How the NBA Responded to My E-mail About Officiating

I decided to write an e-mail to the NBA about the officiating.

NBA.com has a "contact us" section and I've used it before, but never had a response until now.

To put it into context I was frustrated that the refs did nothing to fix a situation that happened in Utah.

During the game a fan clearly blows a whistle.

Nine players stop, thinking there was a foul call. The only one who did anything was Kyle Korver, who had an easy dunk.

Here's a clip of the incident.

My belief is that since the Warriors are a young team, they do not get the respect from the officials. If the Jazz were playing an upper-echelon team you can guarantee that the play wouldn't have gone on, and they would assess the Jazz fans a technical foul, plus find the loser who had the whistle and ban him from the building for the rest of the year. 

Here's my e-mail to the league :

Here's a clip of something interesting basically I sent that same clip to the league:

"If you need someone to explain what happened well as Ronny Turiaf made his move to the basket someone it the stands in Utah blew a whistle. Every player on the court stopped except for Kyle Korver who had an easy dunk. Did your officials do anything to fix the situation? No.

This is why the NBA is a joke because the younger teams in the NBA get no respect from officials.

The refs from this game should be fined and suspended for at least one game. Letting the play stand is what the problem is. Oh by the way the Jazz were already warned earlier about the whistle, yet is still happened. Should have been a technical foul called on the Jazz and the ball back to Golden State.

It doesn't help the case for people who believe the NBA is a conspiracy that the veteran teams or the more talented teams get the beneficial calls.

The NBA's response to my letter went like this:

Dear Steven, 

Thank you for contacting the National Basketball Association with your concerns regarding the integrity of the game. The NBA’s highest priority is to ensure that every game is determined on its merits, thus providing its fans with an honest and truly competitive league. 

The NBA has a covenant with its fans. To preserve their trust, we make every effort possible to ensure that league processes and procedures are as thorough and transparent as possible.   

We take seriously the actions of our coaches, players and officials both on and off the court. Each issue is reviewed and addressed appropriately as we continually work toward delivering the best possible NBA product.   

NBA officials are the most measured and metricized group of employees in the world.   

1)        We hold our officials strictly accountable for their actions, but we also understand in that failing from time to time only makes them human. 
2)        Complete integrity and honesty is used by NBA officials in trying to referee perfect games, but falling short of perfection only makes them human. 
3)        They are faced with performing best officiating job in the world under the most difficult circumstances, and missing a correct call only makes them human. 
4)        We track every call made by all NBA officials to continually develop their abilities, with the understanding that their mistakes only make them human.   


Thank you again for your concern.  We appreciate your feedback regarding this issue. 

Sincerely, 

NBA Fan Relations

So here's my thought on the four points in the letter that they brought up, which I definitely understand.

The play itself wasn't a close call, a foul that could go either way like on a blocking foul or charge. This was about a fan blowing a whistle in a game that had already been warned about not doing it. 

Second point, I get it—no one is perfect. But the refs in the Utah game could have easily fixed the situation; instead they did nothing about it. This has nothing to do with perfection—it's about doing the right thing. 

Third point was about missing a correct call because they are human. Yes, I do realize they are human, but in actuality there was nothing to miss. There was a whistle; everyone stopped—including all three refs and only Kyle Korver did anything. 

The situation should have been a technical foul on the Jazz for ignoring the warnings. It's almost like how in baseball when fans starting throwing things on the field the umpires will call the game a forfeit. 

The last thing I already knew because it's said on almost every NBA broadcast about the critiquing of referees. Okay, my original thought of suspending them might be a little harsh, but a fine should be handed down to the refs. 

At least some sort of punishment because as mentioned before this was a play that should have been halted immediately. I could understand allowing Korver to dunk the ball, but the points should have not counted. The refs should have then had a conference and the issued the technical because the fans were already warned. 

I guess the NBA officials are like the parents who have a child who wants a toy, but they say no. So, the child takes it upon themselves to start making a scene until the parents finally give the child what they want. In this case, the refs' threat was just for show because they didn't do anything either.