If you want 50 million opinions on something, then bring up the word "RACE".
After reading the posts, it appears a few officials are taking this personally. I read the initial editorial and while I didn't put much credence into the actual calls that were made or missed in the championship game I still could understand and agree with the main argument:
Since sports (players and coaches) are diverse we should consider having diverse officials for these games.
Why? Its simple if we open our eyes...we as individuals (even with or without the referee hat) identify with others who LOOK like we do or THINK like we think. It's the simple truth for the majority of people walking this earth. Do we try to be biased? In most cases NO, but it still happens. Blame the unconscious mind...I don't know but it happens.
I believe people feel better about a game called when A) the officials either don't look like either team (i.e. 2 Hispanic teams playing with 2 Caucasian refs) or B) when at least one official looks like each team (i.e. 1 African American team and 1 Hispanic team playing with 1 African American ref and 1 Hispanic ref).
Why would I say this? Well it brings balance to the floor. In A, neither official would consciously or subconsciously provide an advantage because neither team looks or thinks like them. In B, the conscious or subconcious of each officials balances out one another and should provide a balanced game.
Yes this is my opinion and the explanation may not be articulated clearly but game assignments like this would throw out the "race card" for players, coaches, and fans that so many of the majority hate to hear...
I consider myself a good/fair official, but one of my least favorite times as an official is when I walk into a gym and my partner looks like me and one team looks like me while one team doesn't. Why do you say? Because I know at some point someone is going to claim the officials are being bias. Yes we can write it off as hogwash but in reality a case can be made for at least 1 call or no call during the game even if we don't want to admit it.
For those that are still reading, what I'm saying has some merit. Just refer to Referee Magazine:
https://www.thearbiter.net/MyReferee...spx?Force=true
This was mentioned in the article:
"The NBA data, released in early May by Justin Wolfers, a public policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Joseph Price, a Cornell University economics graduate student and doctoral candidate, concluded that black players received between 0.12 and 0.21 more fouls per 48 minutes when the number of white referees officiating a game increased from zero to three. The study reported that white players were also discriminated against in games officiated by allblack referee crews (“The News” 7/07)."
Do you think NBA officials WANT to discriminate against players because of their race? Absolutely not!!! Does it happen? Absolutely!
Bottom Line: In playoff games and above, crews should be diverse so that the field of play is balanced and players, coaches, and fans get the perception that the game is not stacked against them. If a team is all black or all white at least have 1 black official or 1 white official.
Food for thought:
A black man on a dark street at night hates to see two Caucasian cops approaching him. On the flip side I would think a Caucasion team on the road in the hood playing a black team would hate to see an all black officiating crew.
Just think about it......