Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 3:40 pm  |  22 responses

Reviewing the Refs

In a perfect world, YouTube would keep refs honest.

by Sam Cadet

The ref has been the bane of the existence of many NBA fans for who knows how long. Granted, viewers have the luxury of viewing games from the comfort of their own home or live at the event when they see a no-call. Either situation offers an arguably advantageous view on the game depending on the situation. Even with that considered you really have to cram to understand how paid professionals flub it up left and right. I’ll spare you all with the NBA conspiracy theories as I’m not equipped to point fingers at press time. But something has got to give in the Referees Association as blown calls are getting out of hand.

Thankfully we live in a YouTube world where BS officiating gets exposed one upload at a time. Hindsight is a big issue in the following flicks but it’s the best most have in reviewing questionable calls. Besides they arguably look worse when seen as they happened. Now let’s get on with the scrutiny.

VIOLATIONS

Traveling

Refs must have a lead ear with matching sun blockers when people call out LeBron’s incessant traveling. Nevertheless the legend of the crab dribble is evidently long gone as he drives to the hole in this clip. Letting anyone talk a grand promenade to the cup is bad enough. But James is notorious for being liberal with his dribbling especially when he puts his head down. Cleveland won that close game but the potential turnover would’ve been costly had it been called.

Last Thursday’s game was quite a show but this no-call made me raise an eyebrow. The replay highlights the travel in progress as Anthony became aware of LeBron’s chase down. The game went into overtime with the Nuggets walking away with a W. All I’m saying is we could’ve seen a different outcome had the refs blown the whistle before the slam.

Double Dribbles

Get a load of this. Rashard double dribbles and nearly travels right before giving up the rock. Double dribbles get called more often than not due to their obvious nature but you’d be surprised at how many of these violations slip through the cracks.





Jump Ball violations

You could argue the game was out of hand by that point. Additionally the Suns won handily that night so rounds of “who cares?”-type comments may hit the comments section. But an infraction is just that and it should’ve been called appropriately. Similar jump ball violations have taken place in critical playoff games and I won’t be surprised to see it happen again.


FOULS

Flopping/Acting

Ron Artest’s Oscar Worthy performance after Pierce’s push off was enough to cause a critical turnover that led to Kobe’s game winning jumper. Push offs are also illegal but they aren’t usually enforced unless the defender hams it up or legitimately gets rocked. Then again the latter wasn’t necessarily the case for Byron Russell. So what could’ve been a tough no call became an easy whistle as QB’s finest flew into the front row. Perhaps Paul Pierce secretly has hulk-like strength that we’re not privy to. Until that news gets out I’ll hold that Ron was strong enough to hold down the fort when Paul dropped that light shove.

Phantom Fouls?

The play in question involves Hedo drawing a foul as he drove to the hole amidst 3 LA Lakers. The angle shown in this video isn’t the greatest as it doesn’t look like any of them altered his attempt to shoot drastically. But this side view highlights Pau’s left arm touching Hedo as he went up. With that said one could argue Pau’s contact wasn’t enough to impede Turkey’s Glue path to the cup. Either way it leads to a slippery sloap that, once again, turned into an “easy call” as Turkoglu sold the foul.



Technical Fouls

At first I was going to concentrate on chastising the usual suspects for letting another player get away with a less than kosher push. Upon further review at the :54 mark. I can’t tell what’s worse. The fact that Kobe got away with elbowing Omri or the possibility Casspi apologized after Bryant shoved him. At any rate Kobe should’ve received a tech if officials strive to be unfailing.




CONCLUSION

I’m well aware refereeing a game isn’t a walk in the park. But the amount of calls they miss, especially during playoff time, is flat out inexcusable. For the seven examples I provided there are plenty more I either glossed over or won’t get a second look on a picky concerned fans hard drive. Nevertheless, I hold the opinion that referees need to be held accountable for the obvious calls they miss.

