[EricaLubarsky]

Nice stuff. It is truly amazing how often even the average fan can catch messups by scorekeepers especially with the introduction of the live publication of the scorekeepers work. Watch a game with TiVo and a laptop, put on ESPN/NBA live ticker and just count the number of errors that the scorekeepers make.

Assists going to the wrong person, rebounds that were secured by one guy are credited to another-- thats not even taking into consideration the amount subjectivity that is introduced by the refs, as well as the number of calls the refs make that are in pure error.

Its probably simply impossible to remove all error from a sport that is played by humans, governed by humans, and recorded by humans, but even the NCAA which has become a big-money game in its own right sees fewer errors/miscalls than the NBA. Maybe the NBA is just too profitable, and there is just too much pressure on refs as well as scorekeepers to keep things interesting, and to give LeBron that one extra freethrow or credit him with that one extra rebound to get the Sportscenter-friendly triple-double.

Scorekeepers rarely change the game too much though. I'd like to think that at least most of the time the refs catch points going to the wrong team, 2s counted as 3s, and all the other ways that scorekeeping can affect not just the stats, but also the outcome of a game.