Van Gundy fined for comments about playoff officiating

[drothamel]

I'm not sure why eveyrone lements over the NBA game so much. I used to be one of those that thought the same way, but if you really watch the game, I don't think that it is worse than college, just different. The athletic ability of the players that are in the NBA is far beyond that of the college players. The game has to be played differently. The game has to be officiated differently. On average, the players are simply bigger, faster and stronger. It makes a big difference. Of course, there is the almighty dollar factor as well, but you can say that about the college game to some extent as well.

One thing I know for sure is that the play in the NBA is not because of the ability of the officials. Those are the best basketball officials in the world. They are selected out of a group of thousands to do that job. They go through unbelievable amounts of training and evaluation on a daily basis. Look, all of us who post on this board love officiating, but we all have other jobs, other things that we do. Officiating is our avocation. For those guys, it is there profession. It is what they do to earn a living. I know that they take pride in it; you simply don't make it to that level without having pride in what you do. Do they make mistakes, hell yes. They aren't THAT good. But they are the best, just like the players they officiate. My hat's off to those guys.