doesn't have him shot!

Nice. Is that good or bad for the C's?

[Birdbrain]

I know I am likely in the minority with this comment, but I would have to defend Stern in this case. I am willing to bet that if you figured out the % of mistakes made by refs they are MUCH lower than those made by the players in the game, coaches, and quite honestly the rest of us in our own jobs. There is no way with the physical strength and speed of these guys that they can be perfect. It just isn't possible. There are very rare circumstances where the refs mistake costs a team a game. Usually it is just an excuse for losing.

Consider Sterns dilemma. His only goal is to build the league and put the owners in a position to make money on their investment. He does that through trying to put a product out there that the rest of us want to see. When their own coaches and players make comments that insinuate that things are fixed, it hurts the league. He has to stop it, and he is definitely right. If they don't like it they can go elsewhere. No one forces them to play or coach and earn obscene amounts of money. Expecting perfection from referees is not a fair demand. Telling the players and coaches to not undermine the integrity of the game, whether something is justified or not, is a fair demand. Your employer wouldn't allow you to make these kind of accusations to the public about your own company, and neither should he.

I'm pretty much agree with your interpretation.  That is until I think the C's are getting short end of the stick...

To be fair though they did actually catch a ref placing bets on games he ref'd.  lol

[EJPLAYA]

I know I am likely in the minority with this comment, but I would have to defend Stern in this case. I am willing to bet that if you figured out the % of mistakes made by refs they are MUCH lower than those made by the players in the game, coaches, and quite honestly the rest of us in our own jobs. There is no way with the physical strength and speed of these guys that they can be perfect. It just isn't possible. There are very rare circumstances where the refs mistake costs a team a game. Usually it is just an excuse for losing.

Consider Sterns dilemma. His only goal is to build the league and put the owners in a position to make money on their investment. He does that through trying to put a product out there that the rest of us want to see. When their own coaches and players make comments that insinuate that things are fixed, it hurts the league. He has to stop it, and he is definitely right. If they don't like it they can go elsewhere. No one forces them to play or coach and earn obscene amounts of money. Expecting perfection from referees is not a fair demand. Telling the players and coaches to not undermine the integrity of the game, whether something is justified or not, is a fair demand. Your employer wouldn't allow you to make these kind of accusations to the public about your own company, and neither should he.

I'm pretty much agree with your interpretation.  That is until I think the C's are getting short end of the stick...

To be fair though they did actually catch a ref placing bets on games he ref'd.  lol

Of course its easy to be upset when a bad call goes against us. I am sure it is even tougher for Sheed who definitely gets a shorter leash than anyone else in the NBA. Yes there were issues with the gambling and I am not even saying I doubt there are more guys out there that  could be crooked. It doesn't however change Sterns need to keep things in control for the good of the league. If we held a news conference when someone in another department did something stupid we wouldn't get fined or suspended. We'd be canned!

[P2]

OK, let's see... after those "big news", here's what LeBron has to say:

About that charge, James didn’t agree with the call.

“I saw him backpedaling,” James said. “Me as a driver, I’m watching the defender’s feet. I’m seeing if he’s stationed or is still moving. To me, I felt like he was still backpedaling, and as soon as I saw him backpedaling, that’s when I decided to take off. They called a charge. I haven’t seen the replay, but I know exactly what I’ve seen on the court with the defender right in front of me.”

OK, that's basically criticizing the refs. Now what exactly is the league going to do to LeBron after that statement?

[Mizzy21390]

I'm torn on this.

It's one of those things where you agree with both sides. Stern's showing favoritism towards the refs. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I do agree with Stern at a certain extent when it comes to how coaches and players are criticizing the refs & that it DOES start to bring the fans and viewers to paranoia and gets us all looking for mistakes.

I'm a psych major, and know very well, the power of suggestion is very strong. Once someone says something is there, you start to look for it, and then convince yourself that you saw it... and that is even more likely to happen during important games with your favorite team playing and the game is on the line.

