Overtime | Showing love for basketball referees

Kyle Nelson Columnist

Ever since the first Olympics in Greece, referees have been the bane of the sports fan’s (and participant’s) existence. In Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) country, we’ve known the list of in-conference basketball referees for the past 10 years. When one cycles out, we cross them off the list. A die-hard ACC fan can tell you exactly what kind of call Duke Etzel will make in favor of the University of North Carolina, and what call he will make against your favorite team.

Overall, we tend to complain more about referees than we commend them. Perhaps this is because if a referee calls a perfect game, they are invisible. However, a referee who slips up once immediately falls under the level of scrutiny levied upon solitarily confined prisoners in Sing-Sing. At the Orange Bowl, for instance, passions run so high the Wake Forest side of the stadium would loudly voice their dissent, while the Louisville fans on the other side voiced their solidarity with the officials. Take it from a Wake Forest fan, though—we got robbed by the refs.

So what happens when the officiating leaves the realms of hostile fans, coaches and players? National Basketball Association (NBA) Commissioner David Stern offered us insight into the possible future of all misguided officials just last week, after notorious official Joey Crawford ejected the NBA’s top citizen, San Antonio’s Tim Duncan, out of a season-defining game and allegedly asked Duncan if he wanted to fight.

Stern reviewed the tape and made a judgment: Crawford was indefinitely suspended from refereeing another NBA game. Stern issued the following statement: “Crawford’s handling of this situation failed to meet the standards of professionalism and game management we expect of NBA referees.”

Now, I’m not going to pretend that I like Crawford. I don’t. In fact, he’s up there with Dick Bavetta as one of the most ridiculously biased referees I’ve ever seen. And I also won’t pretend that I don’t love Duncan. I do. I’ve loved him ever since I saw him as a freshman at Wake Forest. However, there is something strange about this situation.

In basketball, unlike in football, there is no opportunity for an official or a coach to challenge a play, and no ability to go back. All an official can do is attempt to atone for his bad call by enforcing a “make-up call” on the other team. Needless to say, this method is rather Draconian at best. In football, a coach can challenge an officiating call and, consequently, figure out if it seemed wrong because of faulty officiating or an unseen circumstance. Thus, the officials never have the power to control a game; the coaches always have two opportunities for addressing their suspicions.

Not in basketball. In basketball, and particularily in the NBA, referees are sometimes as famous as the players themselves. They can single-handedly turn the tide of a game, and because of this, they are in a strange position. Should we punish Crawford for his glaring inconsistency in professional basketball?

As I said before, I rank Crawford slightly above Benedict Arnold on the reliability scale, but I honestly think that the answer should be no. If there will be no attempts to alleviate the pressure on NBA referees (or basketball referees of any level), then why punish them so severely when they get a little bit worked up?

Consider both sides: Crawford has quite the controversial history as an NBA referee, but at least he is outspoken. Duncan complains a lot. He’s famously quiet, but he complains quietly—always has, always will. Do I think that he probably had some choice words for Crawford? Yes. Did both men overreact? Yes. But we all know whom the NBA brass will stand behind. Crawford deserves to be suspended just as Duncan was, but indefinitely? I don’t think so.

Refereeing, from what I have heard and read, is the most stressful occupation in sports. More stressful than taking the game-winning shot is deciding whether or not to call the contact before it a foul. Referees control the flow of the game and must communicate amongst themselves. As I said before, we don’t notice well-officiated games, but we sure do notice the badly officiated ones.

Crawford is a victim just as much as Duncan is. I’ll extend a plea to the NBA to fix the system before it continues to spiral out of control, and that precedes the current refereeing landscape in professional basketball becomes even more of a joke than it already is to coaches, players, and, most importantly, fans.