My biggest pet peeve in this year's NBA playoffs is the propensity for officials to take control of an early blowout and keep a team in the game. Right on the heels of that disturbing trend is another, equally annoying phenomenon sweeping NBA Nation: the "arms raised in disbelief" complaint to the official.
Before I write another word, let me issue a few disclaimers: 1) The officials are so bad in the NBA that they deserve all of the mocking and complaining that comes their way. 2) When I play sports, I tend to be a big whiner, so this is definitely me being hypocritical. 3) I am okay with most forms of complaining. The sneer (a Chauncey Billups specialty), the hands on the hips with the incredulous smile (T-Mac's forte), the hands on the ref's hips (Cassell), the fierce point, the mouthpiece throw, and the stalking-while-going-into-a-timeout are all very acceptable forms of showing one's disdain for a call. The one thing I can't handle is the outstretched arms. The look of disbelief. The near tears. The freaking stopping in the middle of the play to go beg to the ref. Seriously, what is going on?
I am about to give you my All-Star team for this particular gesture, but in reality, half the guys in the league could make the team. I'm forced to find serial arm-raisers and guys that constantly perform the arm raise despite getting almost every call, just to separate them from the average babies. It's an epidemic. A pandemic! (I forget - what is the difference?) Anyway, here is the NBA's All-Hands (Raised) Team (only players from playoff teams are eligible):
PG - Shaun Livingston. He's young, so I expect him to get even better at this. He gets bonus points for getting up probably 5-7 ARPG (arms raised per game) despite limited minutes of the bench. We might need some per minute stats to truly measure his ability. Plus, Livingston has really long arms, so it makes for an even more dramatic moment (call it the Tayshaun Factor). Livingston's backup is Steve Nash.
The two-time MVP doesn't complain all that often, but when he does, he never fails to look like a third grader that just got his milk money stolen as he races after the refs with his arms raised in disbelief. (In Nash's defense, he keeps playing while doing so, unlike most of the guys on this list.) Gary Payton - a former first teamer - comes in a distant third. I think his Heat teammates must be rubbing off on him, because other than Antoine Walker (who prefers the petulant stomp anyway), nobody on Miami really uses this move.
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Article comments
1 - Nicholas Stix
I was going to quote a passage, and say I love it, but the next paragraph would be just as delicious. So, I'll just say that you are one critical critic!
However ... however... you'll say that 'This guy is the worst/best AR specialist,' only to then say about the next guy, 'This guy is the worst/best AR specialist,' and so on. I'm going to venture a guess that your hyperbole is meant to mirror the exaggeration of the players themselves, although I don't know why I should act in such a generous spirit, and will have to take it out on the next 100 people (including critics and posters, with particular attention paid to Dave Nalle) I encounter, just to bring the world back into balance.
2 - Q Bit
Adam: Loved it. Recently Bill Simmons also made similar observations on the Spurs and Pistons.
3 - Adam Hoff
Thanks, guys. Nicholas, I did kind of overdo the hyperbole a bit. Duly noted.
As for Simmons, I am glad to see that a mainstream, good columnist is finally taking Duncan to task. I understand that we generally want to give TD the benefit of the doubt because he is a good guy and behaves himself off the court, but I have to call it like I see it. He is a big baby. (And as I mentioned, I would know - I used to complain just as much about calls in Intramurel games during college.)
I posted this right before the Suns-Mavs games last night and I was shocked by the lack of AR's. Maybe because everyone was scoring on nearly every play, there was no need to complain. Dirk and Nash got a few in there, but for the most part, there wasn't a lot of pleading going on. Amazing.
4 - RJ Elliott
Tayshaun, I think, had damn good reason to put his freakishly-long arms up and flail them around during the last few minutes of Game Two against the Heat...
5 - larry
i have a few players that qualify for your arms raised, are former players bill laimbe laimbeer and danny ainge. a current player would be sam cassels.
6 - Rafael
Great post. My vote for "Most Hands Up" award goes to Tim Duncan without a question. However, I think saying that ALL NBA officials "deserve all of the mocking and complaining that comes their way" is quite harsh.
I believe some of them do, and they're usually weeded out their own consent and grueling evaluations. Being a high school basketball official myself, even I question a call here or there - and they definitely miss some. But I know that they get a lot more calls right than they do get wrong.
Though I believe everyone has a right not to agree with a call with some complaining, we need to remember what their job is. Officials have to make judgement call based on their rules knowledge involving some best athletes in the world (sometimes while running in a full sprint to get the right angle) all in a matter of a few split seconds.
So if you gonna complain, I say make sure you respect them at the same time; because they deserve all the respect that comes their way (which usually isn't enough!) Ironically, I think Tim Duncan comments after Game 7 with the Mavericks is a good example of that.
7 - RJ Elliott
I am 100% certain that NBA officials have a tough and largely thankless job...that being said, they need to stop blowing big, obvious calls late in important playoff games!!!
