OT:Bill Simmons on the REFS.....

MaxwellSmart · Post #1 » by **MaxwellSmart** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 5:06 am

And you guys think I'm wrong for ALWAYS complaining about the refs---here's what the Sports Guy had to say:

3. Lousy officiating
This has nothing to do with the economy, obviously. But what the hell? Seriously, what the hell? HOW COULD THE REFEREES BE THIS CONSISTENTLY BAD??? THEY ARE KILLING THE PRODUCT! THEY ARE KILLING IT!!!! I CAN'T STOP USING CAPS!!!! How are we enabling such staggering incompetence on a day-to-day basis?

A great example: I knew we were in trouble before Wednesday's Clips-Celts game when I saw Bennett Salvatore, Courtney Kirkland and Leroy Richardson, or as they're more commonly known, "The Three Stooges." I told my wife, "These guys will find a way to decide this game, you watch." She didn't care; she was more interested in devouring the bag of Sour Patch Kids we had just purchased. But sure enough, with the Celts somehow leading by just one (they were awful all night) and only 35 seconds to play, Rajon Rondo missed a free throw that ricocheted to Mardy Collins, only Big Baby Davis somehow swiped the ball away as Richardson's whistle blew. The Boston bench exploded, thinking it was an undeserved foul, only Richardson had blown his whistle for a Clippers timeout. One problem: Collins never had the ball. He fumbled the easy rebound to Davis even as the Clippers were signalling for time. Richardson granted the timeout because he's inept at his job and didn't make sure Collins, you know, actually secured the rebound. Did you know you can call timeouts when you don't have the basketball? Me neither. As a kicker, the Clips scored the winning basket on their free possession.

These screw-ups seem to happen four times a week. The league claims to care and made a big stink about hiring Ronald Johnson this past summer to clean things up. Nope. It's still a mess. Three weeks ago, the Lakers and Celtics played the highest-rated regular-season cable game in 13 seasons. Guess which crew the NBA assigned to that beauty? That's right, Leon Wood, Monty McCutchen and Jim Capers Jr. (only because Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne were unavailable). So TNT's record audience was treated to a comically choppy slopfest in which Boston's best player (Kevin Garnett) fouled out on a touch foul 35 feet from the basket with five minutes to play. The NBA: Where Amazingly Bad Officiating Happens. When will someone take responsibility and admit that something is seriously, drastically, undeniably wrong? Why can't Stern announce in June, "Our best three referees right now are Steve Javie, Mark Wunderlich and Joey Crawford, and we want the best championship series possible, so those guys will be handling every 2009 Finals game because we care about the quality of our sport?" For a league that claimed to take the Donaghy scandal so seriously, we haven't seen any inclination that it did. Not even a hint. Not a whiff. It makes me want to commit a flagrant foul 2 on myself. But I digress.

JimMurray · Post #2 » by **JimMurray** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 9:02 am

Eff.....thats it....here we go boys, 8 on 5....8 on 5....

MaxwellSmart · Post #3 » by **MaxwellSmart** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 10:47 am

JimMurray wrote:Eff.....thats it....here we go boys, 8 on 5....8 on 5....

No...just another person who sees the truth---go back to your Laker board now.

Kefa461 · Post #4 » by **Kefa461** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 11:24 am

It's ok Max.....it's ok...... :meditate:

bingoboyraps · Post #5 » by **bingoboyraps** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 3:27 pm

...the truth is the refs make mistakes both ways, and to believe that one team is consistantly being picked on is moronic...I do think the stars of the league (you know who they are) getting the benefit of the whistle is the real problem...this nonsense about any particular team being targeted needs to stop...

aboubata · Post #6 » by **aboubata** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 3:37 pm

bingoboyraps wrote:...the truth is the refs make mistakes both ways, and to believe that one team is consistantly being picked on is moronic...I do think the stars of the league (you know who they are) getting the benefit of the whistle is the real problem...this nonsense about any particular team being targeted needs to stop...

I am fine with mistakes, but some could be easily correctible. The portland game 6-5 issue could have been easily solved by my 17 month old baby.
The clippers game could have at least been a jump ball. You could see it in the refs eyes, "I screwed up, I want to give doc a technical, but that will make things worst"

Mistakes are ok, costly mistakes could happen a few times a season. MISTAKES THAT ARE FIXABLE ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE.

Rocky5000 · Post #7 » by **Rocky5000** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 3:40 pm

yep, they suck. But what can we do about it? All the fans at the game let them hear it every night, but because it's been going on for so long, they think the 'criticism is just part of the job.' Except it's not, it's a sign you're not doing your job right. They say demeaning things like 'the fans don't understand the game well enough', but the refs are the ones with a distorted perspective of the game. Some nights they think that the game is suddenly different in the final seconds, and anything goes, and other nights if you brush the guy, he's going to the line for the game deciding FTs.

bingoboyraps · Post #8 » by **bingoboyraps** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 4:05 pm

aboubata wrote:
bingoboyraps wrote:...the truth is the refs make mistakes both ways, and to believe that one team is consistantly being picked on is moronic...I do think the stars of the league (you know who they are) getting the benefit of the whistle is the real problem...this nonsense about any particular team being targeted needs to stop...

I am fine with mistakes, but some could be easily correctible. The portland game 6-5 issue could have been easily solved by my 17 month old baby.
The clippers game could have at least been a jump ball. You could see it in the refs eyes, "I screwed up, I want to give doc a technical, but that will make things worst"

Mistakes are ok, costly mistakes could happen a few times a season. MISTAKES THAT ARE FIXABLE ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE.