Expecting perfection isn’t the right way to go about reforming professional officiating. Instead, calling out violations and fouls on the NBA’s elite players more consistently would be a decent start. On the other end the red carpet treatment certain players enjoy, especially in the waning moments of the game, can and should cease. Of course this doesn’t mean lower to mid-level athletes ought to get off the hook. But more rigid regularity in officiating matchups wouldn’t hurt.

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  • entelleckt Posted: Feb.23 at 4:05 pm
    Clearly Paul Pierce steps on Artest’s foot causing him to lose balance w/o any acting needed.

  • riggs Posted: Feb.23 at 5:46 pm
    @entelleckt: man your name is ironic.

  • AJBALLER Posted: Feb.23 at 6:13 pm
    the refs will never be right you just have to respect them and keep playin

  • Jackie Moon Posted: Feb.23 at 6:50 pm
    Traveling – Agree …
    Double Dribble – Agree …
    Jump Ball Violation – Incomplete (can’t see)…
    Artest Flop – Disagree, He just lost his balance after getting a stiff arm. FYI – Stiff arms only allowed in football …
    Turkoglu – Disagree, Gasol had his hand in Hedo’s back, it shouldn’t have been there, that is a foul …
    Bryant elbow – Are you kidding me? Disagree, Casspi apologizes because he basically was going to run over Kobe. That’s doesn’t even qualify as an elbow, a shove maybe. Definitely not a technical foul.

  • Julio Mathieu Posted: Feb.23 at 7:11 pm
    Inconsistent officiating is most definitely a problem. It leads to players having to be theatrical whenever they feel they get touched illegally, which leads to flopping. These theatrics many times seem to be the only thing that captures these officials attention, since it puts them on the spot to make a decision. This also causes another dynamic as strength can be a disadvantage. A foul on Kevin Durant or Richard Hamilton will be quite obvious as it would affect their movement, but that is not the case with players like LeBron James or Dwight Howard. The lamest calls tend to be the carrying call. Refs are so damn inconsistent regarding this call (see Derrick Rose).
    A side comment, it seems like women basketball players are allowed a third step. The amount of travels I notice when watching WNBA or women’s college ball is remarkable.

  • Sam Cadet Posted: Feb.23 at 7:37 pm
    @ Jackie Moon Yeah I apologize for the jump ball video as it got taken down by the time this went up. I’ve tried to look for another one but there’s a link to the jump ball from last year’s western conference finals. About Artest, true he may have lost his balance momentarily but do you REALLY buy the fact that he had to run into the stands to regain his balance? And on Pau, honestly that could’ve gone either way depending on if it was a home or away game. Players have trailed scorers just like Pau did with his arm and didn’t get called for the foul. The call was easier to make b/c he fell at the end and there’s not enough evidence to suggest that Pau or anyone else followed through with a push. I admit it’s not the greatest example but it’s the most recent one I could find. Oh and I highly doubt Casspi was going to “run” Kobe over when he came down. But it’s whatever. We’re entitled to our own opinions on that one and any of the other vids.

  • Sam Cadet Posted: Feb.23 at 7:44 pm
    Also before I forget. The jump ball video basically had Shannon Brown (or whoever else was supposed to take the jump ball, I can’t remember) hop out of the circle early in anticipation for the tip instead of jumping when the ref threw the ball up.

  • Jackie Moon Posted: Feb.23 at 7:48 pm
    @Sam – I believe you about the jump ball violations. Derek Fisher loves to jump INTO the guy when he’s involved in one, and guys are always moving around before the jump ball, they need to clean that up, and that is one thing they can fix just by calling a few of those where guys think the ref won’t blow the whistle.

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Feb.23 at 8:05 pm
    Great post, Sam. A topic that really needs to be covered more frequently.
    You know what I think is the worst problem with the officiating, besides letting calls go? Suspicious refs.
    Watch these videos that show Joey Crawford PUSHING Damon Jones out of bounds and calling a foul on Chauncey Billups.
    Slow motion so you can see the details:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph_4MIP58ZQ
    Live action:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wugrOmbsV3U
    Joey Crawford is the most suspicious referee in the NBA today. Of course there are others, but man, this happened in a PLAYOFF SERIES.

