Mark Cuban Thinks NBA Refs are Doing a Very Poor Job


Mark Cuban used to complain about the refs on what seemed to be a weekly basis a few years ago, but he had calmed down some lately. So, it was almost surprising when he ripped into them following the Dallas Mavericks’ emotional loss at home last night. From ESPN: “The Mavericks’ 95-86 home loss to the Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder — which featured Dallas coach Rick Carlisle’s ejection after being called for two separate technical fouls early in the fourth quarter, the second of which was whistled after he inadvertently kicked the ball into the American Airlines Center crowd — caused Cuban to complain about what he considers an epidemic of poor officiating in this lockout-condensed season. ‘Look, I haven’t said a whole lot about the officiating in a long, long time, but I haven’t seen it this bad in a long, long time,” Cuban said. ‘Guys miss calls; that’s part of the game. You’re not always going to have a great crew. Officials have got to learn that’s part of the game. But these were officials that have been part of the league for years, and it was just off-the-charts bad. And, if no one ever says anything, nothing ever happens.’ The crew of Ron Garretson, Michael Smith and Mark Ayotte called Carlisle for his first technical 27 seconds into the fourth quarter, when he stepped into the path of an official to protest a no-call when Dallas guard Delonte West crashed to the floor after Thunder forward Serge Ibaka registered one of his career-high 10 blocks on a driving layup. Carlisle’s second technical foul was called after he kicked a ball that landed in the stands while he was angry about a no-call with a little less than 10 minutes remaining, when Oklahoma City’s Nick Collison stole the ball from Mavs guard Jason Terry in transition, leading to a breakaway dunk for Thunder guard Russell Westbrook. ‘Those weren’t even the worst calls,’ Cuban said, citing crunch-time no-calls on drives by Terry and point guard Rodrigue Beaubois among other plays in a game in which the Thunder had a 33-25 edge on free throws attempted. Carlisle opened his postgame news conference by apologizing for kicking the ball into the stands. […] Cuban said he didn’t have a problem with Carlisle’s actions and was not concerned about the NBA, which fined Utah Jazz forward Derrick Favors $25,000 for throwing the ball into the stands near the Dallas bench in a recent loss to the Mavericks, possibly suspending the coach. “No, because it wasn’t an intentional kick into the stands, right?” Cuban said. “I think he was just trying to drop kick to the officials and it got away from him. It was just wide right.’ Cuban is concerned about what he considers poor quality of officiating this season, which he said might be affected by the stressful travel schedule of the condensed season.”