NBA officiating credibility

[Las Vegas Asian]

I could live with the officiating as long as there was some level of consistency. If the refs are gonna call it tight or let them play then call it that way the whole game. What's a foul in the first quarter should be a foul in the last couple minutes. What irritates me the most is the missed call and then the next play right on cue is the make up call. It is so blatantly obvious when it happens. If Stern doesn't do something about it this will just keep adding fuel to the Donaghy' fire.

[celticinorlando]

we knew at 900 am when they announced these 3 guys would be the refs that boston would be playing 5 on 8. this combined with phil jackson telling the refs what he wanted to be called and crying after game 2...doomed boston.

the refs absolutely killed boston early. they allowed LA to get back into the game with FTs and they took PP and Perk out in the FIRST quarter with 2 quick fouls. PP NEVER had a chance to get going because of the fouls.

And tell me this...how do 2 7 footers never get called for anything? i don't think bynum got called for a foul in this series...and you knew kobe was going to have less than 3 fouls spaced out nicely...sheed blocks gasol straight up and they call a foul? yet bynum and gasol can block everything in sight and get nothing called?

doc rivers had it right after the game to call the officials out...it was criminal

[FallGuy]

Mike Gorman looks like a seer on this one.

He predicted a short series. Five games.

And thought the winner would be dependent on whether the game was called tightly or loosely.

Obviously, the tight calls are helping the Lakers.

[bobdelt]

The officiating is the same it's always been.

The difference is HDTV. You couldn't see these close plays before. It was too fuzzy. Now, every little detail can be examined, in slow motion, in high resolution.

[Cman]

A suggestion to those who think officiating in the NBA is a joke:

Send the NBA a message about it:
http://www.nba.com/email_us/contact_us.html
(I just did  )

The drop down menu for subject line includes "officiating" .

Will this help much?  Probably not.  But I'm sure there is some zen saying out there how drops of water become a flood or something like that...

[FallGuy]

A suggestion to those who think officiating in the NBA is a joke:

Send the NBA a message about it:
http://www.nba.com/email_us/contact_us.html
(I just did  )

The drop down menu for subject line includes "officiating" .

Will this help much?  Probably not.  But I'm sure there is some zen saying out there how drops of water become a flood or something like that...

Emails are almost pointless. Write a real letter. They carry a lot more weight.

[Frezz]

We should have seen this coming. Boston, the most physical team in the league. LA, has had the soft label for two years wants to prove they're not. The elements were there for a physical series. And ever since the malace at the palace in 03, every move David Stern makes, he has that in his mind.  Which has all kinds of subtle racist undertones to it, but the end result is if there is even a one in a billion chance of something like happening again, Stern is going to do whatever it takes to eliminate it. And the way he does it is by not letting these players actually play in these finals, and whistling anything and everything. That's really the bottom line. He's terrified of big black men fighting in front of his corporate white audience. And if he has to ruin NBA finals to eliminate that one in a billion incident, he's going to do it.

[angryguy77]

I heard that Doc called the refs out last night. Anyone know what he said?

[Rondo2287]

http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/columns/story?columnist=may_peter&id=5266863

Some real good quotes in there.

[MBz]

I'd be shocked if they do anything. If nothing came out of the Donaghy mess I doubt there's enough scrutiny in the world to make them interested in credibility.

I don't know why they are calling the games so tight. It's the playoffs and they've been letting physical play go all along (unless maybe it was just in the Eastern conference and I didn't realize it). They are shooting themselves in the foot. A lot of the casual fans I know  have lost interest in the series already. Don't want to wait for a 9pm start on a weeknight and sit through endless whistles, head-scratching calls and a choppy game with no flow.

Exactly.  I don't understand why the league thinks this is good?  You're making games which usually are done in 2 and a half hours go a full three hours.  You're mot seeing any sort of flow to a game, it's just slowing it down and making it very painful to watch.  This has been something that has been going on the last few years, but it's just gotten to the point where it's awful.  I'd much rather sit down and watch a college basketball game.  They play 8 less minutes and they finish in 2 hours, these guys are playing 48 minutes and it takes 3 hours?  That's an absolute joke.  You can say what you want about the talent in the NCAA, the players aren't as good, blah blah blah, but it's a better game to watch.  You get to actually see basketball being played.

[angryguy77]

http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/columns/story?columnist=may_peter&id=5266863

Some real good quotes in there.

Tp-thanks

[connerhenry43]

i laughed in the third quarter. Andrew "Three Seconds" bynum had one personal (yes i know three seconds is not a personal, it is just a joke). Gasol had two, lord kobe had one. our whole team was in foul trouble. a joke.  some discount donaghy, but he picked 80% winners when we was a ref and made a lot of people money. he is also 17-2 in these playoffs.

the moving screen on perk in the first quarter was awful. the 5th on PP. just to name two. not to mention they continue to reward fisher and gasol for flopping.

two of the nba's best (javie and wunderlich) are injured, but this is horrendous and with the exception of a few calls (kobe in game 2) it has been very, very one sided.

[misha]

What credibility? That train left the station a long time ago

[ACF]

What credibility? That train left the station a long time ago

Yup.

[guava_wrench]

The officiating is the same it's always been.

The difference is HDTV. You couldn't see these close plays before. It was too fuzzy. Now, every little detail can be examined, in slow motion, in high resolution.

the better replay technology is the big difference. Does anybody actually think that refs were better in the past? I can't imagine anyone actually believes that. We just now see through replays how hard it is to officiate basketball.

Baseball umpires are now coming under fire because of that one blown call in the perfect game. Human error is unavoidable. If people refuse to accept that an move on, there are continual pointless discussions where people try to blame refs for their team losing, though they almost never blame refs for their team winning (like when the refs call 2 phantom fouls on Kobe Bryant).