I haven't posted much lately in the forums, but those who may remember me know I truly hate NBA officiating. I think it is awful, and sometimes I even argue for conspiracy. But not today. This series, we are down 2-1 because of bad play. There were some bad calls, yes, but nothing so terrible we can all claim to empathise with fans in Sacramento or Dallas.
But there is a problem. Take a look on the front page of Celtics Blog; Doc's comments on the referees have spawned more than 400 comments, and quite a few textual scuffles with Laker fans.
After almost every close loss, someone starts complaining about refs. People on the blog seem to think this is a Boston thing; it is not. I live in Ohio. After almost any loss, I hear people complaining about the refs not letting Lebron play.
After game 2, Lakers fans complained the refs didn't let Kobe play (those were some bad calls, I can admit), even though there was a 15 point free throw differential favoring them.
Magic fans complained Dwight was called for too many fouls, even though he accidentally elbowed half our team in the head.
Do you see a pattern? Every fan blames the refs for losses. They can't all be right. Clearly, many fans have to be wrong. But this is indicative of a much, much bigger problem.
The problem is, the refereeing in this league is so inconsistent, so prone to human emotion and emotion based error, and the league offices (RE: you, Stern) have so stupidly refused to even admit to being aware of the problem, that fans all now can make arguments that they are being screwed over.
This problem is further illustrated when a former "evil" ref like Tim Donaghy, a scum bag with a gambling problem, comes out and says 'yep, refs are bad.' Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of fans were exploding with "I KNEW IT!!!". Do you think, if a former NFL ref came out and said this, there would be such a public adoption of what they've said? Even if the refs that gifted Tom Brady with the 'tuck rule' came out and said it, fans of every team but the Raiders wouldn't suddenly pop out of the woodwork nodding their heads vehemently. The same could be said of the umpire that stole a perfect game from Armando Galarraga last week; fans would believe that umpire was bad, not that MLB was manipulating a pool of terrible umps to fix world series.
I would argue that the officiating in this league is bad. It's inconsistent, it doesn't follow the rules as written but rather a 'how close is the game? do I *need* to make this call?' mentality. Refs let personal feelings cloud, if not completely undermine, their judgment. And it needs a fix. The current commisioner is too ornery and stubborn to admit there is a problem, let alone fix it. So I blame him for it.
I've said before; the officiating in this series hasn't favored the Celtics, and I'm not a fan, but it isn't bad enough that I think there is a conspiracy, and I don't think it is intentional. It's just a problem that the referees can impact a game positively or negatively. In a perfect world, the referees have 0 impact - the rules have the impact, the refs just call them.
But because of the inconsistency, fans of every NBA team make these arguments after any close loss is a problem. You don't see this in baseball, or football, or college basketball. The fact that such a huge percentage of the fans of the league feel the officiating is this suspect indicates there is a major problem.
I know the standard arguments; the NBA is the hardest sport to officiate. How is it that the replacement refs that filled in during the referee lockout were widely praised by fans of the game? How is it that college refs can coach games without every school's fans screaming bloody murder?
There is a problem. Even if you think all us whining about the refs are whack job conspiracy theorists living in our parents' basements, the fact that there are so many of us, and that we support every team in this league, indicates there is a problem.
Sorry for the novel, folks. I'm almost done. It's because of this problem that, after the Magic won game 5 on some of the worst officiating I'd ever seen, I realized I can't watch the NBA any more. Watching this series has confirmed it; after the games, with a cool head, I see bad officiating, not biased officiating. But during the games, all I see are conspiracies, my team being screwed over. It ruins my enjoyment of the game. This is my last season until David Stern is gone, and/or a complete officiating overhaul takes place. And that sucks, because I watched more than a few seasons of terrible basketball in Boston, and I think the Celtics have a great future.
But this is my point in a nutshell: It's not a conspiracy that is stopping me from being a fan, but the unfortunate plausilibity of one.
Peace. I'll be reading this thread, but not posting. Hope there's some intelligent discussion.
Topic: The fans, the ref, and the commissioner. (Read 1613 times)