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Pro Basketball Referee- Build confidence if your ability to get noticed, get hired and get a better schedule than you have now. Rediscover the joy in being a Pro Basketball Referee–and yourself–in the process.
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The NBA and Instant Replay
Many a time I have been watching a basketball game and seen a call that gets completely
blown. Whether it is an obvious violation of the rules that goes uncalled or a call is made
that should not have been, I believe that there needs to be more effort made to ensure that
the correct calls are made as much as possible. I'm sitting here watching some coverage
of the World Cup game, and throughout the entire competition I have been appalled at the
officiating that goes on in these games. So this is what started to make me think about
how much better the NBA officiating could be.
To my knowledge, here are the instances that are deemed to be reviewable by the
officials. First, there must be a discrepancy among officials, and they can not come to an
agreement on the call. One of the most commonly seen play reviews is to determine if a
field goal was a two or a three point attempt. This goes for made baskets and if a foul was
committed to see how many free-throws the shooter receives. Out of bounds plays are
also reviewable. This goes for people stepping on the line as well as seeing who last
touched the ball prior to it going out of bounds. Another scenario that I have often seen
reviewed is in addressing the shot clock or game clock. Nobody is perfect and often times
there are some problems between the scores table and managing the clock.
Another reviewable play comes up at the end of quarters in determining if a buzzer beater
shot should or should not count. The buzzer beater replay was the first instant replay
review to be introduced after a game 4 winning shot in the 2002 Western conference
finals cost the Kings the game. The shot was later looked at and determined to be shot
after time had expired. Unfortunately, the game had already been lost. The final instance
that I can think of for reviewing plays is when the league looks at the actions of a player
during a foul situation. This can be done to either increase the penalty for a player or
decrease the penalty for a player. Also, technical and flagrant fouls can either be
upgraded, downgraded, or taken away completely, as was the case with Kendrick Perkins
in this years finals.
So there are the rules. The only thing left to think about is whether or not these are
sufficient to ensure a fair game day in and day out. I'm going to come right out and say
that there needs to be some work done on these rules. I see a problem when most of the
reviews come in the last few minutes of a game. I'm a firm believer that instant replay
should be utilized for discrepancies in calls no matter how much time remains on the
clock. With the amount of close games that are decided by one or two points that occur
every night during the season, one possession can be the determining factor in a win or a
loss. Plus, if you think about the affect that one game can have on a team's season the
impact of one bad call begins to grow. The west is currently stacked with many good
teams and the cut off for making it into the playoffs is very tight. The margin for losses is
dwindled down to literally one or two games. So if one bad call in the first or second
quarter can affect whether or not a team wins or loses a game, then one bad call in the
first or second quarter can determine whether or not a teams makes it into the post-
season. That, to me, is a huge impact.
When you think about the actions that need to be taken, however, there are some very
different point of views, and I understand the reasoning behind them. The differences in
opinion can be about as drastic as the political views of Cheney and Pelosi. Some would
like the officiating to be under complete scrutiny with every questionable call being
addressed at the scores table on an instant replay T.V. I don't think that is the answer. We
don't want to turn NBA games into 4 hour marathons like some baseball games. Plus
basketball is a sport of momentum and flow. Doing this would do terrible things to the
rhythm of a game. Then you have the purists who want instant replay to be used very
sparingly if not at all. This is not the way to go either. If the officials have the technology
to ensure a fair game is played then they should use it. My solution to the problem would
be to do a couple things. One keep all of the reviewable scenarios the same, but add one.
I would like to see more attention paid to the bang-bang call that is often gotten wrong
when deciding whether to call a block or a charge. I can't count how many times I have
yelled at a ref on my screen for blowing one of these calls. As we discussed above one
possession can have a drastic affect on a team's entire season. The other thing I would
like to see is instant review being done more outside the last few minutes of a game.
There is no way that only those last instances are the only ones that are disagreeable. If
you're going to review calls and non-calls at the end of a game, why not do so at the
beginning of a game also.
Obviously there is a lot of scrutiny as to whether or not instant replay is something that
should be used or not in officiating. If it is used then the question arises of how much is
too much. Personally, I am a firm believer that the games in the NBA should be called as
close to the guidelines as possible. This can be done so in a better manner by utilizing
instant replay. There is, after all, a lot riding on almost every single game that is played,
especially when in contention for a post-season appearance. The line may be a thin one,
but it is one that the NBA officiating board are going to have to walk.