COMMENTARY
NBA refs add to ‘Amazing’ happenings
The NBA came up with a clever regular-season marketing slogan called “The NBA: Where Amazing Happens.”
But in the playoffs, that slogan could easily be changed to “The NBA: Where Questionable Officiating Happens.”
We have seen some amazing things on the court this postseason. It began in the first round when the defending champion Boston Celtics were pushed to seven games by a young Chicago Bulls team that was seeded seventh among eight teams in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Celtics had another seven-game series in the second round, but surprisingly were beaten at home by the Orlando Magic.
The Eastern Conference finals between the Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers brought more amazement with Le-Bron James’ deep three-pointer at the buzzer, which gave the Cavs an improbable Game Two win last Friday.
Not to be outdone, Kobe Bryant answered James with a trey of his own a day later to help lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a come-from-behind road win over the Denver Nuggets in Game Three of the Western Conference finals. The Lakers had to overcome an undermanned Houston Rockets squad in seven games just to reach this round.
But for every compelling series or heroic shot there have been enough bad calls and no-calls by the officials to make you wonder if the outcome of some games is valid.
The NBA is not that far removed from Tim Donaghy gambling scandal, so the last thing the league wants is for fans to have a reason to question the integrity of its officials.
NBA Commissioner David Stern, who believes image is everything in his sport, naturally comes to the defense of the referees. Instead of calling for them to clean up their act, he blames the criticism on television analysts for not explaining how difficult the refs’ job is.
I’ll agree that it must be hard to officiate in the NBA. Given the size of the players and the increased speed of the game, some calls are going to be missed.
But the problem is the lack of consistency. No foul is called when someone gets shoved for a rebound on one end of the court, while the whistle blows when little or no contact is made on the other end.
The job of NBA officials is to police the game, not directly impact the outcome. But that’s what happened in Game Three of a second-round series between the Dallas Mavericks and Nuggets when an official failed to acknowledge an intentional foul by the Mavericks, who lost because of the no-call.
In many cases this postseason, the officials have gone overboard with their whistles. Saturday’s game between the Lakers and Nuggets featured 76 free throws. The Cavaliers and Magic combined for 86 foul shots on Sunday.
Conspiracy theorists think the NBA wants Bryant and James to meet in the Finals, and suspect the officials are doing their part to make that happen.
The foul calls haven’t overly favored the Lakers and Cavs, but don’t tell that to the Magic and Nuggets, who feel like they’re playing five against eight.
Superstars always get the benefit of most calls, which explains why defenders are punished for merely breathing on Bryant or James. But there is a problem when phantom fouls are called like the one on Dwight Howard after a clean block of a James three-point attempt late in Game Three.
Bryant and James just might have their much-anticipated meeting the NBA Finals. It’s obvious the advertisers want it, judging by those Nike and Vitamin Water commercials featuring the players being aired during every game break.
But if their teams do advance, let’s hope it is because they earned it without extra help from officials.
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