League should give the players each one "players challenge" per game.

And representatives of the NBPA (players association) would grant or deny the challenge.

If the challenge is successful they retain their challenge, but if not they get a assessed a technical foul.

I have a feeling players would get a lot of technicals.

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more reasonable would be giving the players an opportunity to rate the officials at the end of each season and bottom 10% are out of the league

New refs would suffer the most so the old ones stay. The loss of refs is what has been a huge deal in the poor ref performance.

I disagree... the problem IS the old blood Refs who think they are bigger than the game. It would also incentivize even calling of games (as each players vote is equal) and more respect in regard to calling Technical fouls.

The refs the players all hate are old guard… Scott Foster, Ben Taylor, etc

My bad in my mind I added balance to your suggestion like players vote then they check the tape with the rules of the game which will have a higher impact on new refs. Now that I reread it that’s fucking stupid the players rate the officials. It’s not going to be based on fairness the player vote would be in how the official refed their game. CP3 is like 0- a million when foster refs but when they check the tapes the calls comeback overwhelming correct. There’s more no calls than anything. I’m all for descending technicals and using technology to help ref, but like coach SVG said the verbal abuse is ridiculous.

I do agree the votes would be biased but you'd think that the biases would cancel out. So if CP3 hates one ref and rates him poorly, the perceived bias against CP3 should benefit someone else who then likes that ref.

personally, I'd just like to ditch Scott Foster. That fuck was 100% involved in the Tim Donaghy shit and it is outrageous that he is still a ref

My brain read this a Montel Williams and I was confused.

Refs should be criticized for their performances. Coaches and players should be able to talk about that part of the game because officiating can play a role in the outcome. Refs are a protected species and coaches/players are fined all the time when they criticize a reffing crew. A ref should be in press conferences as well after games. They should get a voice to defend decisions as well and be asked about times in the game.

100% this.

I know it sucks, and “no one will want to be a ref” but they need to be held accountable somehow. I was a little league umpire for most of HS and a few years in college. Did everything but HS ball. I never had a call I couldn’t defend. Even if the defense was “it was quick, and that’s how I saw it in the moment.” You gotta be held accountable or else there’s no reason to have any standards of quality. I would talk to coaches and parents between innings. If they got nasty, I’d walk away, but most of the time, they wanted to know why a call was made. As long as I told them what I saw, they were happy.

It’s set up purposely to allow for them all to be bribed, blackmailed, and/or threatened to influence the games one way or another.

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I’m so tired after work I thought this was about the talk show host

The players who hate them are the guys who get away with more bullshit with other crews.

Money well spent the way i see it i would eat that cost everyday to publicly shame bad officiating 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻

The only dispute I have is these refs may leave, but there will be plenty of refs willing to step up for NBA money and prestige. You sound like a good one.

Small potatoes. Doncic pulled a 35k fine for his cash gesture.

That’s my thought too.

I have a work friend who is an NCAA football and lax official. He and I talk about my umpiring days and how much I did enjoy it. He also knows I was a college football player. He’s trying to get me hooked up to do at least HS football and then maybe NCAA.

They need young people. I’m not “young” but I’m younger than most of the folks doing it now and it’s a fun side gig. I also announce local sports for extra cash, so this wouldn’t be too different.

I don't think Refs should be in press conferences after every game, but after a series sure.

They definitely owe the public and the players a post season debrief going over the biggest controversies of the year for sure.

Last thing we need is more divas in the NBA and giving the refs the spotlight is a way to turn the entirety of the sport into a laughing stock.

Basketball is a unique sport, it's unique in the sense that if someone entered the sport that absolutely dominated everyone, the sport would die. And I mean absolutely dominate, not like the bs "domination" that gets thrown around these days when one guy makes 70% from behind the line.

Isn’t the NBA kind of a laughing stock anyway? The amount of blatant missed calls, dives, the lack of effort during the regular season/halfway through the playoffs. The sport isn’t enjoyable until the semifinals of the playoffs. I think sport in general needs more transparency across the board

Refs have too much power to influence the game... In any sport... American Football is probably the worst, slightly ahead of Basketball.

