Why Is NBA Officiating So Inconsistent?
The officiating has been terrible in some of the games this playoff
The officiating of the NBA playoffs has been as consistent as the McDonald’s ice cream machine.
Referees will make a call on one side. Then 2 minutes later, not make a call on the other end for the same violation.
It’s been annoying to watch as a fan.
So I could only imagine how frustrating it is for coaches and players who have to actually deal with it.
Take for instance Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, who called out the referees in Game 1 for their poor officiating.
“I thought he threw three or four elbows to the face, he got called for one,” Nurse said after Game 1. “OK. I mean, we’re going to stand in there. We just need, if we’re legal defensively, then we’ve got to have ‘em called or we don’t have a chance, period. Nobody can guard that guy if they’re just going to let him run you over time and time again.”
He continued his remarks prior to Game 2 of the first-round matchup:
“You heard me saying it after the game, we got ran over a bunch when we were legal, which was true. There were several shots to the face, which I don’t understand (why they) were not reviewed. There were three: one was called and reviewed; there were two others, one to the back of the head, there was a slap to the face. I hope they’ve got enough guts to at least stop the game and look at that stuff tonight. I don’t mind physicality and we expect it to get physical. We’ve got to be able to handle it.”
And Nurse isn’t the only coach to call out referees this post-season either.
The Memphis Grizzlies head coach, Taylor Jenkins, and Phoenix Suns head coach, Monty Williams, also called out referees for doing a bad job.
In Game 4’s post-game news conference, Jenkins said that the inconsistency in calls is “embarrassing,” as his team, the Grizzlies, were handed 33 fouls while their opponents, the Minnesota Timberwolves, were only handed 23 fouls.
"All five of our starters borderline fouled out in the first quarter. Ten-plus foul difference, 40 free throws. Yeah, some things we've got to clean and get better at, but I've never seen a more inconsistent and arrogant officiated game.
"So I'll take whatever hits are coming my way. I gotta protect our guys. We know we've gotta get better, but from the get-go, it was foul, foul, foul, foul, foul, inconsistency. There was actually one play where a foul whistle was blown before contact was even made. It's embarrassing.”
As for Williams, he also called out the refs for being inconsistent with the foul calls as they sent his opponents to the free-throw line 42 times while only sending his players to the line 15 times during Game 4 against the New Orleans Pelicans.
But there was something else he said that I think is a more vital commentary on the current state of officiating. Via azcentral’s Duane Rankin:
"Coaches shouldn't have to come up to the microphone and feel like they're gonna get their heads cut off for speaking the truth," Williams added.
Williams, in this quote, is referring to how coaches always get penalized for calling out referees and their bad officiating.
For example, all of the coaches that I mentioned in this story were slapped with thousands-of-dollar fines for the criticisms they made.
But why should they have been?
They’re just pointing out obvious things that happened in the games and want the refs to do a better job so that future games can be fairer.
It’s not like the coaches were belittling and disrespecting the referees. So why should they be penalized?
They’re just saying that the refs can improve and should be more consistent with their calls. That’s it.
This puzzles me…
Anyway, that’s enough ranting out of me. But do you think coaches should be allowed to criticize referees without repercussions?
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