...agreed...

...but there are some posters on this board (other boards as well), that nitpick and whine about every call these guys make...to be fair and honest, it is a tough sport to officiate given the speed and athleticism of the players nowadays, mistakes are going to be made, and my whole point is that every team in the league eventually suffers as a result...

Bad-Thoma · Post #9 » by **Bad-Thoma** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 4:17 pm

They suck Maxwell, but they're not fixing things for a Cleveland-Lakers series. They're just that bad. Boston-Lakers is probably the most profitable match-up the league can get, the ratings are ridiculous and both teams have nationwide fan bases. The league is probably drooling over the likely scenarios of Boston-Lakers or Lebron-Kobe, both are winners for the league.

One simple thing could drastically improve the refs- accountability. Bring in an outside organization to score their performances, and open them up to the press at least briefly after the games.

Another thought along the same lines would be to bring in an outside organization to score their performances for accuracy and if they dip below a certain mark suspend them (albeit briefly) without pay. It increases the pressure on an already difficult job but they could also have a substantial bonus structure for achieving certain levels of accuracy. Maybe (MAYBE) the pace of the game is just that fast and the job is that hard and it would't change much but it would bring some peace of mind to the fans and a little more credibility to the league.

aboubata · Post #10 » by **aboubata** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 4:55 pm

one final point that really really really gets me during a game.

Sometimes, an official blows a whistle and there is no way, in any logic, that he could have seen what happened. they just blow it b/c they think something had to have happened.

triplet1984 · Post #11 » by **triplet1984** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 5:10 pm

of "Teams that are disrespected by the refs", Boston is not high on that list.

Neither are the Cavs, or the Lakers. Sorry, but all three teams are on a different level than say, the Grizzlies or the Thunder or the Pacers and so forth.

MaxwellSmart · Post #12 » by **MaxwellSmart** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 6:32 pm

watch some college games---and you'll see GOOD refs...yet, the NBA has ass-clowns like Salvatore and Bavetta......Leon Wood,etc.

aboubata · Post #13 » by **aboubata** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 6:40 pm

http://www.covers.com/pageLoader/pageLo ... s.html&t=0

ARB729 · Post #14 » by **ARB729** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 6:50 pm

Bad-Thoma wrote:Boston-Lakers is probably the most profitable match-up the league can get,

I disagree. Any time you can showcase you're two best selling assets to an organization is never a bad thing. They can sell Kobe vs Lebron more nationally than Lakers Celtics IMO

Not saying the refs are fixing it that way however, they just suck overall. They do suck off the top players though, and thats a fact sadly.

Post #15 » by **sully00** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 6:55 pm

MaxwellSmart wrote:watch some college games---and you'll see GOOD refs...yet, the NBA has ass-clowns like Salvatore and Bavetta......Leon Wood,etc.

No they are much worse, NCAA officials are just brutal to watch.

But that does not excuse what goes on in the NBA. Fouls are called because of every damn reason but the one they are supposed to a player put his friggin hand on another player. So many calls come down to the acting job, the star quality, and baring all that whether the shot falls.

I would love to have a ref sit there an explain traveling. They call the ridiculous one step and dribble 35 ft from the basket on some flex of a pivot foot, but at the same time in the 4th quarter we could watch Rodney Stuckey pick up his dribble at the top of the key and take 3 or 4 steps through the lane to the hoop with the ball wrapped in his belly like a football and lay it in.

With 3 officials how do they miss 3 second calls?

I just wish the was some sort of accountability in it all. But it also shows how many more blowout games we had last season that this **** just could not impact.

MyInsatiableOne · Post #16 » by **MyInsatiableOne** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 6:59 pm

Da-Met wrote:of "Teams that are disrespected by the refs", Boston is not high on that list.

Neither are the Cavs, or the Lakers. Sorry, but all three teams are on a different level than say, the Grizzlies or the Thunder or the Pacers and so forth.

Seriously, where you been the last 50 years?

Post #17 » by **sully00** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 7:05 pm

ARB729 wrote:
Bad-Thoma wrote:Boston-Lakers is probably the most profitable match-up the league can get,

I disagree. Any time you can showcase you're two best selling assets to an organization is never a bad thing. They can sell Kobe vs Lebron more nationally than Lakers Celtics IMO.

They have a ratings system for these things and they say your wrong. Part of that is that CLE lacks a national fan base, LeBron has one but not the Cavs, the people rocking their jerseys don't necessarily go out of their way to watch their games and CLE is not a major media market.

If you can have NY/LA/CHI/BOS in major pro sport you take it and run add to that the national following of those two teams and you have a ratings bonanza. The mono y mono gets old quick, it is great for Sportscenter or maybe for a game but it isn't compelling and rarely plays out over a 7 game series. You need multiple story lines, unexpected heroes, and villains.

MyInsatiableOne · Post #18 » by **MyInsatiableOne** » Tue Mar 3, 2009 7:17 pm

^This is something that bugs the crap out of me, but mano a mano does NOT mean "man to man"...it Latin mano means "hand", so all everyone says when they use that saying is "hand to hand"...

Anyway back to the subject at hand, there is NO history between Kobe and LeBron (or anything related to CLE), while there is 50 years of history between BOS and LAL...sully is right, that's the best matchup, now it's up to both teams to make it happen!