Right on cue, another classic. The entire basketball universe is laughing at the officiating in the Celts vs Heats game one
I suppose them there basketball "experts" (or are they purists?) will counter with another "NBA talent is better than College talent" (really?, nobody even thought of that one, A?) despite the fact that this thread was about officiating. (but I digress)
last night's calls were nothing about players being too quick and too athletic and thus the game is too tough for the officials, it was about the idiotic judgement displayed by an officiating crew combined with an apparent lack of eyesight
Basketball in general is the hardest game to officiate. Call need to be made in a split second and there's no take-backs. Once in a blue moon a ref will defer to another if they agree.
I agree, that the calls in the C's game that were brought up did not have to do with the athleticism, skill and strength of the athletes. Some NBA refs have way too big an ego and/or are big time thin-skinned. Sometimes for the good of the game, they need to be level headed and just warn the player or players and not be so quick with the T. What harm would it have for them to pull the pull the player to the side and warn them that they either crossed the line or got real close to it. Then go over to the benches and tell the coaches to inform their players that such behavior will earn them a T next time. And of course in some cases, such as the Ray T, they need to let those go. Players are emotional and they need to allow for some emotion.
Getting back to the athleticism/skill/strength issue, if you look real close at most NBA games, especially in the play-offs, most of these players would foul out by half-time if they played this physical in a college game. On the other hand, if the college refs allowed this type of physical play in the college game, the scores would be dreadfully low, well unless they allowed the moving screens you see night-in, night-out in the NBA.
Don't get me wrong. The play-making, jump shooting abilities and eye popping athletic plays around the rim are off the charts in the NBA. Some nights NBA teams put up triple digit numbers, while other nights the defense is allowed to be played at such a physical level that some scores are held well down in the double digits. I'm not sure if the following areas would make that much of a difference to make the games more watchable (though I'm sure some here feel they are fine as is):
Call traveling calls - Don't allow that 3rd step which I've posted over and over again makes offensive players close to unguardable. If you allow just two steps the defender knows when to go for the block. Knowing there's that 3rd step makes defenders have to guess to commit to the block and risk the player going one step further by them or continue back-peddling allowing the offensive player to stop to shoot while the defender is still moving back toward the basket.
Call moving Screens - There are simply some plays where even if the D is in good position they have absolutely no hope in stopping penetration if the refs allow the screen to block the defender like a pulling guard in football. Case in point that Ginobili lay-up off the inbound play the other day where his man was practically chucked back to mid-court. Ironically, KG was called on a moving screen late in one of the games against the Sixers. He was shocked it was called as was some of the analysts.
Call grabs, extended arm shoves and chucks that take place off the ball - I realize the NBA game is very physical, and I'm not saying take all that out of the game. If you did, uber-athletes like LeBron Jame would be able to get to the rim at will.
In the college game,
most of the players are just not physical enough to consistent turn the corner on the defender when getting the slightest edge. At the NBA level, just about every team has players who when getting that half-step or less around the defender, would blow right by the defender if the NBA didn't allow the body contact that would be called a foul at the D1 level. It's simply a matter of physics. It's the shoving and holding that IMO makes the NBA games ugly.
The kicker to all this is the proverbial
Genie is out of the bottle where the NBA players only know how to play one way. If the refs called all the above, the bench would be filled with disqualified players before the 4th quarter would even begin. Add to this, they allow
the stars to get away with more.
None of the refs want to be known as the ones that DQ the stars. And add even more to this, the disparity of
the refs allowing the home team to play more physical w/out consequence than the away team.
What else would explain the foul call disparity we see in just about every NBA game, especially in the play-offs.
Sometimes it's not the home team getting the calls, but the refs allowing the more aggressive team that tries to stretch the envelope. In fact, I think that's a great part of the reason why the home teams have such a huge advantage. They can stretch the envelope (such as the refs ignoring Tim Duncan's one arm shove to the cutter in the paint in game 1 due to the home court and don't-foul-out-the-star treatment. During that stretch where the Spurs pulled away, a string of lopsided calls/no-calls took place. Granted the Spurs went off, but it's a lot easier to go off when you pull away thanks to some lopsided officiating. It's much easier to play with some added energy and confidence, letting some 3s fly when you find yourself up 4 to 5 due to some favorable calls/no-calls compared to when you're tied or even behind by a few points.
Some here will disagree with me but the officiating in the NBA can dramatically change a game. We've all seen some teams that are on a roll all of a sudden get a few calls that don't go their way and the entire momentum changes. Case-in-point the Spurs-Thunder game. I believe it was tied, Ginobili gets that easy lay-up which should have been a moving screen foul, then I believe on the Thunder's next offensive play, they either had a call or a no-call that allowed the Spurs to go back down and score again, putting the game to a 2 possession game in their favor during the late stages of the 4th quarter. Add to that the crowd going wild. I don't mean to take away for the Spurs. They made a bunch of plays late in that game and the Thunder seemed to lose their composure. Maybe w/out the bad calls/no-calls the Spurs would have pulled it out any ways.
These types of things happen in the college game, but IMO, not to the same degree, well unless your name is Kahill, Danato, etc. I guess NBA or D1 is a beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder kind of thing. I just think the NBA game would be a lot more fun to watch if they called the game as I described above and did so the same for both teams on the floor and throughout the game. I'm okay with them letting some borderline physical play that might have been called a foul earlier in the game. I don't like a call deciding a game unless it's obvious and either play or shot altering, such as a big time moving screen that moves the defender 5 to 10 yards deep in the backfield so-to-speak.
Okay, I'm done.
..........I think Larry may have found a way to be a lot better than Pierce was last night! The best and better athletes don't make them better players.....that's for sure!