OT-Article on Questionable Calls in NBA

[grunewar]

from the article:

"A dribbler drives, a defender steps in, both fall, and one or the other is charged with a foul, even though, if a thousand refs were polled, 500 would call "block" and 500 would call "charge."

OK, so maybe it would be 501-499 here.

[APG]

What I find great is that through three games in the series so far, with three separate crews, every game has had a large amount of fouls. You would figure the players and coaches would adjust. But as is always the case, it's just easier to blame the officials.

As to the article, the writer has no idea what he's talking about. Since we have too many fouls being called, let's just make all block charge calls a no-call since as he put, "they're impossible to get right away." Except a competent official has no trouble with calling this...simple thing called refereeing the defense.

Reducing off ball grabbing? The complaint about the majority of the calls has been that it's been off-ball away from the action. Yet the author is suggesting to call more of these. If the author watched any of the games this series, he'd see that a lot of the calls that Celtics have receieved have been freedom of movement calls on defenders trying to hold and impede Ray Allen.

Other points brought up was allowing "slow-footed centers" to bang into the screener on pick and rolls. Basically let's allow our centers to run into screeners with no worries about fouls. That hasn't even been an issue in the Finals. As far as having players no foul out, I don't think we'll ever see this. And quite frankly, I don't see the need for eliminating the rule. Players should adjust to how the game is being called.

[MathReferee]

I am definitely in the wrong profession if that guy got paid to write that article. Great piece of journalism!

[grunewar]

I've seen quite a good amount of NBA referee bashing by all the "talking heads" on many sports stations (ESPN, MASN, etc.) since the series began......you know, the usual.

[MD Longhorn]

I'm an official as well... and even I will admit these last 3 games were messy at best. It's pretty embarrassing when you make 3 OOB call in the last 2 minutes - and all 3 get reviewed ... and you missed all 3. But worse (to me) have been the phantom calls. I have no rooting interest in this series. But Ray Allen's "foul" in game 1 where he didn't even make contact with the offensive player was awful. Both of Kobe's early on were extremely iffy.

While 95% of what the article said was either nonsense or tongue in cheek (and if so, it was not clearly done that way), I do agree with getting rid of fouling out for the reasons stated above.

[Adam]

We've had summer leagues that got rid of fouling out, and the results are predictable. Now, perhaps that would be mitigated a bit by adding to the penalties, but I'm not sure. Example. Player has reached his limit and is about to foul a shooter. Suddenly there's no incentive for him not to just grab the shooter and prevent him from shooting.

[APG]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

I'm an official as well... and even I will admit these last 3 games were messy at best. It's pretty embarrassing when you make 3 OOB call in the last 2 minutes - and all 3 get reviewed ... and you missed all 3. But worse (to me) have been the phantom calls. I have no rooting interest in this series. But Ray Allen's "foul" in game 1 where he didn't even make contact with the offensive player was awful. Both of Kobe's early on were extremely iffy.

While 95% of what the article said was either nonsense or tongue in cheek (and if so, it was not clearly done that way), I do agree with getting rid of fouling out for the reasons stated above.

To be fair, on the 3rd review, after getting together and before going to the monitor, they DID award the ball to Boston. Replay did verify the call though I'm sure they were not happy that they missed the loose ball foul that lead to the ball going out of bounds. The other two replays were close and the first replay was near impossible to see in real time. And I don't see anything embarrassing about that.

[bainsey]

Originally Posted by AustinRef

I am definitely in the wrong profession if that guy got paid to write that article. Great piece of journalism!

That ain't journalism, Tex. It's just an opinion piece, nothing more.

I'm open-minded to eliminating the foul-out rule in favor of two-shots-and-the-ball, etc., but I still have a feeling that, were it put in place, contact would signficantly increase, and we would all regret such a move.

The thing that threw me off last night, though, was the block call on the play shown in the photo. All I could see was LGP, and it just makes it more difficult for us when we make charge calls on obvious plays like that.

And the writer wants a no-call? Why should the defense get punished for having LGP and getting leveled?

[APG]

Originally Posted by bainsey

That ain't journalism, Tex. It's just an opinion piece, nothing more.

I'm open-minded to eliminating the foul-out rule in favor of two-shots-and-the-ball, etc., but I still have a feeling that, were it put in place, contact would signficantly increase, and we would all regret such a move.

The thing that threw me off last night, though, was the block call on the play shown in the photo. All I could see was LGP, and it just makes it more difficult for us when we make charge calls on obvious plays like that.

And the writer wants a no-call? Why should the defense get punished for having LGP and getting leveled?

Are you talking about the play in the photo with Derek Fisher and Ray Allen? Cause Bill Kennedy most definitely came in with a charge from the lead position.

[bainsey]

Originally Posted by AllPurposeGamer

Are you talking about the play in the photo with Derek Fisher and Ray Allen? Cause Bill Kennedy most definitely came in with a charge from the lead position.

I could have my plays crossed. There was one similar to the photo where there was clearly LGP, yet a block was called on the Lakers. It really got to me, and I'm a Celtics' fan.

When such things are called blocks, it makes it more difficult on us, especially fighting the mentality that charging fouls rip off the offense. It's almost like a charge is some silly taboo in some people's minds.