OT-Article on Questionable Calls in NBA

[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.

[DLH17]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

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.

I'm working an established summer league right now that has done it this way for years. No FTs except the last minute of the 2nd half too. A foul in the act is an automatic 2. If ths shot goes in, automatic 3 pts.

It's my first year doing this league, so it's different, but we have a running clock and the players know the drill, so there's no arguing and the play is up and down.

We, as officials, can sit a player down at our discretion if the we have a player consistently fouling. Haven't had one of those yet.

I really like it.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by DLH17

I'm working an established summer league right now that has done it this way for years. No FTs except the last minute of the 2nd half too. A foul in the act is an automatic 2. If ths shot goes in, automatic 3 pts.

It's my first year doing this league, so it's different, but we have a running clock and the players know the drill, so there's no arguing and the play is up and down.

We, as officials, can sit a player down at our discretion if the we have a player consistently fouling. Haven't had one of those yet.

I really like it.

Right, it works well in summer ball; when they can give us the discretion to sit a player (we have that in the leagues that do it here.) One league that used to do it now keeps track because the games got too rough.
That league doesn't shoot FTs until the 4th quarter. Before that, shooting fouls are one point and the ball. Fouls on a made basket are one point.

[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.