8 - Adam Hoff
I went back and read this, realizing that I was probably more negative than I intended, but since these guys whine so much, I don't feel that bad.
That said, I do feel bad for being so hard on the officials. You are right - it is a tough job and it is completely unfair to lump them all together. I think the NBA is probably the hardest sport to referee. The players are so fast and athletic that it is impossible to track everything. I agree with RJ though that they don't help themsevles when they blow huge calls in key spots. Perhaps the NBA needs some form of instant replay. It could be used in the final two minutes of games for plays where perhaps a guy stepped out of bands or there might have been basket interference, etc. Obviously, most of the complaints are on foul calls, which could not be subjected to replay, but it would help a little bit.
Also, the referees need to constantly seek to prove that they don't have agendas and follow patterns. Every game that a home favorite has been losing big in the first quarter this postseason, they have gone to the line a ridiculous number of times. It is as if the NBA officials have a playbook that says, "If home favorite is losing big early, call ticky-tack fouls on the perimeter and send them to the line time and time again so that the score is 29-24 instead of 29-16 at the end of the quarter." It is ridiculous.
Oh well, I still love the NBA. And I do respect the challenge that awaits a basketball official (at any level) every time they step on the floor.
(Also, this is a topic for another time, but the difficulty in refeering the NBA game reminds me of a suggestion that former NBA great and coach Paul Westphal made to me once. He recommended that the game switch to 4-on-4, for a variety of reasons, but mainly to unclog the court and make it easier for the officials to maintain order. It was a pretty wild idea, but perhaps its time has come. Then again, maybe not.)
9 - Q Bit
Nahh--we're doing fine with 5-5.
I believe NBA referees are quite competent. They of course make ridiculous calls every now and then. But again, who would we blame, if they are correct every time?
Anyways, here's what I think:
1. If a referee wants to make a correct call, he/she must be at an angle from which the play involving a contact provides maximum information. If he/she is indeed in the right position, it's almost impossible to miss a call or make a dubious one. Of course I don't see how this resolves the charge/block cases (I think it's always a coin toss unless very very very obvious).
2. Now from what I have seen, most of the times when a referee makes a dubious call he's not in the RIGHT position to make that call.
The question is, if he knows he's not in the best position to make the call, why can't he simply go on w/o blowing the whistle?
Because his actions are controlled by his training and experience -- sort of reflexive actions.
From his experience he sort of knows there has been a contact, and he's again, kinda there, and he believes there should be a call in that play and so he calls. At that point, his call is based entirely on partial information for that particular play and he uses all his experience, knowlede about the players (who's a flopper and who's not kind of stuff) to make the call. Now everything happens in about a fraction of a second.
It is still amazing the officials get 96% of the calls right (David Stern said).
10 - MorgMan
Why is there no way for fans to feedback their comments and concerns to David Stern and the NBA???? You can search with Goggle's help all day, and guess what, there is no way to let the NBA know how we feel about anything. (????) I think it is safe to say "they don't care" and they don't want to hear from us "little people".
We are the fans, we are the ones that buy the tickets, we are the ones that "ultimately" pay the player's outrageous salaries. But the NBA hasn't even set up a "Fan suggestion box" - why????
I think it is clear they think they know it all and don't want our suggestions.
Let's face it, there are alot of things wrong wrong with the NBA. So maybe the NBA officials nd big money men don't want to hear "the emperor has no clothes" and want to bury themselves in the sand and hide from the fans and pretend that everything is "good". But it ain't good big money guys!!!!
What would be wrong with wanting the officiating to be the "Best"? I looked at the NBA list of business VP's and there wasn't one for VP of "referee improvement" - how come? This is one of the most important aspects of the game!
I think it is time to give the coach's a chance to challenge some of the questionable calls - maybe once a game, maybe once every 10 games, or maybe once! I think a referee that makes a really bad call (upon challenge and review), should be suspended for a game and required to review the films on the call. The purpose is not to punish but to improve the quality of this important group of NBA participants.
Why doesn't the NBA have a goal of continuing to develop the "BEST" of breed basketball officials?
Right now they ignore their mistakes and the result is that things continue to get worse and not better. Everyone should learn from their mistakes and this should be true for NBA officials as well.
Referees can throw players out of a game at any point, I ask - why can't the coaches (maybe twice a season or?????,) get a marginal referee to get more training or see the error of his ways. If they are not given that 'feedback power" the NBA is clearly not interested in having the "BEST" officiating in the industry. And if not - I ask why not?? We the fans expect it, no we demand it!!!
I don't know about you, but I do not like the "wall" that Commissioner Stern and the NBA has put up, that does not allow the most loyal "paying fans" of the game to offer suggestions for improvement. That is a true indicator of the attitude that Commissioner Stern and the NBA brass have towards the loyal fans of professional basketball.
I just wish they "loved the game" as much as us paying fans.
MorgMan