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The National Basketball Association set a dubious record this week: three of its coaches—Rick Adelman, Nate McMillian and Doc Rivers—were fined on the same day, $25,000 apiece, after publicly criticizing the officiating in their playoff games. Then again, that may not be quite as remarkable as the postscript from Sunday's thrilling double-overtime game in Chicago, where the hometown Bulls evened their series with the defending champion Boston Celtics. Both Boston newspapers, the Herald and the Globe, reported that two of the three officials, Dan Crawford and Marc Davis, were Chicagoans and that their families attended the game decked out in the bright-red regalia of their home team.
I watched Sunday's Bulls-Celtics game—and even skimmed back through it—to see if I could discern any hometown bias. Though the Bulls took a few more free throws, and a couple of key Boston big men fouled out, I didn't find the officiating one-sided or see any calls that were particularly egregious. Or at least no more egregious than what appears to be the standard for pretty much every game.
It was less than a year ago that a former NBA ref, Tim Donaghy, went to prison in a point-fixing scandal. The league weathered the embarrassment remarkably well. Still, one would think that when it comes to officiating, the league would maintain an acute sensitivity to appearances. And post-game reports about the rooting interests of refs' families can't be what a smart boss like NBA head David Stern wants.
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While the officiating in the NBA game is often awful, it may also be an impossible task. The players are simply too big, the action too fast, for humans to catch everything. With only limited replay options available, an army of refs would be required to keep up with the mayhem and do a significantly better job of getting all those tough calls right. Unfortunately, those of us watching at home, blessed with advanced technology, can see the mistakes, which makes them even harder to stomach.
Serious NBA fans can recite a litany of common officiating sins. Here's a sampler: (1) There are glaring inconsistencies within each game, most often favoring the star players. (2) The refs don't always treat a foul as a foul, often waiting to see if a shot falls in before rendering a judgment; only when it doesn't do they blow a belated whistle. (3) The officials compel players to flop, since hitting the deck increases the chance of getting a call. (One step the league should take here: It's time for the NBA to take its lead from soccer and make flopping a technical foul.)
All rankle, but it is the inconsistencies that are, at times, most troubling. There have been two relatively minor confrontations in the Celtics-Bulls series that are notable only because they were handled quite differently. Late in Sunday's fourth game, the Celtics Glen "Big Baby" Davis committed a hard foul on the Bulls' Brad Miller, who responded with a poke at Davis's face. The refs called a technical foul on Miller and, according to the announcers, booted him from the game. Then calmer heads prevailed and, following a conference and a look at the replay, Miller was allowed to remain in the contest.
A slightly different variation occurred in Tuesday night's fifth game, when Miller set a hard, moving pick on Boston's Ray Allen. Allen swung his arm back at the big guy in irritation and the ref called a double foul, which happened to be the Celtic star's sixth foul and, thus, put the him on the bench with nine minutes still remaining. Had Allen been given a technical for retaliation, as was done the previous game, he would have played on. It's never a positive reflection on the officiating when a player, in this case Miller, runs back up the court smirking over how he suckered both Allen and the refs.
Earlier in the day, I had watched Barcelona play Chelsea in the first leg of the European Champions League semifinals. Late in the game Chelsea star Michael Ballack committed a tough foul. The sole question was whether it was flagrant enough to warrant a yellow card. Since Ballack had received an earlier yellow, a second would have seen him tossed and sidelined for next week's rematch as well. The referee was clearly aware of that when he kept the yellow in his pocket, preferring to let the players decided the big games.
The NBA has always had a similar approach. Which is probably why the refs didn't toss Orlando Magic superstar Dwight Howard Tuesday night despite everyone having witnessed him throw an elbow at an opponent's head. (The league, however, couldn't ignore the flagrant violation and suspended Howard for tonight's game six in Philly.) I suspect the official who sidelined Allen on a ticky-tacky foul was simply unaware of the foul situation. But unaware is seldom a compliment. And no doubt Celtics coach Doc Rivers would have been reaching for his checkbook again had the Celtics, absent Allen, not rallied for an overtime victory. That left Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro the aggrieved one after the official failure to assess a flagrant foul against Celtic guard Rajon Rondo in the game's final seconds when he raked Miller's face and bloodied him. I wouldn't be surprised if the refs regarded the non-call as rough justice for making them look foolish with that earlier smirk.
The NBA is the most intimate of our major sports. The bodies are uncloaked and, thus, highly visible and the fans are on top of the action. The refs have no escape from the steady torrent of abuse from coaches and fans. Regardless, the conventional wisdom remains that the NBA features the worst officiating of all the major pro sports leagues.
Other leagues seem to have found a better balance of consultation and technology and appear to have been more proactive in curbing excessive manifestations of officials' egos. The NBA is reactive, waiting until an official's behavior becomes a conspicuous embarrassment. Two years ago the NBA suspended one of its most prominent officials, Joey Crawford, after he tossed mild-mannered Tim Duncan from a playoff game for the grievous sin of smiling and laughing on the bench.
But unless a ref goes to jail or completely bonkers, the NBA doesn't have much to say about anything it is doing to upgrade its on-court governance of games. It is a big believer in silence. Which is likely why the public believes that, for the most part, the NBA's principal approach to any officiating woes is simply to tell its coaches to shut up.
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