BUT I know there are many mistakes made in a game. And OBVIOUS favoritism in players like Wade, LBJ, Kobe... And that the C's always seem to have the short end of the stick.. Like someone mentioned before, I'll never forget when I watched the C's/Portland game, when they had 6 players, but we got penalized. Refs are not doing a good job, so criticizing is the only way to light a fire up in there, to tell them to start doing better, or we'll publicly criticize you!

To have a ref come out and admit that he and fellow refs gambled games, (even though some think he's lying) is damaging.

Overall, I don't think its fair that Stern is defending the refs so easily and so mightily (by suspending people who criticize), yet, he doesn't want to fix the bad reffing problem. I know they won't find every single mistake in the game, but there are so serious obvious ones that should not end up deciding the game. When a game, a playoff game is decided on a ref call, that's when it's gone too far.

Instead of fining people so much, he should try to fix the problem! There are so many other ways to fix this thing, & make the game more clean, but Stern just seems to have this love affair with those refs. I just don't understand.

[Birdbrain]

OK, let's see... after those "big news", here's what LeBron has to say:

About that charge, James didn’t agree with the call.

“I saw him backpedaling,” James said. “Me as a driver, I’m watching the defender’s feet. I’m seeing if he’s stationed or is still moving. To me, I felt like he was still backpedaling, and as soon as I saw him backpedaling, that’s when I decided to take off. They called a charge. I haven’t seen the replay, but I know exactly what I’ve seen on the court with the defender right in front of me.”

OK, that's basically criticizing the refs. Now what exactly is the league going to do to LeBron after that statement?

Hmm it could be construed that way.  Of course he isn't as blatant as Sheed.  He's been programmed.  Of course sheed was blatant about Donaghey as well.

[Eja117]

Stern is trying to do the whole "pay no attention to the man behind that curtain bit". It's not going to work

he's just trying to consolidate power in his little kingdom cause he's compensating for something

he needs to get over himself or get out of the league

George Washington was great but the greatest thing he ever did was step down. Powerful and successful people these days don't seem to get that

[EJPLAYA]

Stern is trying to do the whole "pay no attention to the man behind that curtain bit". It's not going to work

he's just trying to consolidate power in his little kingdom cause he's compensating for something

he needs to get over himself or get out of the league

George Washington was great but the greatest thing he ever did was step down. Powerful and successful people these days don't seem to get that

And then what?! A new guy is going to come in and fire all the refs and put in robots who never ever make mistakes? What do you think Stern stepping down is going to accomplish? Look what the guy has helped build the NBA into! Sure it wasn't him alone, but the man has done some amazing things that have helped the NBA become one of the most profitable sports ever. As a CEO he has been outstanding to the owners.

If you clean house and fire all the refs what you will end up with is a league full of Violet Palmers. Then you'll really be complaining.

[MBunge]

I am willing to bet that if you figured out the % of mistakes made by refs they are MUCH lower than those made by the players in the game, coaches, and quite honestly the rest of us in our own jobs.

It's not the number of mistakes.  It's the nature of the bad officiating.  What drives folks up the wall aren't missed calls, but the favoritism and arbitrary nature of the bad calls.

What particularly frustrates me are the inexplicable offensive fouls called on the guy setting the screen in a pick and roll.  It frequently seems like the refs have simply decided they're going to call that foul a certain number of times in a game whether it's deserved or not.  What makes it worse is how many phantom calls are made in that situation when the defense is allowed to practically tackle the guy coming off the screen.  Just look at the play at the end of game 1 against the Heat where Pierce tweaked his shoulder.  Pierce was trying to come off a pick and the Miami big (Haslem?) simply bodyblocked right in front of the ref and no call was made.

If baseball umpires called balls and strikes the way NBA refs do their job, there'd not only be a different strike zone for every player but a different strike zone for almost every pitch.  And then if the first base upmire thought the home plate guy made a bad call for one batter, the first base guy would try to make up for it by calling the next batter safe when he was clearly out.

Mike

[PosImpos]

How about we start suspending refs for blowing obvious calls or posting ludicrous free throw differentials between teams in big games?