<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Note:This was written BEFORE the playoffs started. It wasnt posted till after I had presented this to the league. I stand corrected on the lack of 4 games in a night. There have been. THat doesnt change the validity of the concept. Rather than using the playoffs as an opportunity to promote officials, it should be where only the very best officials work. I have also turned off comments because as I feared, they end up being off topic. Here is the post: Refs miss calls. Its part of the game. Better refs that approach the game objectively miss fewer calls. During the regular season new refs will come into the league and as might be expected, there will be ups and downs that come with new officials. The playoffs are different. THe playoffs are where teams and the NBA itself earn their money. Its where team profits are made, its where TV ratings are made and when TV ratings are good, the league makes more money. In other words, the playoffs are our money product. As with every business, the best people should be on the job with the money products. Thats not the way the NBA does it when it comes to officials. In the first round, the NBA reduces the number of officials elgible to officiate games from about 60 to 33 (give or take a couple). The first question is how did they arrive at that number ? I dont know, but I can calculate how many officials are actually needed. In the first round, there 4 series in each conference or 8 series in total. But the thing about the first round is that the games are spread out. There rarely if ever are 4 games in a single night. ( it hasnt happened since i have been here). The most I have seen is 3 games in a night. 3 games in a night is 9 officials. But when you look at the schedule further, you realize that because of time zones and TV needs, you never get more than 2 games in the same time zone. Which means that its not unreasonable to ask officials to work games on back to back nights in the first round of the playoffs. THey can travel to the next assigned game in the same or at worst adjoining time zone. Because of the spread out schedule, its unlikely they would work back to backs more than twice in the first round. So in the first round alone, the number of officials that should be assigned could be as few as 9, plus 3 alternates. Would the officiating improve if the top 12 officials worked the games instead of the top 33 or so. There is absolutely no question about it. Would it strain the officials more to possibly work a back to back ? Yes. So pay them a bigger bonus for being selected for the playoffs. Its certainly no more a strain on the officals than it is the players and we have no problem asking players to work back to back. The numbers get better for the 2nd round. 4 series. 2 games in a day. Sometimes 1 game in a day. Thats 6 officials plus alternates. If the league was absolutely convinced we have 12 finals quality officials, then use 12 But the NBA has a huge problem. It doesnt view the playoffs as a place where the very best of the best of officials go to work. It views the playoffs as part of a reward system for officials. YOu get promoted to the playoffs. Its not unusual to see an official work a single playoff game in the first round . In fact, if the info i have is correct, there are officials who havent even been promoted to full time crew cheif who get playoff assignments. How crazy is that ? Thats also a huge, huge, huge business mistake. The playoffs are our most important, most visible product. They should never be used as a stepping stone for promotion. Instead, the NBA should rank its officials, seed them if you will. Top 12 get playoff assignments. Thats it. If an official does a great job and rises to the top 12, he or she gets the reward. If not, not. Giving less qualified officials an opportunity to officiate playoff games as a reward gives the official a nice attaboy, but it risks the quality of our product. It makes absolutely no sense to do it the way it is currently done. If the league wants the best officiating in every game, only use the best officials. Anything less cheats us all.</div> Source What do you guys think about some of these ideas?
I think the basic meat of the argument holds very true. Why, in Cuban's words, should the playoffs be used as stepping stones to a promotion? As he said, only the best officials should be officiating the playoffs. However, I think his numbers are a bit off, and he has to be a bit more open, because mistakes will always be made. Maybe 20 officials instead of his proposed 12? I dunno, but as I previously said, I think his main argument is very valid.
Cuban got fined 100K for posting that on his blog. The league is out of control with some of these fines.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting durvasa:</div><div class="quote_post">Cuban got fined 100K for posting that on his blog. The league is out of control with some of these fines.</div> Yeah I didn't expect him to be fined, because in his note above, he mentioned he talked to the league about this idea. It's all good though, the fine money goes to charities, and the NBA matches a $1 for $1 contribution for each fine.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Yeah I didn't expect him to be fined, because in his note above, he mentioned he talked to the league about this idea. It's all good though, the fine money goes to charities, and the NBA matches a $1 for $1 contribution for each fine.</div> I disagee with the fining on principal. But if it's going to a good cause, and Cuban doesn't have a problem with that, I can't complain.
Cuban is a billionaire. He'll say what he wants when he wants and he'll throw some pocket change to the league if necessary. I like his idea, and I'm so glad somebody is speaking out, even though I don't always agree with what he says.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Yeah I didn't expect him to be fined, because in his note above, he mentioned he talked to the league about this idea. It's all good though, the fine money goes to charities, and the NBA matches a $1 for $1 contribution for each fine.</div> Yeah that nice and all but that still dosen't make it right. Just cause Cuban has loads of money dosnen't make it ok for the nba to unfairly take some at will. David Stern clearly has a personal beef with this guy. Stern is a very smart man and clearly he knows what he is doing........most of the time. But can't he see that owners like Cuban draw attention to the nba. How many owners can you name? I bet everyone knows Cuban, and the NBA hasen't exactly been tearing it up in the ratings recently. What ever happened to freedom of speach...especially on a blog. Its not like he said all of this stuff in a post game interview or something.
The NBA probably only fines Cuban because they can. They sure couldn't fine an average Joe if Joe posted the exact same thing Cuban posted. Is there a reason the NBA fined Cuban for this blog??
