Ben Taylor reportedly demoted after Fred VanVleet's rant

[geminiz]

I’ve been telling people for years that this is what the nba does when refs are bad and nobody noticed. They need to have more communication with the fans. Pay them more, but make them available to the media for questions, or the referee board itself

some are pulling in over 500k a year. How much we gotta pay them?

You realize that's far less than end of the bench guys and refs are out there all 48 minutes? They should get the minimum salary at the very least. They are more valuable than guys that just sit on the bench watching

U do realize no body tune in to watch a game because of oh, Tony Brothers is refing today I gotta watch!

500k for a secure job that has a f-ing summer break, not much physical demand, almost can-do-no-wrong according to the league, it's damn f-ing great. If u wanna compare everyone to end of the bench player salary, why stop at the ref , I'm pretty sure the bus driver for the team gets far less than 500k, let's give everyone veteran min contract!

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[Lockdown504090]

some are pulling in over 500k a year. How much we gotta pay them?

You realize that's far less than end of the bench guys and refs are out there all 48 minutes? They should get the minimum salary at the very least. They are more valuable than guys that just sit on the bench watching

U do realize no body tune in to watch a game because of oh, Tony Brothers is refing today I gotta watch!

500k for a secure job that has a f-ing summer break, not much physical demand, almost can-do-no-wrong according to the league, it's damn f-ing great. If u wanna compare everyone to end of the bench player salary, why stop at the ref , I'm pretty sure the bus driver for the team gets far less than 500k, let's give everyone veteran min contract!

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ben Taylor can definitely get someone to turn a game off though. And again, referees affect the product more than just about any support staff unless you want to be intentionally disingenuous. If they went on strike and the nba used scabs, the games would be atrocious.

[Lunartic]

This is just wrong, you can't do it.
Now don't be surprised if you'll see even more extreme reactions from the players, like Luka last night.

What's wrong? An employee messing up and being punished? That's all jobs.

Part of the job is to be impartial, avoid getting frustrated, remain professional and call the game as you see it. It doesn't provide for personal vendettas against certain players and if it is obvious that is what's going on,- he should be fired let alone demoted.

Players bitch and moan, ref should remain above that. We all have jobs in which we deal with whiny people and we wish we could be unprofessional and slap them but we don't because we are professionals and make far less than 500k a year.

[UglyBugBall]

some are pulling in over 500k a year. How much we gotta pay them?

You realize that's far less than end of the bench guys and refs are out there all 48 minutes? They should get the minimum salary at the very least. They are more valuable than guys that just sit on the bench watching

U do realize no body tune in to watch a game because of oh, Tony Brothers is refing today I gotta watch!

500k for a secure job that has a f-ing summer break, not much physical demand, almost can-do-no-wrong according to the league, it's damn f-ing great. If u wanna compare everyone to end of the bench player salary, why stop at the ref , I'm pretty sure the bus driver for the team gets far less than 500k, let's give everyone veteran min contract!

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Nobody tunes in for end of the bench guys either. Refs are not bus drivers. They share the court with the players. They are part of every game that the players are too .They are on national TV and play all 48 minutes or more of every game. They should not make less than end of bench guys.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

This is just wrong, you can't do it.
Now don't be surprised if you'll see even more extreme reactions from the players, like Luka last night.

What's wrong? An employee messing up and being punished? That's all jobs.

Part of the job is to be impartial, avoid getting frustrated, remain professional and call the game as you see it. It doesn't provide for personal vendettas against certain players and if it is obvious that is what's going on,- he should be fired let alone demoted.

Players bitch and moan, ref should remain above that. We all have jobs in which we deal with whiny people and we wish we could be unprofessional and slap them but we don't because we are professionals and make far less than 500k a year.

There's absolutely zero to gain for the NBA in letting the discussion move from the games to the officiating.
Zero.
Suspensions and fines must be handed to whoever associated with a team decides criticize publicly the integrity of the officiating.
Any issue must be handled behind closed door, in a process that can be transparent to the team but not to the general population.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Another game and more controversy from Ben Taylor’s crew during hawks/wolves game last night.

Read on Twitter

A rough night for that crew. There were some very shaky calls, especially in the 4th quarter. The three gifted free throws for Trae Young chief among them.

[Johnny Bball]

He's being forced to ref only Raptors games now.

