Last night, in my post about the NBA Finals, I asked the questions, “Are officials worse now than they were ten years ago? Or do players and funs just bitch more?” And I knew at the time that it was a bigger question that deserved its own discussion, and again, I didn’t want to rain on the Heat’s parade. So I figured we’d get back around to it later. A couple of commenters made good points…
The officiating is the same as it was 10 years ago. The difference is now that the losing fans have more of a voice (via blogs, talk radio, message boards, etc) to be heard after the game. And since the majority of the fans can’t point at their own team, the obvious choice of their ire is the officiating.
- Mondesi’s House
mjd…the answer is clearly the latter. It’s going to get worse too. The fact of the matter is that with commentators ripping on refs, sportscasters ripping on refs, fans ripping on refs…the propaganda machine is unstoppable. You don’t even need any evidence anymore. If a coach or an owner doesn’t feel like being accountable for a loss, all they need to is blame the refs and people will hop on the bandwagon.
- jerloma
Good points there. And there were more, but… space is limited. I can’t quote them all. Sorry.
And two things I don’t want to do are 1) pretend that bad calls don’t exist, or 2) put all of the blame here on Mavs or Mavs fans. The discussion isn’t solely about the Mavs, and I do believe that Seahawks fans set the gold standard on that one (and continue to do so). Mark Cuban, Avery Johnson, and Dirk Nowitzki were all adequately concilliatory in defeat, much unlike Mike Holmgren. I don’t think the ‘Hawks will ever be topped… I seriously fucking hope not, anyway.
And, as I said, it’s not pretending that bad calls don’t happen. They do. I still believe that the Mavericks were wronged in Game Five, but, as quite a few others have pointed out, the Mavs have been the beneficiary of some other calls in their journey to the Finals.
And the bigger point is that they lost because of their own mistakes. When it came right down to it, the Mavs could not play as well in 4th quarters as they did in 1st and 2nd quarters. If they had, they’d have won the series, and it might be Heat fans right now finding something to bitch about.
My contention is that if a team plays as well as it possibly can and still loses (which is rarely the case), there’s about a 99% chance that it’s because they weren’t good enough, and about 1% chance that their loss was the direct result of an erroneous decision by an official. I just don’t think it happens very often.
And maybe the difference between now and ten years ago is imagined… maybe we just don’t remember the bitching, because it’s not what stands the test of time. And maybe ten years from now, no one will remember the Mavs bitching, and we’ll be asking this same question again.
Or maybe it’s true, and we really are just whinier people. Like the commenters quoted above said… everyone’s got a voice now, and the whiniest voices tend to get heard. Maybe we’re a nation raised on Bill O’Reilly, and CNN’s Crossfire, or whatever. If you don’t like something, bitch… and if you’re wrong, then just bitch louder. The important thing isn’t the content of the discussion, but that we get really loud about it.
And please note that I’m not leaving myself out of this… note the usage of ‘we.’ I’m guilty of it, too. I try to never blame the failures of any of my favorite teams on the officials, though I don’t have a perfect record there. For a recent example, see my treatment of Jorge Larrionda this past weekend on Deadspin (though I would contend that when a ref is suspended for corruption, it opens things up for a whole other line of debate).
Robnosticator Says:
June 21st, 2006 at 7:59 pm
I have a collection of truths.
Robnosticators Truth #243: Fans always think the officiating is biased against them.
For example: Miami fans are celebreating their win and the ability to win despite the referees.
Dallas fans lost because of the refs.
fredwilo Says:
June 21st, 2006 at 8:35 pm
I think a few things are at play here:
1. Better technology (super slo mo, HD, more camera angles etc.) make bad calls obvious to everyone. If you watch old NBA games, you really can’t see exactly what is happening as Magic or Larry cruise through the lane.
2. NBA officiating is brutal. I’ve been a Sonics season ticket holder for years (painful the last few) and I get to watch Bavetta, Nies, Salvatore and a host of others butcher calls year after year after year. B/c they are so bad, the losing team just about always has something to gripe about. I just don’t think these guys in their 60s can keep up with the game anymore so they end up guessing. Basically I agree with just about everything Bill Simmons has said on the state of NBA officiating. David Stern was on all the talk shows over the last 2 days trying to put the focus on the product and the players. Good, but how about putting more focus on a better system for reffing these games. Even he says that the refs miss 5% of the calls. Not acceptable.
3. Games are resistant to change. In tennis, they have the technology now to get calls right, but only a couple tournaments have implemented it and they still have that stupid umpire in a chair that can’t possibly track a 140 mph serve. There are examples of this in just about every sport.
4. And yes, we all want something to bitch about when our team loses…..
Suss Says:
June 21st, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Adjust to the game as it’s called by the man in stripes. Think about it.
