NBA Officiating Can Improve: Here's How

Stifle Complaints

Stop the Flop

Improve the Game

There are two things need to be done for NBA referees to allow them to better call games.  Imagine what the Playoffs could be like with a little rules tweaking.

Problem

First, we need to minimize complaints about calls.  Many refs take much more lip than they should in order to ensure star players stay in the game.  So we see players and coaches running after refs with their arms widespread challenging calls. 

Solution

The refs should be given a less severe technical foul, not unlike the defensive three-second rule.  So if you complain, the ref can award the opposing team’s best shooter a single free throw.  Save the old fashioned “T” for the worst and chronic offenders.

I would like to see one game where no coach or player complained about a call the whole game.  Sweet thought, right?  We want ballers, not bawlers.

Problem

Perhaps the worst development over time has been the “Flop.”  Basketball is a transition game; you need to keep your feet.  But if there is contact anywhere on the floor, someone hits the deck and acts as if he has been seriously hurt.  My favorite is touching the face and checking the finger for blood. 

Flops under the basket, where it is frequently very crowded, is not only poor acting but dangerous.  How many injuries have been made because of someone’s blindly falling backwards into the legs of players.

Solutions

This cancer on the game needs to go and it will take an effort from the top down.  Ownership and management should encourage the coaches and players to stop acting and start playing. 

Coaches and players have the dignity to stop the silliness and stand their ground.  It is no less a charging call if a guy launches into you and knocks himself out. 

And if you do not get the call when you flop, you are taken out of the play.   Too many times, the opposing team gets an easy bucket due to an unsuccessful flop. 

Fans, boo the floppers off the court.  Make some "stop the flop" signs and bring them to the game.  "Sports Center is Next.  Stop the Flop."

Difficult, but not impossible, would be a one-shot penalty for “exaggerating the effects of contact in order to influence the referee’s decision”. 

Also...

If contact from the defender causes a missed shot, a turnover, an interruption to the offensive flow, or if any contact is flagrant, call the foul. Otherwise, play on!

If a foul in the backcourt stops a fast break, play on! We want to see action in the open court. 

If a man is off the ball anytime during the game and is fouled, play on!  Let’s get rid of the Hack-a-Shaq mentality altogether. 

I know why the arc was put in the paint in first place, but I would like to see the game called the same way on 100 percent of the court.  The player with the ball has been given a license to steal when he is inside the arc with the defender. 

Scuttle the arc.  There are way too many three-point plays or bail out free throws where the dribbler throws himself into the defender inside the arc.  Shot blockers are at a huge disadvantage.  Call the game the same way all over the court.

The NBA game is a great game, but it could be better with a few minor changes and it could be a game much less dependent upon the referees.