Do You Think Officiating Will Ever Improve?

[ProfessaPackMan]

Just like the title asks, do you think the Officiating in the NBA will ever improve or are you just content in that you have no faith in it ever getting better? Or are you of the mindset that Officiating is fine and that fans are getting up in arms over a few calls that take place throughout the year?

[da ThRONe]

Re: Do You Think Officiating Will Ever Improve?

Nope and I don't think it's by accident. The mere fact that "stars" get special treatment is evidence that the league wants the games officiated in a way I find awful.

On a side note I wish the NBA would put a 4th ref on the court.

[Jasong7777]

Re: Do You Think Officiating Will Ever Improve?

I voted no, but I hope it does get better. Too many variables, when it should be cut and dry. They should just go by the rule book. Of course, the rule book could need changes too.

+You have superstar vs. non-superstar calls.

+You have end game calls that should be called, but are not because of it being the end of a game situation.

+You have some officials who are biased against certain players.

[The 24th Letter]

To answer your question, no.

But honestly, I feel that even if you bring in a new basketball focused commish, new refs, set some consistencies in the rules...controversial calls will still be a dominant conversation....

[Streaky McFloorburn]

Re: Do You Think Officiating Will Ever Improve?

Unless they make more calls reviewable, I don't see the current system of officiating improving much.

I'll go good idea, bad idea for things I'd like to see tried in the future.

Good idea: a multi-angle, multi-target, high-speed player-tracking camera system, running off of an advanced physics model that could instantly determine contact points, changes in trajectory, and calculate whether or not a player's reaction was consistent with the amount of force applied. This would take human error completely out of the equation and eliminate home team/star player calls, flopping, and the need to review calls. There could be some leeway programmed in on traveling, etc. based on whether an unfair advantage was gained by using the illegal move (for example, the same kind would be given on uncontested drives as is done now).

Bad idea: letting the players make the calls, with a single official to review/settle disputes. If players peaceably decided to "shoot for it", that would be allowed up to 3 times per quarter. This would also eliminate flopping, but for entirely different reasons. There would probably be fewer stoppages in play, but each one might last longer.

[da ThRONe]

Re: Do You Think Officiating Will Ever Improve?

I don't think anybody expect prefect calls. I just want consistency and rules that make sense. I love the way the college game is officiated.

[NYJets]

Re: Do You Think Officiating Will Ever Improve?

I don't think it will ever improve to the point that people don't complain about it. I think they could make some changes that will make the officiating better in some specific ways, but it's always going to be a big issue.

Not that I'm happy with the officiating, because I bitch about the refs as much as anybody, but officiating at this level is just extremely tough. I think it's virtually impossible to make it so everyone is happy. If college reffing is better...and personally I don't think it is, it's because reffing becomes much tougher when you have the best athletes in the world.

[superjames1992]

Re: Do You Think Officiating Will Ever Improve?

Give it 25-50 years and we may not have human officials at all.

[Vni]

Re: Do You Think Officiating Will Ever Improve?

Give it 25-50 years and we may not have human officials at all.

Weren't we supposed to have flying cars by 2000?

[King_B_Mack]

Re: Do You Think Officiating Will Ever Improve?

Weren't we supposed to have flying cars by 2000?

Still pissed about that lol.

I honestly don't think we'll ever see it improve though. Silver doesn't inspire me to believe that change for the better will come for the NBA as he'll more than likely just be David Stern with a few things he'll do different to force an identity of his own sort of like Roger Goodell trying to forge his legacy on the back of player safety.

[VDusen04]

Re: Do You Think Officiating Will Ever Improve?

I do not have an issue with officiating. I mean, I see calls that upset me, but I understand those are just bound to happen. It's a human process and henceforth there will always be error, imperfection, and inconsistency. I feel it's similar to asking if teams will ever be able to always execute their gameplans to perfection.

Personally, I often find officiating issues to be overstated. I am surprised to see such a high number of folks who believe the Heat/Lakers/Knicks/Bucks/Wizards/Magic/Spurs/entire NBA are teams who officials are out to ensure win/lose/draw/please David Stern. It's a little much.

To meet people halfway though, I do think there's bad calls. However, not nearly as often as it seems when visiting the internet/bar/anywhere featuring folks who are ready to say anything out loud about a game at any given time so as to either criticize their opponent or excuse their team's shortcomings.

[ojandpizza]

I do not have an issue with officiating. I mean, I see calls that upset me, but I understand those are just bound to happen. It's a human process and henceforth there will always be error, imperfection, and inconsistency. I feel it's similar to asking if teams will ever be able to always execute their gameplans to perfection.

Personally, I often find officiating issues to be overstated. I am surprised to see such a high number of folks who believe the Heat/Lakers/Knicks/Bucks/Wizards/Magic/Spurs/entire NBA are teams who officials are out to ensure win/lose/draw/please David Stern. It's a little much.

To meet people halfway though, I do think there's bad calls. However, not nearly as often as it seems when visiting the internet/bar/anywhere featuring folks who are ready to say anything out loud about a game at any given time so as to either criticize their opponent or excuse their team's shortcomings.

