Is anyone else getting pissed at the way the refs treat Oden?

I wonder if maybe the league views the way it has called Shaq's career to be a mistake, and the way they're calling Oden is seen as a correction to that mistake.

 

Really, is "earn your dues" rookie in the rule book?

 

I agree, I hate when people say that like. True or not, it's not something we should be conditioned to accept.

 

I just don't understand why Nate doesn't ever get on the refs. I understand him not wanting the team to get obsessed with them, but I would expect him to. Other coaches do and they get results. I remember once a ref going to Phil Jackson and asking if we're ok now? I couldn't believe that!!

 

I know Nate tells the team not to focus on the refs and whatnot, so for him to constantly complain wouldn't really be practicing what he preaches.

I think as this team grows and has Nate continues to gain respect around the league, he'll have the freedom to complain more. I notice him barking at refs a lot, but he seems to let it go real quick.

 

The NBA is by far the worst officiated out of all sports. And David Stern is terrible as a commish for allowing all this to happen.

 

I would say the NBA is by far the toughest professional sport to ref. You could make a case for the NFL, but when you have 6 officials who can specialize on their calls, I think it makes it easy to give the nod to the NBA refs having the toughest job.

 

There are a lot of judgment calls in the NBA, but the biggest problem is flopping. And it's now quite obvious when a person does it, but refs insist on rewarding them. And that basically brings the "flopping" element to the game and encourages more players to do it. Hell, Shaq even did it after bashing it to death because he knew he had to adjust.

Flopping along with the need to argue refs and superstar treatment just brings down the quality of NBA so much when it doesn't have to. NBA refs don't have to submit to the douchebag players. If someone complains more, give them LESS calls instead of more. Teach the players some manners. Like the article on B-Roy earlier this year. In his rookie year, he took calls like a man and didn't complain but refs never rewarded him for it. Now he's having to conform to how every other superstar does, and cry out whenever he's slightly touched.

 

Then employ another ref to each game. Have him sitting courtside with the replay monitor so that he can instantly review and rule on obvious mistakes. Take it a bit further and give coaches red flags to throw and challenge a call. If it is good enough for the NFL it should be good enough for the NBA. Eventually, if a refs calls are being overturned a lot then they are obviously not cut out for the job. This will also stop the pricks from making the super star calls, from giving super stars fouls to lesser players and from calling crap on rookies just because they are rookies.

There are a large number of things that the NBA can do to clean up the piss poor officiating. But it will never happen if they do not admit that it sucks. Stern is in denial and hides behind the fact that they have "standards" and because "they are constantly reviewing their officials performance." It is not enough.

 

I disagree with you on a couple things:

1) You want the NBA to review things like out-of-bounds, three in the key, and lane violations? They can't review fouls, just like in the NFL, you can't review any subjective call like pass interference. I think that would really slow the game down and wouldn't really help the game. They already review threes and shots at the buzzer, I think that's good enough.

2) I think you missed the point that the NFL is so specialized that they have officials that typically only have to watch a couple things. You can't have one ref that really only looks for offensive fouls, another who protects the point guards, and the third who calls all the defensive fouls.

Have you reffed basketball at the high school or college level? If you have, I'm sure you understand the difficulty with so many things going on at once, and the fact that it is a contact sport, but only to a subjective level. I know how much harder the games become to ref as the key level, speed, and strength of the players increase.

 

The thing I've never understood, is when they call something that they didn't even see. How many times have you seen a ref call a foul, when he clearly didn't have an angle of vision to make such a call? It happens all the time, and it's bullshit. I'd rather they missed calls, than make calls they don't see.