A Little OT: NBA Finals Officials

Manny A

I don't pay much attention to the NBA Finals, but I have watched a couple of the games this year. And it's the first time I've noticed that the officials are different for each game.

Is this something that the NBA does at all levels of their post-season play? And I'm curious why it's done that way. Would you prefer to see something similar in MLB post-season play?

APG

Yes, every single postseason game will have different officials working it.

nopachunts

APG wrote
Yes, every single postseason game will have different officials working it.

Does this mean if an offical does one post-season game, he is done for the post-season? BTW, I'm not a basketball official.

APG

nopachunts wrote
Does this mean if an offical does one post-season game, he is done for the post-season? BTW, I'm not a basketball official.

I can see how my wording my imply that...and I apologize for the confusion. What I meant was each game will have a different crew of officials compared to the previous game.

No, a certain pool of officials are selected to work in the postseason... it starts with a pool of 36 out of the 62 staff officials. Each of these officials will work games in the first round. As play goes deeper into the playoffs, the pool of officials is cut down until the NBA Finals were 12 officials are chosen. Each official will work at least one NBA Finals game at this point.