How to Better Officiate the NBA

The NBA playoffs put a ton of attention on how its games were officiated. Pretty much every talking head complained in some fashion but nobody seems to ever offer any solutions. (Outside of Jeff Van Gundy) It’s clear there is no conspiracy going on in any of these series but I do think the NBA could make things a lot easier on the officials.

Less Technical Fouls – In 2010-2011 the NBA expanded the guidelines for what is constituted as a technical foul. The expanded rules are as follows:

• Players making aggressive gestures, such as air punches, anywhere on the court.

• Demonstrative disagreement, such as when a player incredulously raises his hands, or smacks his own arm to demonstrate how he was fouled.

• Running directly at an official to complain about a call.

• Excessive inquiries about a call, even in a civilized tone.

You watch the NBA, is this ever what’s actually enforced? All these expanded rules have done is give the referee’s carte blanche for handing out technical fouls. It opens the game up for veteran and star players to be able to complain about calls while anyone not falling into this category getting a technical for just about anything demonstrative that they do.

These rules are not only stupid but they make the job of the referee more subjective than it has to be. The technical foul is the most subjective call the referee has to make, why would it be expanded like this? Do we expect players to be robots? I understand these rules were put in place to give the referee’s more control of the game but it always seems refs lose control once they start handing out arbitrary technical fouls.

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Stoudemire claps when he's frustrated. This is a technical foul in the NBA

Doesn’t it seem pretty silly now knowing that those are the rules surrounding technical fouls, and that Lebron James and Dwayne Wade don’t pick one up after pretty much after every play that doesn’t go there way? Not that I believe they should’ve picked up 45 technical fouls this post season but they do at least 3 of the 4 things stated above on just about every play. This is why rules like this can’t be put in place because it’s clear that Lebron James will get away with more than Mario Chalmers.

Isn’t it pretty clear that these rules are not fairly officiated? Rondo trips into an official and gets suspended a game yet Wade runs up to the official after every foul on him or every foul that he thinks should’ve gone his way. If the NBA wants to limit some of this controversy they should repeal this absurd expansion of the rules and call less technical fouls.

Less Offensive Fouls – Everyone wants the NBA to do something about flopping but flopping cannot be address if offensive fouls are not addressed first. A player should not be able to take a charge if he doesn’t make a play on the basketball. Everyone is sick of guys like Shane Battier, Glen Davis, and Jared Jeffries just standing there and getting a charge called on their opponents. If you don’t make a play on the ball or attempt to play defense it can’t be an offensive foul, period.

Why are we encouraging players to just stand there and get trucked? This is not an athletic move and it shouldn’t be rewarded. When you play with your buddies does anyone stand there and get trucked? Wouldn’t you be pissed if they did then tried to call you for a charge?

In my opinion, the only time offensive fouls should be called is if the offensive player uses inappropriate force (aka punching or using his hands to elevate himself above the defender) or is obviously out of control. Too many times an offensive player tries to avoid the contact with the defender, who’s just standing there, taps him slightly and gets a charge. I can’t wrap my head around how everyone doesn’t agree with me on this subject.

If anything encourages players faking fouls more than the current way charges are called I’d be interested to know what it is. If the player can’t just stand there and take a charge wouldn’t more shots be contested making the game ultimately more exciting? Defense is about defending the rim, not falling down.

Post Play Fouls – There is a set of post play rules and if one of them is violated then a foul should be called. That’s not what I’m going to complain about here. What I’m going to complain about the excessive amount of falling down on post-defense that is rewarded by the officials as an offensive foul.

How many times have you seen a stronger player back down a smaller player who falls down and draws a foul? Shane Battier does this about 70% of the time he gets backed down. It isn’t a great time to be a strong physical player in the NBA. Charles Barkely would call this turrrrrible if he played today.

Does anyone else remember the Celtics-Heat playoff game this year where Paul Pierce and Lebron James both picked up crucial fouls because they were battling in the post and the other one fell down? Most of the time these fouls are called away from the ball too, making them even worse and more unnecessary.

Fouls away from the ball – Speaking of unnecessary fouls the NBA Rules Committee is taking a look at fouls away from the ball this September. I just feel like there are way too many fouls like this called. The officials have to call moving screens, holds, and trips but too often a foul is called the minute an offensive and defensive player make contact with each other.

Cutting down on calling these fouls will also reduce flopping because players like Manu Gibobli flop in these situations all the time. He’ll be running down the court next to his defender and just wipe out. It’s really hard for an official to tell whether this is flopping or not and giving them a little bit of leeway in this scenario would ensure unnecessary flops are not called.

It’s going to be interesting to see what the NBA decides in this scenario because I don’t really know what the right answer is for this, just that there away way too many fouls called away from the ball. Once in a while the calls seem justified, like when a shooter is clearly getting cheap shots while running through screens, but most of the time it just seems physical defense. I understand it’s really difficult to draw the line between what’s physical defense and what’s a foul, so this is a really tough one to change.

Flopping – Even though I’ve mentioned flopping in pretty much all the previous categories, it is such a huge issue in the NBA that it deserves its own category. The NBA certainly needs to manipulate the current rules to limit the amount of flopping like I’ve described with offensive fouls, post play, and fouls away from the ball. Players are definitely flopping because the current rules make it advantageous for them to do so. If the rules can’t be manipulated in order to stop flopping then we should explore other avenues to limit it. Flopping seems to occur so often on offensive fouls though that I would definitely start there if I were in David Stern’s shoes.

Some have suggested fining the players or giving them technical fouls retroactively for each flop but this is a slippery slope. How does this work though? Is it going to be David Stern handing out penalties or is it going to be some committee doing it? We’ve all seen how well arbitrarily handing out fines has worked out for the commissioner player relationship in the NFL. I’m not entirely opposed to a system like this but if it’s not done right, it could bring even bigger controversy than the flopping did in the first place.

This is a disgrace

While I think flopping is probably the most frustrating issue to watch as a basketball fan, I definitely believe the NBA can manipulate the rules to limit it. If it comes to needing to fine these players retroactively or another system like this, then so be it. I think everyone has a different opinion on this but everyone seems to agree that something should be done. Something must be done when the 6’9 best basketball player in the world, Lebron James, is flopping at the slightest contact. It’s just a disgrace to watch and clearly the rules are making it advantageous for him to do so. I just don’t see the NBA going and retroactively fining him for anything, and that could be a problem.