Amazingly, the Refs May Be WORSE Next Season

[Sportstudi]

by Marcel Mutoni

Officiating is one of the few things that NBA fans can agree on universally: It is, for the most part, quite awful. And guess what? Things aren’t looking up; in fact, they could potentially get a lot worse. Awesome!

According to ESPN, the League and its zebras are nowhere near a contract agreement, which means there’s a slight chance that scabs could be used next season to police the games.

The issue, as always, is money. According to the report, the NBA is trying to cut into the refs’ budget rather significantly, and shockingly, they have a problem with that. The nerve of these guys:

The NBA’s current contract with its 60-odd referees runs out next week and the sides appear to be far apart on a new deal, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiations. Sept. 1 is the expiration date of the current five-year pact. One source told ESPN.com on Tuesday that — with the league proposing an across-the-board reduction to the referee budget of an estimated 10 percent — the impasse might not be resolved before the start the 2009-10 season.

As of “right now,” according to the source, existing NBA referees “will not be working preseason [or the] regular season.” The proposed cuts to the referee budget are believed to include reductions in travel costs, pension payouts and health benefits in addition to salary cuts.

Of course, it remains to be seen if the refs are willing to stand firm against the League in this wretched economy. But just in case they are, best to prepare yourselves to see the phrase “I could officiate games better than these guys!” come to life in a few months

Amazingly, the Refs May Be WORSE Next Season

[Justin Credible]

Silver lining? Maybe they get the money through incentives saying that they make a certain percentage of their calls in what is deemed to be correct by the league office.

Far fetched I know, but a fella can dream.

[Mavsfan4ever]

Originally Posted by Justin Credible

Silver lining? Maybe they get the money through incentives saying that they make a certain percentage of their calls in what is deemed to be correct by the league office.

Far fetched I know, but a fella can dream.

I'm not sure that would be good for the Mavs considering how Stern feels about Cuban.

[EricaLubarsky]

A) I dont think they could be worse
B) I'd actually be pretty optimistic that well trained but unexperienced refs with no ties to teams/coaches/players could actually do a better job than the slanted and sketchy professionals we have working games now.

[Usually Lurkin]

Originally Posted by EricaLubarsky

A) I dont think they could be worse
.

unless, of course, they are angling for a permanent position.

[Flacolaco]

Of course they'll be worse. They'll be intimidated beyond belief. Can you imagine the extra err..."communicating" for lack of a better word that NBA coaches and players will be doing to (rather at) the scab refs?

[dalmations202]

I am guessing for a short time you will get less entertainment, but more legitimate competitive basketball.

Imagine if the new scab refs didn't give superstar calls and didn't care because they weren't going to get a permanent job anyway (it is real hard to work for a place when everyone of you peers despises you).

[EricaLubarsky]

My best is for every helping of refs feeling pressure from Stern to make "superstar" calls, there is an element of personal bias. Almost every team has some ref that just misses calls for/against more than one standard deviation from what youd expect.

New refs may still feel the "superstar" effect, but they wont have old team loyalties.

[Jack.Kerr]

NBA should go back to the 2-referee system, and enact changes to minimize the effect of referees on games.

As for whether the 'replacement officials' ('scab' is such an ugly word) will feell freer to call a straight game--maybe, maybe not. However, unless the league backs replacement officials to the same extent it does the regular ones (i.e. upholding technicals and ejections and suspensions), I would expect to see some veteran players aggressively challenging replacement officials, knowing that they will only have to face them for a few games at most. I remember the last time the NBA had replacement officials seeing Maurice Lucas (who was doing a little stint with the Lakers at the time) actually grab an official's arm to keep him from calling a technical.

You know what they say: no arm, no foul.

[DavidDaMonkey]

from the NYTimes article

He characterized the lock-in as a symbolic gesture that showed the referees’ commitment to getting a deal done, even if it meant spending several days in a hotel, rather than with their families.

“Every referee is here, from all around the country,” he said. “They’re not leaving.”

Now lets see....how exactly do I say this without alerting the FBI....

Has anyone seen Inglorious Bastards?

[mqywaaah]

Does this mean that Diva Wade is going to strike again? A lot of times over and over again? Fack!