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not that it matters but I think you are not correct about NFL reffing. They are willing to review the calls with video often. The NFL problem imo is that they have made the rules so technical that it has kind of lost the spirit of the game. Specifically, things like the way they define what is a catch and what is a fumble vs an incomplete pass. Not to say that they dont get it wrong but NBA refs have basically full subjectivity because almost any play can be called for any contact. but again just my opinion.

You know who Montel Jordan is?

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I’m so tired of players always complaining. Just play the damn game

This happens in rugby league, although it's a captain's challenge - you get one per team (reinstated if successful).

It works quite well. Nothing better than a player mouthing off at a ref about a decision, ref says "want to challenge?" then the player shuts up.

Exactly! I love this

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I cant wait for the day when human referees are replaced by AI across all sports.

You should do it.

Why are referees so special? More people get punished for criticizing them than any other group in this country.

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This is how we do it! I love that Michael Jordan song

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I'm saying the consequences of the call in the NFL probably are much harsher than than that of an NBA call.

I.E. a turnover in football matters way more than a turnover in the NBA

Refs are ruining the NBA. The calls are so inconsistent depending on the team and so many foul calls when the offensive player charges into the defenders means you’re watching free throws for half the game. Together with complaining players and flops it makes for a miserable watching experience.

every time I watch the NBA I spot multiple double dribbles and travels that don't get called in 5 minutes and turn it off

I doubly like that in Hockey you take a penalty for delay of game for a failed challenge

Your getting downvoted, but all you have to do is watch the fouls say Giannis gets over a not superstar center doing the same driving antics he does.

Crawford would be the first ref out of the NBA.

These league fines for speaking out are getting pretty old.

“No one will want to be a ref” is the most false Shit I’ve ever heard. There are so many people refereeing lesser leagues who would love the opportunity

It was one of the most frustrating things to me as a new fan to the game. I thought watching a full two seasons I would become more educated on what was a block and what was a charge.... it has done the opposite. I can now safely say I have no fucking clue what a call is going to be sometimes.

It should start with balls and strikes in baseball. The equipment is already vastly superior to the umpires.

You are absolutely correct but it will never happen. The NBA views criticism of the officiating as a direct attack on the integrity of the game (as if them pretending like everything is normal when calls like in the DAL/GS game are made is not damaging).

The NBA HAS to have the appearance of impartiality and fairness or else it is the WWE. If fans are bitching they can just say that fans don't know the game well enough to make those accusations.... but when players and coaches are saying it, all they can do is say "shhhhhh!" and make it costly for those that do not keep in line.

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Do people actually watch that blowhard in the video?

That’s what, $55,000 for criticism against the refs this week?

Sans the fines, the cause of the fines can’t be a coincidence

The League will punish you for speaking poorly of the refs…

…Also the League will put you on a podium to talk to reporters who only want to talk about the bad officiating.

I’ve just gotten back into the NBA after about a decade off and I can say it’s near impossible to tell what calls are warranted for an old head, 90s-2000s fan. Referee discretion seems to shift dramatically night to night, with no real ebb and flow to the amount of physicality allowed. I’ve seen Luka and Joker come out of timeouts in the fourth quarter totally red from being slapped at, and the following game players don’t contest any shots in the paint for fear of having 3 fouls in the first quarter.

It’s confusing as all hell right now…

Sounds like an argument for tenured educators. It didn’t work there and it doesn’t work in professional sports.

That refs arm is really long

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Refs suck. He’s right. Fine them!

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What happens if he tells the NBA to fuck off? They do not control his salary, the team owner does no?

Personally, I'd put my foot down, call these clowns out for the next 100 days and see them in court over the accumulating fines. All while only talking to the press about the NBA, the shitty refs, the court case and the fines to keep people silent.

I bet you they'd rescind those fines and stop playing this stupid game.

ai will not replace fouls calls though, it's always been intentionally subjective. Not something AI can do.

I will give you the reason why this will never happen in one word:

Gambling

> Basketball is a unique sport, it's unique in the sense that if someone entered the sport that absolutely dominated everyone, the sport would die.

What do you mean here? How is that different than if it happened in another sport?

Pro refs make bank too

Montel Williams criticizing refugees again

Basketball depends on it's players to be dramatic and marketable. If a modern day Wilt Chamberlain showed up all the other basketball players would rally against him and probably quit, if the league didn't find a way to exile that player.

