Casualty of the lockout: Officiating

[kozlodoev]

I'm sure others here have noticed how terrible the officiating has been early on this season.  Part of me has to wonder if some of these guys needed more preseason games to get warmed up for the regular season when it came to reffing. 

Or are these guys really that bad?

Or do they have dirt on Stern and therfor can't get let go.

After watching the NFL (for example) for a while one can easily forget how putrid NBA officiating really is. But yes, it's no different than it's always been: superstar calls, make-up calls, and plain poor calls were and are still rampant.

[Kiorrik]

Btw, if the league really is fixed...

... then is #17 not a result of fixing as well?

[Eja117]

this isnt anything new....nba refs have sucked for a long time

yup....you can't kill what was already dead

[pearljammer10]

The two that stuck out in my mind (obviously) were the Bass charge where Norris jumped in front of him at the last moment...We were down by three at that point right? That absolutely stole all the momentum from us and put it right back into the hands of the Heat... The right call gets made there and its a one point game...

The other was the Bosh bobble on the layup with JO backing away. I mean Dickie was riiiiight there looking at it...And it was clearly a non contact whatsoever play. I hate hate hate complaining about officiating, but when the calls are thaaat bad. Its hard not to be upset and say something about it.

[vinnie]

I don't think the league is fixed. Many of the refs are simply incompetent and/or too old, and the most arrogant man on earth, David Stern, will never admit this and get rid of the incompetent refs. Then you have the star treatment, which has been around forever.

[dark_lord]

I don't think the league is fixed. Many of the refs are simply incompetent and/or too old, and the most arrogant man on earth, David Stern, will never admit this and get rid of the incompetent refs. Then you have the star treatment, which has been around forever.

hit the nail on the head

[Tgro]

Star treatment sucks!

A foul is a foul no matter who commits it. Not grant a player a foul because he's a star or do not call a foul on a player because he's a star.

This is where the NBA has lost credibility.

[kozlodoev]

I don't think the league is fixed. Many of the refs are simply incompetent and/or too old, and the most arrogant man on earth, David Stern, will never admit this and get rid of the incompetent refs. Then you have the star treatment, which has been around forever.

hit the nail on the head

What was it, "never suspect a conspiracy where simple stupidity will do".

[Jon]

I don't think the league is fixed. Many of the refs are simply incompetent and/or too old, and the most arrogant man on earth, David Stern, will never admit this and get rid of the incompetent refs. Then you have the star treatment, which has been around forever.

hit the nail on the head

What was it, "never suspect a conspiracy where simple stupidity will do".

Yep. Why he chose to give Joey Crawford his job back is beyond me. It's not like he is actually a good ref and he's broken the law and NBA rules.

[mqtcelticsfan]

There's no conspiracy, or anti-Celtic bias in officiating. The game last night was poorly officiated, but that happens a lot in the NBA both ways. How many moving screens have we gotten away with in the past 3 years?

The big problem I have with officials is the abundance of technical fouls. People are getting T'd up for things that are absolutely ridiculous because of refs like Bavetta or Crawford.

[nickagneta]

I said this last night. There's no way a ref who once officiated a game in which John Havlicek, Bob Love, Bill Bradley or Jerry Sloan played in, should still be out on the court trying to ref a game that is played at a speed that is faster than it was when they were 37 years younger.

[vinnie]

I said this last night. There's no way a ref who once officiated a game in which John Havlicek, Bob Love, Bill Bradley or Jerry Sloan played in, should still be out on the court trying to ref a game that is played at a speed that is faster than it was when they were 37 years younger.

This is so painfully true. What is wrong with Stern and the rest of the league officials that they do not understand this? Arrogance is the only answer.

[slamtheking]

I'm sure others here have noticed how terrible the officiating has been early on this season.  Part of me has to wonder if some of these guys needed more preseason games to get warmed up for the regular season when it came to reffing. 

Or are these guys really that bad?

Or do they have dirt on Stern and therfor can't get let go.

I think it's a combination of them being that bad and the NBA having no mechanism in place to deal with poor/questionable refs.  I don't see this changing unless the national media focuses a spotlight on it (which won't happen because they want to keep the broadcast rights) or the owners get to a point where the ref union is locked out until some sort of oversight/ management is installed.  I just don't see either happening.

The least likely possibility for changing the officiating is for the fans to boycott the league until something is done.  We all know that will never happen but if fans stopped buying tickets and cancelling their season tickets while providing officiating as the reason, then the league might sit up and take notice.

[jgod213]

I said this last night. There's no way a ref who once officiated a game in which John Havlicek, Bob Love, Bill Bradley or Jerry Sloan played in, should still be out on the court trying to ref a game that is played at a speed that is faster than it was when they were 37 years younger.

I thought that said Bill Brasky at first, haha.

Then i remembered he's a ten-foot tall beast man, who showers in vodka, and feeds his baby shrimp scampi.  He was not, however, a professional basketball player.



Bill Brasky once officiated a basketball game so well that even his partner Dick Bavetta was unable to influence the outcome.

[Finkelskyhook]

I'm sure others here have noticed how terrible the officiating has been early on this season.  Part of me has to wonder if some of these guys needed more preseason games to get warmed up for the regular season when it came to reffing. 

Or are these guys really that bad?

Or do they have dirt on Stern and therfor can't get let go.

I think it's a combination of them being that bad and the NBA having no mechanism in place to deal with poor/questionable refs.  I don't see this changing unless the national media focuses a spotlight on it (which won't happen because they want to keep the broadcast rights) or the owners get to a point where the ref union is locked out until some sort of oversight/ management is installed.  I just don't see either happening.

The least likely possibility for changing the officiating is for the fans to boycott the league until something is done.  We all know that will never happen but if fans stopped buying tickets and cancelling their season tickets while providing officiating as the reason, then the league might sit up and take notice.

Great post.  But right now I think the bad officiating is by design.
I don't think guys as good as these guys are could screw up as often as they do unless it was meant to.

I'll maintain....If they ever started calling games by the rules, the games would be 4-5 hours long for all of the whistles.  Could you imagine how often the whistle would blow in a Phoenix-Miami game, for instance, just for traveling when the messiah, Wade, and los Nash were all on the court?  The game might go past curfew.