RealGM

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/46794677/nba-referees-wear-headsets-games-beginning-saturday

They really don't need this since the scorer's table is just a few feet away. They really only need it in football since a scorer's table would be a 1 or 200 feet walk from most parts of the field. But they might-as-well. Getting on the scorer's table microphone to make an announcement looks rediculously 20th century anyway. You almost expect the ref to ask for a price check or a clean-up on aisle 5.

Something else they need to do is give the coaches a red flag to throw on the court to challenge a call like coaches do in the NFL. It would make things more entertaining. Maybe they would throw the flag in anger sometimes.

It's primarily to hear the office and each other, not to speak to the crowd.

Since NBA refs are blind, they need people in the office that can actually see and watch the game to do the refs job.

Throwing **** on the court sounds like a great plan

That means Silver can direct the refs in real time.

Great, now refs can miss calls in surround sound.

Now Vegas can directly tell them what to call

MrGoat wrote:Now Vegas can directly tell them what to call

Pretty much.
Just like with other things in the entertainment industry. 28 years in the business.

gotta make it easier to get their orders from the league office. So laughable. What an absolute joke this league is now

The ref should be the camera person
have them wear cameras

Then they’re saying should definitely be public information.

AleksandarN wrote:That means Silver can direct the refs in real time.

Seriously though I don't like this one bit.

Why are they trying to change something that has never been a issue. What do you need headphones and nobody can hear you conversations. Makes it seem like they trying to hide something.

I don't like the idea of refs having secret conversations while reffing a game.

The scorers table is like 2 steps away.

I’ve reffed a sport where headsets are used. They are a good tool to use for communicating with fellow referees and live note sharing, i.e. “things are getting messy, we might need to tighten up a bit”. It did make me wonder why they weren’t used in basketball as they support communication with your fellow referees, and help improve the game through referee game management.

What I don’t understand in this proposal, is why the **** the league office is involved in anything more than being able to listen back to communications as a referee development and evidential tool where required. The league office should not be able to communicate to the referees, and I don’t think the scorebench should be in the loop either.

I think it’s a way to deter referees fom conspiring with one another.. perhaps. Should be interesting to see increased timeouts when those things pop out every 5 minutes. It will not work imo.