The Officiating Stinks

I don't watch professional basketball that much anymore. There was a time when I couldn't and wouldn't miss a game, particularly a playoff game. Alas, this seems like an ice age ago when the Knicks were competitive...infuriating, but competitive.

But even before the ice receded to the North and South Poles, I had become acutely aware of some issues with organized basketball that were troubling. And through the years, they became more glaring and less defendable. Then, a referee named Tim Donaghy was involved in a point spread scandal, and before long he was effortlessly throwing fellow officials under a very large and menacing bus. Was the cat out of the bag, or was he just escaping because Donaghy was in there with him? Either way, there was an uncomfortable anxiety around the NBA while denials were offered with more alacrity than a Phoenix Suns fast break.

Frankly, I don't know whether Donaghy was right or not. A criminal's credibility doesn't make a great hat rack, so I found myself hanging my chapeau on a different set of principles...the officiating just plain stinks.

It's awful. But I'm not sure it's awful because the officials are unskilled. I think it may be awful because of a malodorous like day-old fish agenda that has now seemed to perpetuate every level of basketball...though the pros are still better at it than every other level beneath them. It has become so pervasive, it's accepted without rancor, without outrage, and generally even without objection, by most fans and most chillingly, television announcers, analysts and commentators.

Let's look at some examples that rose to the top like oil from an uncapped underwater well during a glimpse at some recent playoff games. Cavaliers-Celtics, Game 2. The Cavs are not even playing well enough for the LeBron-friendly officials to save them this night. But they take off on a 15-0 run in the last quarter which, regrettably for them, only brings them to within fifteen. But during that stretch, the referees were all too glaringly willing to feed the crowd frenzy. Phantom calls abounded. I know they were phantom, because I didn't see them...either in slow motion or real speed. Phantom as Cassius Clay's haymaker to Sonny Liston's jaw.

At one point, LeBron James ran, spun, hopped, and jumped without the ball ever travelling from hand to court once. That would be called dribbling, a requisite in the rule book for quite some time now. At another point, a Cavalier fast break was unfolding and the lead was dwindling. At this point, everyone in the world knows that at the end of this break, there will be a basket and a foul regardless of any extraordinary contact. Why? I guess they think it's good theater.

Remarkably, there are basic truths we are asked to believe, but they are specific to only basketball. You'll hear, "Oh, they'll never call travelling on that guy...that's his move."

Excuse me. What?

Do you ever see an umpire call a nose-high strike, because "well, that's his pitch."

There was a time that Shaquille O'Neal was simply allowed to barrel through people on his way to the basket. You would hear, "you can't penalize him because he's big." No, but you can call a foul on him, and not the defender, who was often seen peeling himself off the floor, or returning via golf cart to the court after being launched out of the arena by O'Neal's "bigness."

Anyone ever remember Michael Jordan fouling anybody with the game on the line? "They're not going to call a foul on him...not now."

What?

If a star baseball player gets thrown out trying to steal in the ninth inning, and they call him safe because "they can't call him out there," wouldn't there be outrage? We won't know, because it never happens...but it does in basketball...multiple times.

Amazingly, it has permeated the broadcast booth as well. Jeff Van Gundy, ABC analyst, commented yesterday that Rajon Rondo was guilty of an offensive foul on his way to the basket because his left arm came in contact with the defender on the way up. Well, Jeff, if Rondo could have determined a way to sever that arm before the drive, and re-attach it afterwards, there would have been no contact at all... gushing blood, yes, but no contact.

Perhaps the biggest reason for the awful officiating is the trend, now seemingly completely out of control, of the refs' celebrity. It is so clear to me they feel they ARE the game. It is nothing short of astonishing that a sport built on inevitable physical contact, would legislate so adamantly against it. You can virtually guarantee a whistle on every drive to the basket. This fact of life has found its way to coaches and players on every level of basketball in our country today. Watch how many players grab the ball on the defensive end and sprint with complete reckless abandon down court. There is very little chance of a pass in these scenarios because these speed-of-light drives are almost always rewarded with a trip to the foul line. Heck, I even hear the Mike Breens of the world commenting, "there seemed like a lot of contact on that play." Well, yes, Mike, there are 10 huge people flying around a bordered area. I'm sorry, but brushing by someone is simply not a foul.

I don't know whether all these shenanigans are mandated by the league, but I do think they have evolved to a point at which even reining in would be a herculean task. So, as the credibility of these games has dissipated, so have my hours watching them. And that's a shame.