Referee-player tension officially hits boiling point in NBA
Tension between NBA players and referees is to be expected, but things have crossed the line between players expressing distaste for a particular bad call and the wholesale disrespect for referee authority that has infected the league and come to a head this season.
Thankfully, players and refs alike are moving to put a stop to it.
Now the players association and the referees association are reportedly talking about having a clear-the-air meeting over All-Star weekend in February in hopes of restoring respect for authority out there on the court.
History has taught us that if players and coaches can’t learn to respect the officials, the commissioner’s office steps in to start levying heavy fines and imposing behavior codes on the players, because fan perception, right or wrong, about the NBA is that it’s a “league of thugs,” people who have a natural rebellious streak and can’t be told no.
How about players stop whining after every call? They always act like it wasn't me . Refs might be more open to dialogue like the old days if they weren't getting yelled at constantly
— Sports Guy (@smsportsguy) January 11, 2018
Look at the Golden State Warriors in particular for two of the worst examples.
Draymond Green ripped referees for “ruining the game,” and Shaun Livingston head-butted a ref in a game against Miami in December.
Commissioner Adam Silver’s predecessor, David Stern, made cleaning up the league’s image a top priority, which is why $25,000 fines were dished out like candy on his watch whenever players so much as looked at a ref the wrong way. Stern knew that making the game friendly to advertisers meant reining in some of the more “street” elements of behavior; this is the same reason players are expected to dress in a business-like manner when they’re injured or inactive during games.
Tim Duncan was notorious for giving the same look to refs that toddlers give their parents when they’ve been caught doing something wrong and insist that they didn’t do anything and it’s so unfair that they should be held accountable for their actions.
The meeting itself is expected to include three representatives from each side, presided over by a moderator, a sort of informal arbitration where the valid points of both will be aired and discussed.
Because truthfully, the players have a point; the officiating in the NBA is as bad as it’s been since Tim Donaghy was out there match-fixing during the league’s Dark Ages in the early aughts.
Back in early 2016, the Los Angeles Times surveyed players and coaches about the league’s best and worst referees, and two of the guys the players praised — Joey and Danny Crawford (no relation) — have both retired since that article came out.
The bottom three in the survey remain: Scott Foster, Lauren Holtkamp and Marc Davis. Diehard NBA fans know that if any of those three are on an officiating crew, you’d get a fairer, more well-ordered game if the players just called their own fouls because none of those three have any control of the games they officiate.
Which strikes at the heart of the problem: The best referees plied their craft when the likes of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson played the game. Today’s breed of ref refuses to engage with players constructively, and that’s where the need for talks comes in.
After all, speaking of Marc Davis, one player said, “He’s cool as they come, but he’s so arrogant. He instigates things sometimes. Marc will go back at a player. He forgets that he’s talking to another man. Don’t challenge a man’s manhood. Now you are going too far.”
Hopefully progress can be made at the All-Star weekend meeting, because Draymond Green is half right; referees are ruining the game, but wholesale disrespect for authority isn’t exactly doing basketball any favors either.
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