Giannis commits fouls that would be penalties in the NFL. 90% of the time he ends up on the free throw line because of the contact he initiates.

The league can advertise Giannis as a superstar, though, scoring 31 points a game. The majority of people don't watch games outside of their own team, so they don't realize that he is doing that while shooting 13 free throws a game.

It’s crazy ! The refs literally get to make terrible calls then just come out with a statement the next day like “sorry”

When you have that huge of a discrepancy while they are getting zero contact fouls and the Suns are getting no calls on smacks to the face. That game was fucking rigged.

They need to stop subjectively benefitting the Lakers. Historically they get the best calls. Every year

Return of the wac?

Anytime someone brings up the nba it always brings me back to Westbrook taking 5 steps without dribbling. No call

Would be such a horrible thing if we had transparency in sports for once. Held everyone accountable. I think that’s integrity

Good point. Also love your username. I’m with my family and they asked what I laughed about. I told them your username and they all approve.

I don't think it's team to team with the inconsistencies, it's player to player. Everyone gets officiated differently and for some reason it's just an accepted practice.

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NBA basketball sucks, college basketball is much more entertaining. I want to go watch an NBA game in person and it was pretty much all ISO’s with no defense and people standing at the three-point line. When I went to go see a college basketball game, there’s a lot of ball movement and tough defense. I had so much more fun. I don’t wanna sound like an old head but NBA players are huge divas these days.

That makes me way too happy. Something is obviously very wrong with me

Edit: A ref explaining themselves ruins the illusion of gambling. How do you bet on a point spread with refs admitting they can’t be bothered to rectify what they admit openly were wrong or inaccurate calls?

>A ref should be in press conferences as well after games. They should get a voice to defend decisions as well and be asked about times in the game.

I like this idea.

Nothing is wrong with you at all! You are appreciated among my family!

>Together with complaining players and flops it makes for a miserable watching experience.

The NBA should take a page from the NHL on that. When flopping started happening in games, they put the kibosh on that real quick. I basically can't even watch soccer anymore with all the flopping, and I do not want that to happen to basketball.

Right! Let’s have some integrity to the game and some transparency.

Mike Breen said that a lot of vet refs retired in the last year. There’s a bunch of new refs. This is why.

What are you talking about? Shaq was a force like that. Lebron is a much better player and more successful and dominant than Wilt.

No okay see this is that bs dominance I was talking about.

I mean like if a superhero came down and started playing sports, we would watch them play pretty much any sport other than basketball because it would be total bullshit and noone would want to watch it. Kinda like how it is now where noone plays defense and guys like Ja Morant just score, gain notoriety, and then try to sell themselves outside of the sport moreso than in it.

we need 90s era back for nba

> No okay see this is that bs dominance I was talking about.

So what's real dominance, then? Not winning as many games?

> Kinda like how it is now where noone plays defense

Haha. NBA defense has never been better than it is right now. All the rules favor the offense and almost every player can shoot. The schemes are far more complex than they were 20 years ago. You clearly don't like the game and don't know what you're talking about.

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And many of them never get the opportunity to move up because less competent refs are locked in by their union and never have to retire.

But is that anything new, though? For as long as I can remember (and I’m in my 50’s), NBA refs have let big-name stars pick up the ball and run to the net.

How did we get to a point where even slightly criticizing an official is a fineable offense? Are the officials not part of the game?

Except Scott Foster was a ref for this game and he is consistently awful.

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Which one? The only one I can think of that stands out, was when Westbrook took the inbound and started walking with it. Which he definitely did get called for

You don't even need ai for that, sensors within the strike zone will do

The XFL would never!

See but this is the bs thing I'm talking about, you guys say defence has never been better yet scores have never been higher and this is the decade of basketball where guys will literally just let people score and give 0 effort into block shots or stealing balls.

I think you guys know what your talking about but you just make shit up for some dumb reason. I played basketball more than any other sport in my youth, I know bad defense and lazy play when I see it.

I wonder if it’s in his contract that the university will actually pay any fines in curves on the court

NBA refs are garbage. There should be four of them on the court and they should be video assisted more often and there should be more than one challenge.

And get the job from nepotism in the first place

The New York Rangers will surely be fined for this

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