[sjballer03]

This is just wrong, you can't do it.
Now don't be surprised if you'll see even more extreme reactions from the players, like Luka last night.

What's wrong? An employee messing up and being punished? That's all jobs.

Part of the job is to be impartial, avoid getting frustrated, remain professional and call the game as you see it. It doesn't provide for personal vendettas against certain players and if it is obvious that is what's going on,- he should be fired let alone demoted.

Players bitch and moan, ref should remain above that. We all have jobs in which we deal with whiny people and we wish we could be unprofessional and slap them but we don't because we are professionals and make far less than 500k a year.

There's absolutely zero to gain for the NBA in letting the discussion move from the games to the officiating.
Zero.
Suspensions and fines must be handed to whoever associated with a team decides criticize publicly the integrity of the officiating.
Any issue must be handled behind closed door, in a process that can be transparent to the team but not to the general population.

The copium is strong with this one.

[Johnny Bball]

Making him to second ref instead of crew chief, very quietly, for what amounts to maybe 2 whole games is truly the most passive agressive demotion ever, and something I truly expect from the NBA.

[dhsilv2]

You realize that's far less than end of the bench guys and refs are out there all 48 minutes? They should get the minimum salary at the very least. They are more valuable than guys that just sit on the bench watching

U do realize no body tune in to watch a game because of oh, Tony Brothers is refing today I gotta watch!

500k for a secure job that has a f-ing summer break, not much physical demand, almost can-do-no-wrong according to the league, it's damn f-ing great. If u wanna compare everyone to end of the bench player salary, why stop at the ref , I'm pretty sure the bus driver for the team gets far less than 500k, let's give everyone veteran min contract!

Sent from my Pixel 6a using RealGM mobile app

Nobody tunes in for end of the bench guys either. Refs are not bus drivers. They share the court with the players. They are part of every game that the players are too .They are on national TV and play all 48 minutes or more of every game. They should not make less than end of bench guys.

Now this is just factually wrong. A lot of people do care about end of bench guys. Sure it's a tiny minority, but a great many of us are fans of players who are obscure NBA players. Be it they are from our home town, played for our college, or we just like them for some weird reason.

[BuckFan25226]

Yeah FVV has never struck me as a whiner.


Which is why his rant holds a lot of merit.

[Lunartic]

This is just wrong, you can't do it.
Now don't be surprised if you'll see even more extreme reactions from the players, like Luka last night.

What's wrong? An employee messing up and being punished? That's all jobs.

Part of the job is to be impartial, avoid getting frustrated, remain professional and call the game as you see it. It doesn't provide for personal vendettas against certain players and if it is obvious that is what's going on,- he should be fired let alone demoted.

Players bitch and moan, ref should remain above that. We all have jobs in which we deal with whiny people and we wish we could be unprofessional and slap them but we don't because we are professionals and make far less than 500k a year.

There's absolutely zero to gain for the NBA in letting the discussion move from the games to the officiating.
Zero.
Suspensions and fines must be handed to whoever associated with a team decides criticize publicly the integrity of the officiating.
Any issue must be handled behind closed door, in a process that can be transparent to the team but not to the general population.

The NBA has long been considered to do nothing in regards to clear referee screwups - hell they even sued to prevent Donaghy from writing a book. Transparency is always good for companies that interact with the public and are now pushing sports betting.

So yeah, they gain credibility by actually airing dirty laundry and showing they are willing to take action when their employees mess up.

They don't have any issues announcing fines for players that criticize the refs or say "problematic" things, why should some employees be treated differently than others?

[Nate505]

Maybe a ref can rant on a player and get them benched. That would be sweet.

The refs don’t have to rant. If they call enough fouls against a player they don’t like and put him in foul trouble, that will force his coach to bench him.

Hopefully it happens to VanVleet more.

[Edrees]

Its a clear blow to NBA integrity that their hand was forced to take action. Now when fans criticize refs, maybe people can stop saying oh you're just whining. Here, you got solid evidence there is case for criticism. What else goes on behind the scenes?

100% of NBA fans agree that no NBA game is reffed perfectly. You aren't revealing anything to anyone here by admitting it. All they are doing is holding the ref accountable for the times he doesn't ref well. You aren't admitting to conspiracy lol.