[EricaLubarsky]

These new refs are worse than I thought, or maybe they are just more apt to admit mistakes.

From ESPN:

he NBA's replacement referees caused confusion in the first quarter of Detroit's preseason win over Milwaukee on Wednesday night.

Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova was fouled while shooting a jumper and awarded two foul shots. More than 90 seconds later, during the next timeout, the officials decided that he was attempting a three-pointer and gave him another free throw.

Ilyasova made the shot, but Pistons forward Tayshaun Prince pointed out that the error is only correctable within 24 seconds and the point was taken away from the Bucks.

"I told him that they couldn't change it after five minutes or whatever it was, and he said 'yeah, you're right,' " Prince told the Associated Press. "Then I had to remind him to tell the scorer's table to take it back off the board."

The referees called 68 fouls in the game -- 26 more than the average regular-season game last year -- and ejected Carlos Delfino and Austin Daye for fighting in the final minute.

Fellow Detroit rookie Jonas Jerebko was ejected in Monday's win over Miami after a scuffle with Jamaal Magloire.

"I have no idea what I got thrown out for -- I was getting ready to shoot the technical free throws when they told me was I was gone," Daye said. "I know I didn't throw a punch -- it would have been stupid to do that after Jonas got thrown out of the last game."

[sefant77]

Last night over 100 FT in the Boston game. Our game was horrible, several others too.

Im scared the season (or the beginning) will be really really ugly. Imaging James/Wade/Paul/Parker playing 40min, they will get 20 FT each every game...

[dirt_dobber]

Originally Posted by sefant77

Last night over 100 FT in the Boston game. Our game was horrible, several others too.

Im scared the season (or the beginning) will be really really ugly. Imaging James/Wade/Paul/Parker playing 40min, they will get 20 FT each every game...

Dirk went to the line 19 times against the magic the other night.(he made 17 of them)

He may be the player that would benefit the most from refs actually calling
all the fouls that are committed against him that the old refs would not!

[mavErika]

Love it how suddenly bad reffing becomes the main subject of some game recaps.

Replacement refs bumble 3-point free throw call early in Pistons win

Seriously, that's the headline? I understand that the replacements are somehow in the media focus, but to put the number of fouls or a specific blown call in the early stages of the game in the headline, in a game that doesn't matter at all, while horrible officiating in close, real games often goes unmentioned, appears to me as overstating their flaws.
That might happen just because of the lack of other storylines(no mention of the freethrows in the boston game espn recap seems to be an indication of that), but it still bugs me.

From hat I've seen in the Orlando game on a crappy stream, which is not much, at least they try to call every foul they watch. If that's the trend with the replacement refs and they get more acclimated to the nba by and by, I'm happy.
I remember to hear Carlisle saying, probably after game 3 of the Denver series, officiating should be science and not an art, and I think he's right. Refs shouldn't "orchestrate" a game, nor should they adjust to certain players, teams or game situations. They are on the court for nothing more than to use the rules.

I thought it was refreshing to see refs not giving any superstar-treatment and D.Howard fouling out quickly, while Dirk (and D.Howard both) profited from the refs being whistle-happy and got the calls he deserves, from fouls that often went unpunished in the past(again, I may be wrong here). Too many fouls is something that players and coaches should adjust to - if the game gets boring, star-players fouling out and attendance/viewing rates going down because of that, they'll find ways to foul less. Or there could be rule-changes. But to ask the refs to call less fouls is just the wrong approach.

Unfortunately I think the lock-out won't last very deep into the season, and as soon as the old(!) ones are back and the free throw totals go down, everybody will be raving about how great it is to have "the best referees in the world" back. And whoever dares to question officiating after one-sided officiating or blown calls in the deciding minutes, will be just a sore loser again.
And, of course, if there are game-specific instructions to the refs in certain cases, it doesn't matter who's reffing anyhow. But that's a big if.

[mavErika]

Originally Posted by dirt_dobber

Dirk went to the line 19 times against the magic the other night.(he made 17 of them)

He may be the player that would benefit the most from refs actually calling
all the fouls that are committed against him that the old refs would not!

At some point during that game I decided to embrace the replacement refs!

The scaring long gametime got me thinking, though.