Study shows black players whistled more than whites

Great Hinrich can Hammer Billups all series with no calls! YES!

 

There are more white referees in the NBA than black referees. There are more black players than there are white players in the league. A study like this in my opinion would hold more weight if both the officials and players were racially equitable in terms of their employment. Obviously they are not.

There is one "white" player in the top 20 in the league in FT attempts -- and that is Dirk Nowitzki at #20. There are only six "white" players in the top 50 in FT attempts - and they are all European/Argentinean.

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There is only one white player in the top 50 in TO's per game as well -- at that is Steve Nash at #4. You figure some of those calls are resulting in TO's as well.

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In my opinion I just believe that white officials are more prone to make calls than black officials - and b/c of that the statistics are skewed. There are a number of theories as to why white officials make more calls than black officials but my guess would be that it gives them a better opportunity to control the game when they make the calls (Infer what you want to there). I don't think that race plays a large role in who is getting called for what - considering the fact that 11 out of the top 50 foulers in the league are white. I imagine that 22% is around the league norm for whites on a roster.

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Any study that examine myths through the use of quantifiable evidence is interesting to me. But in my opinion this is more a byproduct of a majority white officiating crew officiating a majority black game -- and many of these white officials calling the game more closely than the black officials.

 

I'm not gonna bother reading a word in the article but the NBA is made up of mostly blacks so obviously they would be whistled more. People need to stop living in the past not every person you see is going to be racist.

 

<div class="quote_poster">shapecity Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">How can you come to this conclusion when you don't know who called what? There's a lot of variables to consider. Who was the head official in the game? Who was the baseline official? Who was the official on the perimeter?

It's not a conclusive study unless you incorporate all those important details. </div>

Can you give an example of how such details could skew their results over a 13 year period?

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">No it's an assumption, because every game is an independent case. You don't have the same test sample to evaluate one group of officials versus another. For example, if two physical teams the Pistons and Heat play each other, and it's officiated by an all white crew, their average foul calls in that game should go up because those two teams foul and play physical.</div>

That's only relevant if physical teams will tend to be officiated by all-white crews more than less physical teams (with a similar proportion of black players), over a 13-year span. That isn't the case, since officiating crews are chosen more or less randomly. There is no correlation between the racial makeup of the officials and the profile of the teams they're officiating.

Of course, we can imagine hypothetical games in which white officiating crews will tend to call more fouls against black players. But unless there is a sustained pattern of white officiating crews tending to call those type of games more than "less white" officiating crews, that doesn't explain the observed differences.

In any statistical study, there's always a chance that the observations are explainable by external factors. That's why you try to control for those factors, and you look at a large sample of data. That's what they did here, and they concluded that the patterns they observed are statistically significant (i.e. extremely unlikely that it can be explained away as a fluke, attributable to other variables).

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">How can you conclude an officiating crew made up of white and black or all black would officiate it any differently?</div>

Because that's what the data shows. If it wasn't the case, then over a 13 year sample there would NOT be a statistically significant difference in fouls called against white/black players depending on the racial makup of the crew.

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Why would it be irrelevent to their findings? If one group is in an area of the court where more fouls are prevelant, than of course their going to be called for more fouls during the course of a game. If most fouls are called in the paint, and most players in the paint are black, it's rational those players are going to get whistled more regardless of who's officiating.</div>

As I said, black players get called for less fouls per minute than white players, on average. It doesn't make sense to say, "Oh, well of course blacks get called for more fouls with white officials. They just foul more in general." That simply isn't true. That's number one. Second, even if it was true, that isn't what their study is looking at. They aren't talking about who fouls more more; they're looking at how foul rate changes depending on the officiating crew. And we can safely assume that, over a 13-year period, there is no relationship between how white an officiating crew is and how physical the teams they're assigned to are.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Iron Shiek Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">In my opinion I just believe that white officials are more prone to make calls than black officials - and b/c of that the statistics are skewed. There are a number of theories as to why white officials make more calls than black officials but my guess would be that it gives them a better opportunity to control the game when they make the calls (Infer what you want to there). I don't think that race plays a large role in who is getting called for what - considering the fact that 11 out of the top 50 foulers in the league are white. I imagine that 22% is around the league norm for whites on a roster.

...

Any study that examine myths through the use of quantifiable evidence is interesting to me. But in my opinion this is more a byproduct of a majority white officiating crew officiating a majority black game -- and many of these white officials calling the game more closely than the black officials.</div>

Let's assume you're right, and the more white an officiating crew is, the more fouls they'll tend to call. If all they were saying is black players foul more often with white officials, then your point is valid. Maybe everyone fouls more often with white officials. However, what the study actually says is the rate of fouls called per minute on black players increases relative to that of the white players as the crew is more white. If it's just a matter of white official calling games more closely, than the rate of fouls on black players doesn't increase at all relative to that of white players. It's a subtle, but important difference.

 

Did they count technical fouls? The first people that come to mind are:.