I think it's the complete opposite case of what you are saying. The fact that they will play refs who do a bad job less and play the ones who make the right calls more means to me the product has integrity. If they don't hold anyone accountable for poor performances, then I would say the product is tainted.

[ItsDanger]

Its a clear blow to NBA integrity that their hand was forced to take action. Now when fans criticize refs, maybe people can stop saying oh you're just whining. Here, you got solid evidence there is case for criticism. What else goes on behind the scenes?

100% of NBA fans agree that no NBA game is reffed perfectly. You aren't revealing anything to anyone here by admitting it. All they are doing is holding the ref accountable for the times he doesn't ref well. You aren't admitting to conspiracy lol.

I think it's the complete opposite case of what you are saying. The fact that they will play refs who do a bad job less and play the ones who make the right calls more means to me the product has integrity. If they don't hold anyone accountable for poor performances, then I would say the product is tainted.

My point was far too many people are in denial and just pass it off as whining or whatever. Critics have been given credence by NBA's actions in this particular case.

[MrBigShot]

This is just wrong, you can't do it.
Now don't be surprised if you'll see even more extreme reactions from the players, like Luka last night.

What's wrong? An employee messing up and being punished? That's all jobs.

Part of the job is to be impartial, avoid getting frustrated, remain professional and call the game as you see it. It doesn't provide for personal vendettas against certain players and if it is obvious that is what's going on,- he should be fired let alone demoted.

Players bitch and moan, ref should remain above that. We all have jobs in which we deal with whiny people and we wish we could be unprofessional and slap them but we don't because we are professionals and make far less than 500k a year.

There's absolutely zero to gain for the NBA in letting the discussion move from the games to the officiating.
Zero.
Suspensions and fines must be handed to whoever associated with a team decides criticize publicly the integrity of the officiating.
Any issue must be handled behind closed door, in a process that can be transparent to the team but not to the general population.

You say this but the fine vanvleet got was just a formality. He absolutely went IN on a specific ref by name, and only got fined 30k. The message the nba sent is that they aren't going to come down hard on people criticizing the officiating.

If the reffing is controversial during any playoff series, expect at least one or two coaches to bring attention to it in a post game press conference.

[UglyBugBall]

U do realize no body tune in to watch a game because of oh, Tony Brothers is refing today I gotta watch!

500k for a secure job that has a f-ing summer break, not much physical demand, almost can-do-no-wrong according to the league, it's damn f-ing great. If u wanna compare everyone to end of the bench player salary, why stop at the ref , I'm pretty sure the bus driver for the team gets far less than 500k, let's give everyone veteran min contract!

Sent from my Pixel 6a using RealGM mobile app

Nobody tunes in for end of the bench guys either. Refs are not bus drivers. They share the court with the players. They are part of every game that the players are too .They are on national TV and play all 48 minutes or more of every game. They should not make less than end of bench guys.

Now this is just factually wrong. A lot of people do care about end of bench guys. Sure it's a tiny minority, but a great many of us are fans of players who are obscure NBA players. Be it they are from our home town, played for our college, or we just like them for some weird reason.

I mean I could probably find a Tony brothers fan out there too.

[dhsilv2]

Nobody tunes in for end of the bench guys either. Refs are not bus drivers. They share the court with the players. They are part of every game that the players are too .They are on national TV and play all 48 minutes or more of every game. They should not make less than end of bench guys.

Now this is just factually wrong. A lot of people do care about end of bench guys. Sure it's a tiny minority, but a great many of us are fans of players who are obscure NBA players. Be it they are from our home town, played for our college, or we just like them for some weird reason.

I mean I could probably find a Tony brothers fan out there too.

I think you'll find there are thousands of fans for most if not all NBA guys. I'd love to see you find that for a Tony Brothers...

Just think how big even end of bench guys were in high school and college or over in Europe for them to eventually get to the league. You think there's any UK grad who doesn't have UK fans watching or checking up on how they've done in the league? It's the same way with most if not all fan bases.

[dolphinatik]

we have all seen some questionable refs and calls. didnt watch but I believe FVV. As fans all we want is consistency for both teams all game long. There needs to be an avenue for public review of officiating without it needing to rise to a level of a rant before its taken seriously.

[sjballer03]

Didn't expect people to be coping for the refs so hard. NBA refs aren't as bad as MLB umps but they are pretty damn bad at times.