A Few Thoughts on Mavs 106, Kings 110

[mavsluvr]

Look... I will continue to beat this drum forever...NBA officiating is the most incompetent travesty I've seen in professional sports.

When you see someone just pick up the ball and walk 3 steps with it, and start dribbling again, calmly....in the middle of the court...just to be so nonchalant about it, tells you how little the rules are actually thought about during the game by some players.  Malfunction...more like "who cares".

When Luka was driving at the end of the game, for 3 refs who are paid 6 figures to sit there, with only one action to follow truthfully, from 3 different angles to all miss this blatant foul with an unrestricted view on a point of emphasis....they should all be fired if the NBA was serious about officiating.  

Just like the non-travel call on LeBron and inbounding the ball in off the rim to yourself (both plays that would have been called by the refs in my kids 3rd grade Upwards basketball league) is tanamount to being an accountant and not knowing how to add or that you have to place a stamp on a letter to send in to the IRS or knowing what the send button on an email is....this isn't extreme hyperbole.

In terms of being a cop, it's two policemen watching robbers from a robbery that happened right in front of them and watching the criminals run off down the street with no resistance...then arresting the shop owner who saw them sit there eating their doughnut, not doing their job, because he was irate at their blatant apathy about their purpose....AND this happens ALL the time in the NBA.

"TXB, that's crazy...comparing them to police and watching a robbery happen and doing nothing...it's not that important."  Of course not, in the eternal scheme of life, but in the temporal reason they get paid, IT'S THEIR FREAKIN' JOB TO EXECUTE THAT VERY PRINCIPLE IN THEIR OWN CONTEXT.

Yet, when is the last time you ever heard about a referee getting fired?  Donaghy?  When's the last time the NBA came out and said "Well, that was too much, so Official so-and-so has been terminated"?  Until stuff like that starts happening, they will CONTINUE to "whatever" their jobs like this.

Cuban had the right idea to outsource it and put unbiased evaluations on it years ago, but NBA FO didn't want to do that because Silver and Stern didn't care about getting calls right, they just want to create drama and get ratings...the game is secondary to the $$$ (like LeBron and Kerr's righteous political ideals to LeBron's NBA shoe sales).  

The officials in the NBA are basically a less buffoonish version of the refs at professional "WRASTLIN'" matches that are just there to pretend to turn their back when the right guy gets an advantage to get the crowd going.

I get your outrage. I don't think anyone on the board is defending incompetent refs. I sense that your frustration is more toward the league for not getting tougher on refs who officiate incorrectly. 

Not too long ago, the owners reviewed refereeing issues like calling the game more tightly in the fourth quarter, giving the benefit of the doubt in 50-50 calls to the home team, giving stars the benefit of the doubt, etc., and decided that they didn't want to make changes. So, this is an issue that goes beyond Silver and Stern. I don't think any of those people wanted incompetency -- I believe the stated goal is for 90% of the calls/no-calls to be accurate. As far as the conspiracy theories involving referees, some of those have seemed a little off the wall to me, but then you see something like the 2006 series, and you have to wonder. I would put the failure to call Howard's wrapping Seth up in the same category. 

The officials do have their own disciplinary system, although disciplinary actions are rarely made public. A few days ago, some officials were disciplined for not allowing a coach's challenge to Houston when they were eligible to take one. The discipline came under the category of failing to understand a rule, or applying it incorrectly, as opposed to a judgment call, such as whether a play constituted a goaltend, block or charge, etc. The refs were apparently confused about the rule, which was pretty appalling. 

I think Cuban has been instrumental in the effort to improve officiating, perhaps at the cost of it backfiring on him to an extent in earlier seasons. The refereeing crew has largely turned over since then, and we don't know whether some of those departures were forced or not. 

Unfortunately, I think this issue will be around, at least to some degree, more or less indefinitely. As fans, I guess all we can do is decide whether we are still willing to watch the game or not. The NBA actually looks pretty good compared to some other sports, such as world soccer, where out-and-out match fixing has been rampant. That doesn't mean we should stop calling them out, though.