Well, he’s right about the officiating.

He’s right about the officiating and it’s only getting worse. I think this is the worst year yet. The biggest winner from bad calls this year- The Lakers. They are just knocking people over and the people who get knocked over usually get the call against them.( see Chris Paul, See KG) If they don’t clean up the officiating soon they will lose, big time.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but there honestly have been times that I’ve thought the officials were trying to tank the Cs this season and last. Then I watch other teams on League Pass and realize it’s just bad calls all around, to the point where the refs are actually changing the outcomes of games. It’s disgusting. There needs to be accountability.

The salaries have been so out of whack for so long. The days of having $20 million or more invested in a single player may be over soon, and it may lead to a scenario where there’s a little more equity between player’s salaries, which could have the following positive effects: 1) fewer teams getting dragged down for years by franchise players with major injuries; 2) it would be easier to make straight up, talent-for-talent trades; 3) fewer buyouts of under-performing, overpaid brats.

Finally, I really hope the league loses 5 to 7 franchises in the financial shakeout. In the 80s, there were 23 teams, and the league had a lot more talent equity. About 50% of the weekly matchups now are complete crap. Barkley points it out all the time, whether TNT wants him to or not. Seriously, other than Kirk Heinrich’s and Andre Iguodala’s mothers, who’s interested in watching Chicago vs. Philly. Or Charlotte vs. Toronto. Or Washington/Memphis vs. anyone. How much more exciting would it be if the top 3/4 of talent in the league were condensed onto 23 teams? Infinitely more. Like it was in the 80s.

of course, the nba is in trouble. who isn’t?? let’s hope sterno can do something right and negotiate with the players without a lockout. that’s as sure as happening as hell freezing over. and the refs—phew= that’s the stench. they have to get some kind of quick tv replay going- maybe 2 refs on the floor, rotating with 1 guy on a tv set.

It was a good article — I’m in agreement with most of it. The officiating is absolutely horrific but where he lost me is with this:
“Our best three referees right now are Steve Javie, Mark Wunderlich and Joey Crawford”

What planet is he from where Javie and Crawford are considered competent nevermind the best? Crawford lives for giving techs and makes a lot of bad calls. Javie makes a lot of questionable calls too. Wunderlich doesn’t stand out for me but since you don’t notice a good ref, that would be a plus.

I’m over here in Wisconsin, and I can tell you that when Ray Allen was with the Bucks he got himself in a little hot water when he suggested that the officiating in the Eastern Conference Finals favored the Sixers, because a Sixers-Lakers final was more marketable than a Bucks-Lakers finals. The Bucks were the only team that year to win both games against the Lakers. At the end of the series a telling stat came foward. Mutombo had a total of 7 fouls for the entire 7 game series. Now, I know the Bucks were a jump shooting team primarily, but there were some pretty questionable calls as the series went on, and it actually appeared the Bucks might go to the finals. I’m sure the NBA league had some reservations about Milwaukee winning the title, considering their "Big 3" was Allen, Cassell, and Robinson. Just my .02.

1) I’ve done some research on this, but it doesn’t seem like anyone has compiled the information anywhere. How helpful would it be to have a blog/site that has a section specifically for NBA Officiating. Who’s who, who’s considered good, who’s easily affected by big crowds, who’s made controversial calls, who do coaches like, who do coaches hate, etc. Does anyone know of a site that does it already? Bob Ryan made that great point about the Cs-Lakers game and how we had a terrible crew running that game – Fans should have access to this information.

2) Contracting would be hard to stomach, but I agree that it would improve the product. For the most part, I can find a reason to watch any game (Bulls you have Rose, Thunder you have Durant, etc.) but it’s a bad sign when there are two potential playoff teams (PHI and MIL) who I would never watch going head to head – and they’re in the top half of the East!

I wouldn’t mind a 24-team league: two 12 team divisions. You would have to rejigger the playoffs but that’s no big deal. As Simmons and others have noted, there are too many bad teams right now, and the league could also cut down on the number of officials and weed out the bad ones.