I actually agree with you here.. I was honestly surprised to see so many OS users bashing the way games are called.. Maybe it's just because there has been quite a few questionable calls in the past couple weeks and its fresh on the brain. But as a whole, I don't really see a huge issue..

[Streaky McFloorburn]

Re: Do You Think Officiating Will Ever Improve?

I don't think the problem is the occasional bad call, no matter how big the moment. It's things like known floppers continuing to get calls with the same moves over and over (they only seem to issue warnings for flops that obviously have no contact, while ignoring guys like James Harden who charge into traffic and act like they got clotheslined at the first sign of contact, even if they initiated it), or back-to-back plays that looked identical, but one is called and one isn't, or one foul is deemed flagrant and the other isn't.

The most frustrating thing for me is when the league admits a call was missed/made incorrectly after the fact. I always think "okay, now what are you going to do about it?" To the NBA's credit, they often make rule changes following a season in which a certain type of call was particularly problematic, but it just seems weird to formally admit serious errors unless you're going to use them as a tiebreaker for playoff seeding or something.

In general, I'm in favor of fewer calls. I don't think anyone would want to watch a game in which every travel, carry, and 3 second violation was called, and I wish that there would be way more no-calls on unclear block/charge situations. Teams with the best ball movement play better with unobstructed flow, and iso-heavy teams respond better to a choppy, ugly game. I've seen plenty of games where every call was correct, but one team definitely benefitted more from the additional breaks in play, or their opponent not being able to find a good rhythm. The biggest impediment to beautiful team basketball isn't bad officiating, it's calls being made where the natural consequence would be sufficiently punitive (or no harm - no foul, but taken further to "if you caused or exaggerated your own harm, especially at the expense of proper positioning, no foul").

[VDusen04]

Re: Do You Think Officiating Will Ever Improve?

I don't think the problem is the occasional bad call, no matter how big the moment. It's things like known floppers continuing to get calls with the same moves over and over (they only seem to issue warnings for flops that obviously have no contact, while ignoring guys like James Harden who charge into traffic and act like they got clotheslined at the first sign of contact, even if they initiated it), or back-to-back plays that looked identical, but one is called and one isn't, or one foul is deemed flagrant and the other isn't.

The most frustrating thing for me is when the league admits a call was missed/made incorrectly after the fact. I always think "okay, now what are you going to do about it?" To the NBA's credit, they often make rule changes following a season in which a certain type of call was particularly problematic, but it just seems weird to formally admit serious errors unless you're going to use them as a tiebreaker for playoff seeding or something.

In general, I'm in favor of fewer calls. I don't think anyone would want to watch a game in which every travel, carry, and 3 second violation was called, and I wish that there would be way more no-calls on unclear block/charge situations. Teams with the best ball movement play better with unobstructed flow, and iso-heavy teams respond better to a choppy, ugly game. I've seen plenty of games where every call was correct, but one team definitely benefitted more from the additional breaks in play, or their opponent not being able to find a good rhythm. The biggest impediment to beautiful team basketball isn't bad officiating, it's calls being made where the natural consequence would be sufficiently punitive (or no harm - no foul, but taken further to "if you caused or exaggerated your own harm, especially at the expense of proper positioning, no foul").

Regarding the flopping, the no-contact flops are really the only types they can continually enforce. In most other cases (most, not all) it is not easy to distinguish whether a player is flopping or not. And if they're exaggerating contact simply as a means of drawing attention to illegal contact initially being made by the opposition, there's not a lot that can be done there. If an exaggeration of contact is not obvious and merely assumed or suspected, it's tough to punish that on a whim.

Secondly, I believe the NBA has taken to admitting missed calls in recent years as a means of transparency, particularly after their Tim Donaghy scandal. I think it's just their way of stepping up and addressing officiating controversies head on instead of letting them linger and develop into weird fixing conspiracy theories. I'm alright with officiating mistake admissions. People get so riled up about missed calls that sometimes someone admitting fault is enough to help promote trust and understanding, on top of often putting a lid on potential controversy. It's like when an argument is brewing between you and an acquaintance, only one of you steps up early, man's up, and sincerely admits, "Yeah I was wrong, you were right." It's mostly symbolic, yet it tends to quash things.

I agree with the premise of your third paragraph. I just happen to not have much of an issue with how the game is called right now. In terms of flow busting, my bigger issue is actually the treasure trove of time-outs awarded to each team. Three time-outs for the final minute of play? Sure. Oh, game's going to overtime? How about six more time-outs, fellas? Alright.

[phenom1990]

Re: Do You Think Officiating Will Ever Improve?

I don't think anybody expect prefect calls. I just want consistency and rules that make sense. I love the way the college game is officiated.

The college game is officiated just as badly as the NBA. The best way to improve the officiating is to re-do the flagrant foul rules, allow the players to police themselves to a degree and to get rid of refs with big egos. That would help to improve it. I do think it is possible but they will need to get rid of some of the big ego refs first.