Some Comments on Officiating

The combination of incredible players, intriguing rivalries and personalities, amicable (for the most part) payroll rules, and decent marketing has the NBA in great overall shape as a league. Maybe it just feels that way because the Nuggets are doing their thing, but it does seem like more people are interested in the playoffs this year than ever.

But there's one thing that is a big, and worsening problem, and that's the officiating. Rarely a playoff game goes by that the officiating is not a MAJOR topic immediately after the game, with players and coaches on both sides blaming the refs.

I'm not here to complain that the Nuggets have been screwed overall. Not at all. There have been games that have been lopsided in terms of calls in both directions.

The biggest issue is consistency. Consistency from game to game, consistency from crew to crew, and consistency on both ends of the floor. I'll be happy to acknowledge that the players and coaches have made it much tougher on the officials; the ability to draw and demonstrate contact, and physically over-react to contact to force calls (aka flop) is at an all time high.

Admittedly, they're tough calls, even with the benefit of instant replay on TV, it's difficult to say whether a play is a charge vs block (which in my opinion, and Hastings', is the most often blundered and most critical call due to the penalty of loss of posession if a charge is called). When a player violently hits the floor, the gut reaction is to blow the whistle. However if you look at a lot of the charges that get called these days they are a far cry from the "2 steps" that our Dad's taught us in rec league. Instead, the defender just needs to absorb any amount of contact to the chest and fall backward violently, and call is coming their way in most cases. This effect is exaggerated if the same call has been made within the last 3 plays by the other team.

The other thing that's making this situation worse, in the playoffs, is the league's incessant commenting (and changing calls and severity levels) on the officiating after the games. It's absolutely ridiculous. It undermines the decisions and authority of the referees and makes the whole affair look even more like a circus. Particularly the comment about the Melo non-foul against Dallas was absurd, pointless, and damaging to the credibility of the league.

It's also slowing down what would be otherwise thrilling games and turning them into free throw contests, which is not what we paid $200 to see.

Here are my suggestions on how to remedy these issues (for next season):

1) Implement rigorous standardized referee testing and weed out the refs that can't keep up. It's simple: show videos at real speed of pseudo close-calls, but where there is clearly a correct call (or non-call) to be made, and force the refs to react in real time. Let the top 50% keep their jobs, and have tryouts for the remaining ones.

2) Impart guidelines to the effect that calls should only be made if they are clear. If contact occurs and it's not clear who initiated the contact, do not make a call. Get comfortable with more non-calls. More non-calls = more action = less free throws = less trying to draw calls = less whining about calls = more fast breaks = higher scores. You get the idea. Less calls please.

3) Cases of egregious flopping are technical fouls. Do it twice in a game, sayonara Chris Paul.

4) Simply, stop commenting on the officiating after games, stop reviewing and changing calls. Force the referees to get better (see 1) ) and let them do their jobs.

Fix the officiating, and this league will continue to blow up. Don't and it will only become more of a circus.