–Suss
Dennis Says:
June 21st, 2006 at 9:40 pm
As a huge Mavericks fan, I’ll be the first to admit that in no way did the Mavs deserve to win Game 6. If you constantly settle for jumpshots and only shoot 37%, then you don’t deserve to win - refs or not. That being said, I think what tended to really get to most Mavs fans (at least me personally) is two things. First that the calls weren’t fouls that were being let go (as this happens ALL the time in ALL sports), but that the fouls were being called when it was EXTREMLY obvious that no foul took place (even without slow-mo replay). See the foul on Daniels in the 2nd quarter of Game 6 as an example. Most annoying though is that even though it’s easily proved the refs missed numerous calls, you will NEVER hear a single peep from the league acknowledging that yes the refs did in fact miss a specific call (with the exception of mistakes by the mysterious clock operator). At least the NFL had the balls to come out and man up to the mistakes of their refs in the SuperBowl.
Dennis Says:
June 21st, 2006 at 9:43 pm
One more quick point. I think there is more complaining about the refs in the NBA because unlike the NFL or the MLB, the NBA is the only league that does not do everything it can to make sure that it’s best refs are those working it’s biggest games. That fact alone leaves the league wide open to complaints from any team that ever plays in a playoff game.
Toby Says:
June 21st, 2006 at 10:20 pm
I think you’re right - in 10 years, Super Bowl XL will be remembered for the longest rushing td in Super Bowl history, the longest td pass by a non-qb in Super Bowl history, and the stark difference between Big Ben’s first Super Bowl performance and the quality of his play in the four or five following Super Bowls.
bill g Says:
June 22nd, 2006 at 12:18 am
Adjust to the game as it’s called by the man in stripes. Think about it.
–Suss
so you’re saying mavs should’ve given wade a 3 foot radius? the only way he doesn’t get to the line 25 times a night is if dallas left someone to cherry pick… hmm, anyone have avery’s email?
i actually agree with that philosophy, this year’s NHL is the perfect example. players were told what the refs were looking for, yet some ignored the warnings and ended up with penalties. the nba just doesn’t have that sort of consistency yet. i’ll give them credit for trying to clean up the travelling and palming/carrying but they have to hold everyone to those same rules. at this stage, officials have the same consistency as milt palacio’s mid range game
Suss Says:
June 22nd, 2006 at 9:18 am
Gentle Bill, I was just suggeseting maybe the Mavericks drive to the basket a little more too.
cotton Says:
June 22nd, 2006 at 10:21 am
There’s a lot of logic to that, Suss. These players and coaches know the refs and their tendencies (especially the Mavs, with Cuban obsessively charting and tracking officials’ missteps). How more teams have not figured out how to make this info work more to their advantages is beyond me.
jerloma Says:
June 22nd, 2006 at 10:49 am
Hey mjd…did you get my express written consent to publish that?
I also can’t stand this idea that if there is a discrepancy in fouls called, it automatically means one team is being conspired against. I agree that refs miss a lot of calls and make a lot of bad ones but believe it or not…sometimes teams get called for a lot of fouls because they commit a lot of fouls. This idea that the refs should try to make the fouls equal is ludicrous. Sometimes the inferior team gets beat more and hence commits more fouls. If we’re gonna call every game 50/50, why have refs at all?
As far as Holmgren goes…it may be the most assinine accusation of officiating costing a team a game in sports history. Dude’s team gave up a 1st down on a 3rd and 26, gave up the longest run in SB history, gave up another long TD on a gadget play that everyone saw coming except apparently the eleven guys playing defense, threw an interception at the oppositions 10 yard line, dropped 68 passes, and scored one touchdown on a 20 yard drive. Let me repeat that last part. They scored one TD…in the Super Bowl. One. It was the refs, Mike. You keep telling yourself that.
t-dawg Says:
June 24th, 2006 at 9:49 pm
hey jerloma, it is tough to move the ball against a good stealers team when everytime you get a 20 yard play, the officials take it back.
everytime you are winning the field position battle, the officials cancel your gains out.
and the only time the stealers run those gadget plays are around midfield, where they managed to have the officials place them due to matt hasselbeck’s ruthless clipping, in which he killed 3 stealers with their backs turned to him. no… wait.. that’s not quite what happened. that’s right, he TACKLED the man with the ball.
also, injuries played a part in the gadget play working and the long 3rd and 26 (which had a debatable clip on it, but hey, it would have been against the stealers and they never commit blocking fouls.)
also, taking away a play that got the Hawks to the 2 (yet another questionable call) also took away what could have made for the most thrilling 4th quarter in SB history. Hawks would have taken the lead on a 98 yd 4th quarter drive. I would have even applauded the Steelers had they came back.
And I hate to break it to the Steelers fan above, but in a decade this SB will be remembered for 1) poor officiating 2) the false promise of Big Ben 3) the emergence of the second “dynasty” team of the new millenium, the NFC powerhouse Seahawks, led by 2x SB MVP Matt Hasselbeck and fellow HoF’ers Lofa Tatupu, Shaun Alexander, Walter Jones and perennial All-Pro’s Marcus Trufant and Darrell Jackson.