Comments on: How to improve NBA Playoff Officiating http://blogmaverick.com/2006/05/07/how-to-improve-nba-playoff-officiating/ the mark cuban weblog Thu, 31 May 2012 20:17:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Cary Silverman http://blogmaverick.com/2006/05/07/how-to-improve-nba-playoff-officiating/#comment-55162 Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:47:59 +0000 http://blogmaverick.wordpress.com/2006/05/07/how-to-improve-nba-playoff-officiating/#comment-55162 I certainly agree that there is an hierarchy of referee ability in any sport. Why not try to improve the ability of the referee pool, in that way we might be able to chose from the top 20… There are many things that go into making an excellent referee including knowledge of the game, reflexes, physical fitness, vision, and demeanor. Some of these we can control, and some we can’t. We can certainly improve a ref’s vision, as I have publically offered before, I will provide free LASIK surgery on any NBA ref that is deemed a good candidate and needs it. Maybe Mark Cuban can do his part and fly these refs to me on his jet for their treatment!

]]> By: gary http://blogmaverick.com/2006/05/07/how-to-improve-nba-playoff-officiating/#comment-15805 Mon, 26 Mar 2007 23:26:37 +0000 http://blogmaverick.wordpress.com/2006/05/07/how-to-improve-nba-playoff-officiating/#comment-15805 I am on the brink of boycotting the NBA due to the dramatic discrepancies in officiating from game to game and more importantly, team to team. I would like to know, how can I voice me displeasure to the NBA commissioner, and how can we as fans band together to force the NBA to acknowledge our opinions and put a better product on the floor? Thanks a lot for your help.

]]> By: Ron Jumper http://blogmaverick.com/2006/05/07/how-to-improve-nba-playoff-officiating/#comment-15804 Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:05:31 +0000 http://blogmaverick.wordpress.com/2006/05/07/how-to-improve-nba-playoff-officiating/#comment-15804 The problem with NBA officiating is far deeper than just which ones call the game and whether or not they should have to call games on back to back nights. Referees, from the Dick Bevetta to Joe Blow, try way too hard to have an impact on the game. There are too many times where a call is made to either set the tone for the game or make up for a missed call from earilier. Referees have the ability to impact a game at great lengths because of the way games are officiated. The generally loose nature of the way traveling, lane violations, over-the-backs, and palming(not to mention all the grabbing and pushing that goes on seemingly unnoticed) makes it easy for each referree to make his own distinct style of how he wants to call the game. That doesn’t even go into the fact that marquee players get EVERY call.

So with all of that said, the system is set up so that NBA officials have a lot of freedom to call the game to their own liking which makes it subject to criticism for those who don’t feel the same way about a particular rule or situation. If the officials would get together and agree that they are all going to call the game the same way then it wouldn’t be so bad a deal. Obviously, yes officials will still miss calls but at least everyone would be be in agreement on what the right call should have been. I know there is a rule book that has all that, but honestly tell me they don’t regularly take more than two steps or jump in the lane early on nearly every free throw.

The NBA can’t even agree on what constitutes being suspended and not being suspended. I am still in shock that Reggie Evans wasn’t suspended for his grabbing of Chris Kaman’s manhood. If Ron Artest had done that he would be out of the league, and then you turn right around and suspend someone known as a pretty good guy, Raja Bell, for a tough foul on Kobe Bryant, which I will admit was worthy of suspension but not more so than the action of Evans. I guess the league felt it was more important to protect Kobe Bryant than it was Chris Kaman. Can you imagine if Reggie Evans had done the same thing to Kobe Bryant? I doubt the situations would have been handled the same, which leads me back to my point in the first place.

If you leave things open for their own interpretation then, amazingly, things will be interpreted differently. All people have different opinions or philosophies on how the game should be played so don’t be surprised when different officials do things completely different. It’s not the officials fault, for them it is no different than coaches with different systems. Think about it for a second, all coaches have the same basic principles(score points, play good defense, make free throws, rebound the basketball, and win a championship) but there are currently 30 different head coaches trying to do all those things 30 different ways. Just a thought…

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