Rasheed Wallace
Richard Hamilton
Karl Malone
Gary Payton
Antoine Walker
Alonzo Mourning
C-Webb

Shaq



Divac...not black

 

<div class="quote_poster">shapecity Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">1. Changes to league rules over the course of a 13 year period
2. Ratio of white head officials versus black head officials
3. The change of coaching styles and philosophies over the course of a 13 year period
4. Ratio of intentional fouls versus subjective foul calls

There's a lot more to consider. Having a large sample is fine, but the sample isn't consistent throughout the course of 13 years. There are so many changing variables, which I'm pretty sure this study doesn't account for. And if they do account for it, how do they adjust for the +/- errors in their polls.</div>

Just read the paper. You're assuming the guys that wrote it are idiots, but they explain things in a lot more detail and control for a lot more factors than you're giving them credit for. It seems like you think they just looked at average fouls called on blacks when the refs are white versus black, and bam .. they drew their conclusion. No, they're much, much more careful than that. This is a rigorous, well done study.

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">How many times per season during the course of 13 years are all white officiating crews on the court versus a mixture?</div>

30% of player-games it's all-white, 47.2% it's 2 white, 20.1% it's 1 white, and 2.7% it's all black.


Here's a summary of average fouls called on black/white players per minute, depending on the number of white officials:

<div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'>fouls per 48 min<br/># white refs black playerswhite players<br/> o 4.42 5.25 <br/> 1 4.32 4.99<br/> 2 4.34 4.99<br/> 3 4.32 4.90<br/></div>

Unlike what's being reported in the media, what's happening isn't that that white officials call more fouls on blacks than whites. Rather, the foul rate for whites reduces much more with more white officials than it does for black players.

Now, the study controls for lots of different factors in their estimation model. They take into account combinations of players and refs, stadium, team and player characteristics, and much more. Just read the paper, and you'll see that they are very thorough.

 

Ok, major point that was missing in their study was that they could not determine which "specific" ref made any call. So it's hard to really tell if there is any statistical trend. The NBA did control of this in their study and they found no evidence of racial bias.

 

<div class="quote_poster">a13x Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Ok, major point that was missing in their study was that they could not determine which "specific" ref made any call. So it's hard to really tell if there is any statistical trend. The NBA did control of this in their study and they found no evidence of racial bias.</div>

That's taken into account in their model. The chances that there isn't a statistical trend based on race is very, very small.

And we don't know what the NBA actually did in their study, because they won't dare publish it or even discuss the results in any detail.

 

This is true but without the details on specific refs it's hard to tell what's actually going on. Maybe as opposed to all refs being race bias, it's only one or two guys who are absolutely terrible.

i might note that when we look at the range:

# white refs black players white players
o 4.42 5.25
1 4.32 4.99
2 4.34 4.99
3 4.32 4.90

We can't exactly determine what is a "norm". So it could be that Black refs are more likely to call fouls on white players or white refs are less likely to make calls on white players ... it could be both (which i think is what the study suggested before the media mangled it).

 

I printed all 43 pages of the study, lol. I'm gonna try and read all of it and see if this guy has any real points.

 

<div class="quote_poster">a13x Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">This is true but without the details on specific refs it's hard to tell what's actually going on. Maybe as opposed to all refs being race bias, it's only one or two guys who are absolutely terrible.

i might note that when we look at the range:

<div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><br/># white refs black playerswhite players<br/> o 4.42 5.25 <br/> 1 4.32 4.99<br/> 2 4.34 4.99<br/> 3 4.32 4.90<br/></div>

We can't exactly determine what is a "norm". So it could be that Black refs are more likely to call fouls on white players or white refs are less likely to make calls on white players ... it could be both (which i think is what the study suggested before the media mangled it).</div>

The study uses a detailed estimation formula that considers specific referee and player combinations, team, and a host of other factors over a 13-year span. They didn't just draw their conclusion based on the numbers above.

 

First of all, I want to state I don't believe this study is true.

However, the same exact situation happened in the Golden State-Dallas game 6, and Rockets-Jazz game 6 last night.

Juwan Howard gave Mehmet Okur a hard foul. Memo got up and wanted a fight, he started pushing Howard...Bavetta called a technical foul against Howard.

Invalid Video Link

Austin Croshere gave Baron Davis a hard foul, Davis got up wanting a fight. The official called a double technical. They handled the situation better, but I still disagree...can't find a vid.

If the hard foul was a flagrant, call a flagrant. If not, call a technical on the guy who gets up wanting a fight.

What do you think? Officials are just too inconsistent.

 

<div class="quote_poster">a13x Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Ok, major point that was missing in their study was that they could not determine which "specific" ref made any call. So it's hard to really tell if there is any statistical trend. The NBA did control of this in their study and they found no evidence of racial bias.</div>

Exactly. If your going to spend that much time and money to do a study, you better damn well make sure you have your bases covered, especially if your going to publish it. Whoever made the call to "use statistics to fill in the missing data points" is a moron. While there may be truth to this, these retards need to keep in mind that the study is going to be read by the general public.

Ofcourse the NBA isn't going to publish their study. If a group of researchers tried it and it had more holes in it than swiss cheese, you think the NBA is going to be any better, much less release the details? It's like the blind leading the blind, LOL. What a waste of time.