Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 12:29 pm  |  64 responses

The Refs are taking our jobs…..

Is the League Saying That This Is The Best They Can Do??

By Khalid Salaam

So I was ready for game 3. I promised myself I would watch an entire game from start to finish, something I haven’t done since the Suns/Spurs series. My reaction to last night’s game? When does the draft start? Because I’m done with these playoffs, no joking, I’m done. Thankfully there is but one or two at the most remaining games. And yeah Lebron was fouled but they weren’t gonna win the game anyway. If you can’t maintain a lead at home, in your teams first ever Finals game, with Duncan scoring 8 points in the 2nd half, with Tony Parker playing like his upcoming nuptials are on his mind and Ginobili going scoreless right up until those foul shots, then you’re not winning at all. San Antonio (and the League??) gift-wrapped game 3 for the Cavs and they still couldn’t capitalize. But back to the foul on Lebron, it brings up another topic.

I can’t recall viewing another year’s playoffs where the refs were so involved. Didn’t a mandate go out before the playoffs started? I thought refs would be less visible, less involved in all but the most obvious of rule violations. They have drained the life outta me as fan. Too much home-court advantage non-sense where the road teams gets called for crossing their eyes too much. Or random non-calls on plays that are super-obvious to everybody else. The commentators always reply with some generic speech about “the speed of the game” and that “they can’t see everything” or something about the refs “opinion” like I care what they think. If they can’t do the job then they shouldn’t be out there. What other profession works like this? If i’m on deadline and my story isn’t in I can’t use the excuse that i just can’t type fast enough. If i can’t get over why should they?

The refs are too damn old to be honest. Here’s a rule, if at the time they were drafting soldiers in WW2 or the Korean war and you at that time were deemed too far past your physical prime and were unable to enlist because you were too old then YOU ARE TOO OLD TO REFEREE A NBA GAME IN 2007. That would save a lot of craziness from ever occurring. There should be cap or something. How about if you’re older than John McCain then you don’t get to judge the athletic prowess of 22 year olds. You ask people why they dislike the NBA as compared to college ball (or the nfl) and you’ll hear a lot of talk about the refs playing too big a role in the outcome of the game. This has to stop. Who’s with me?

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  • Mr. Concepcion

    Refs never do a bailout call at the end of a game in the regular season, why would they in the Finals. Bron is no D-Wade, hes too scared to win.

  • sk

    yeah the crying has 2 stop by the players ….but to be real with everybody a foul could be called on EVERY single play….

  • tike

    YOU NEED REFS KHALID…BUT MAYBE THEY SHOULD GET YOUNGER WITH THE REFS….I THOUGHT I SEEN BOB BARKER OUT THERE

  • Co Co

    You’re not (anti the elderly) Hilarious! Anyway, I agree with you about the refs, but my only problem is people tend to only complain about the last play of the game like that is the biggest reason a team lost. Trust me, you did a whole lot of other ish wrong earlier in the game that had a lot more to do with why you lost.

  • maio

    I sincerely think that the NBA has the best officials in any team sport ever. Sure there are blown calls and sure there is (was?) Joey Crawford but there is no obvious favoritism and there are no cases of refs “jobbing” a game like they not so rarely do in Europe.

  • maio

    And the FIFA age limit is primarily in effect because soccer refs are requierd to run like 10 miles per game in all kinds of weather and deal with players and fans who often have evil thoughts.

  • Allenp

    I’m leery of an age limit, because a lot of the best refs are the old refs.

    They decide who covers the playoffs and finals based on a grading system and it seems like just about every year older refs make the cut. Now you could attribute that to a conspiracy by David Stern, or you could say there is more to reffing then mobility and eyesight. I like Dick Bavetta as a ref and he’s a geezer. But when I watch him work, I see somebody who is in control of the game and who does a good job making the right call 90 percent of the game. Some of the young refs are really bad at both of those things. I think the officiating could be better, but I don’t support an age limit.

  • sixthman6

    i think i read refs make pretty good money, most NBA refs make over 100k i believe, but i think you need a certain amt of experience/yrs and thats probably why everyone is so old

  • Sparker

    i’ll take d wade over lebron until lbj figures out that he needs a mid-range game. d wade keeps it simple, drive all the way; or drive and stop and pop (i know it started raining threes in last year’s finals, but the more time passes, the more i think i dreamed that). still, you can’t discount shaq’s effect on defenses. teams must and do adjust to his presence- even if the best that can be said of his offensive game is that he’s only unstoppable from two feet away and less

  • Sparker

    i’ll take d wade over lebron until lbj figures out that he needs a mid-range game. d wade keeps it simple, drive all the way; or drive and stop and pop (i know it started raining threes in last year’s finals, but the more time passes, the more i think i dreamed that). still, you can’t discount shaq’s effect on defenses. teams must and do adjust to his presence- even if the best that can be said of his offensive game is that he’s only unstoppable from two feet away and less

  • Sparker

    oops. don’t even know how i did that

  • http://www.geocities.com/dagomardeg Dagomar

    This is a pretty innane comment section at points. Look, the difference between Wade and Lebron in the finals is obvious.

    Lebron has/had teammates who cannot shoot. That means there’s nobody to space the floor for him. He also doesn’t have a major inside presence to draw a doubleteam (like Shaq). So the Spurs can effectively put five great defenders on him at once. How is he going to surmount that?

    Look, not even Jordan won without Pippin. And with a hobbled Shaq this year, Wade couldn’t even get out of the first round, injury or no. Wade had a great selection of veteran players around him to support him and Shaq. He had Mourning. Lebron has Varejao. There’s a big difference.

    For all that, Lebron still carried his team to the finals. He has alot to be proud of. Let’s also not forget he’s a full 3 years younger than Wade. In my opinion, both players are about equal, but James has the bigger upside.

  • Dashiell

    LeBron was fouled before he took the shoot, so he’d have gotten only 2 free throws. I thought letting him take the three instead was actually a pretty good decision by the refs.

  • http://www.btnhboard.com Gambino

    Didn’t they have a video ref at some point or is that just my imagination? Have that video ref for those calls your not sure about, we have them here in australia for football, and they are a welcome addition, leaves nothing up to “I think that happened” and leaves no chance of arguing a call

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