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Feb.23 at 8:20 pm
    The following video shows you how the refs manipulated the game with their calls to meet the day’s point spread. The video explains everything to you. Also, Dick Bavetta (another ref accused of betting) is officiating.
    WATCH THIS VIDEO:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nyu69Oj1q4
    Some NBA refs are gambling, and I seriously doubt it was just Tim Donaghy.

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Feb.23 at 8:23 pm
    And then there are some refs who just can’t get the right call when it comes to big men. Yao Ming has probably suffered the most mis-calls out of any other NBA player.
    Watch as Dwight Howard runs into Yao Ming’s back on his way down the court and a foul is called on Yao… Skip the rest of the video though, its just a bunch of pictures of Yao grimacing to bad music.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi55kwI8B3w&feature=related

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Feb.23 at 8:28 pm
    Refs screwing Yao Ming over again:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnsP4gY-zl0&feature=related

  • david Posted: Feb.23 at 8:40 pm
    not sure why casspi was apologising
    the artest one was pretty soft, I wouldn’t exactly call that a stiff arm
    here’s one I don’t understand, the blocking foul on a guy (if he’s just been dunked on or whatever) that has position, albeit too close to the basket, why is that not just a no call?

  • Dillan Posted: Feb.23 at 9:02 pm
    Legalize gambling. Refereeing should improve. high stakes will mean harsher consequences if games are found to be fixed or manipulated. As for bad calls? same refs been doing it for years with little improvement. Keep note: the game IS faster and the refs ARE getting OLDER.

  • Jack Knife Posted: Feb.23 at 9:05 pm
    Does everyone really want EVERYTHING to be called? The NBA is barely watchable as it is.

  • Gerard Himself Posted: Feb.23 at 9:27 pm
    interesting post. Sorry, don’t have anything to add, besides: I agree.

  • Sam Cadet Posted: Feb.23 at 10:23 pm
    @ Jack Knife I can only speak for myself but that’s an extreme and highly unlikely possibility as I said in the post. People are fallible so it’s not possible to call everything. But obvious miss calls have been around for years and I wouldn’t be opposed to a crackdown. I think refs today have a tendency to call lots of touch fouls that are hardly fouls and star calls that make players untouchable at times. I’m just looking for more consistency and parity when the whistle is blown.

  • doyouwantmore Posted: Feb.23 at 11:33 pm
    They need to smelt up a great big ring for Kobe’s elbow because it’s a huge part of his game, especially when the game is on the line. Ask Mike Bibby, Manu, Nash, Ray Allen, Lee, Kirilenko, and others that have gotten bleeding noses and cut lips from “Throwin’ ‘bows” Bryant. If I don’t like him, I don’t like him, that don’t mean that I’m hatin’!

  • davidR Posted: Feb.24 at 10:48 am
    i just dont understand how nba refs can be so bad. compare them to refs in any other sport and it’s ridiculous. nfl refs have to pay attention to so many more things, yet they have eagle eyes and are pretty good at catching things. nba refs treat the rules pretty subjectively (like an umpire’s strike zone)

  • davidR Posted: Feb.24 at 10:49 am
    i mean, damn:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN_ljDfevB0

  • Holden Posted: Feb.24 at 11:18 am
    Terrible post. Yes, Lebron travels a lot but that is not a travel on Carmelo, or do you mean before he puts the ball on the floor? And an elbow by Kobe Bryant? Come on. And Bryon Russell wasn’t pushed off.

  • Ben Posted: Feb.24 at 12:14 pm
    And I would love it if the players could make every shot and never turn the ball over. Fact is, the game is fast and I think the % of correct calls is really high. We also don’t know if they received orders from above. If you dont like an article, should you blame the writer or his boss who asked him to write the article?

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