Last week, we learned that our beloved NBA was the latest major sports organization connected with match fixing. You can sure as hell bet on the fact that the last thing David Stern wanted was to be associated with the mafia, fixed gambling, and crooked refs. Since then, much has been said and written with most agreeing that this was a collosal development, yet not very shocking. I personally knew something was wrong when every NBA ref seemed to be an old Italian-American with an attitude. True NBA fans will deeply be hurt by this scandal and think back at past times trying to think whether any of it was actually real. Eventually they will realize this was a good development - like finding out your fiancee was cheating on you.
In fact, dear basketball fans, this was the best thing that could have happened. The improvements you will see in the NBA resulting from this will be monumental - if theres one thing that gets the Sternminator fired up, even more so than brawls, poor ratings, and hiphop culture - its the integrity of his precccciousss league. No only will he want to make changes, he will have to - so at least to the public, it looks like he's doing his best. Here are the 5 improvements that the NBA should and must see.
NBA Cleanup
1) New Refs: Finally its time to cleanout the dinosaurs still left in the NBA and bring in some new blood. I've always wondered why the average NBA referee age was on par with my grandfathers. Surely, eyesight, stamina, and being able to relate to players' psychology (old people forget what its like to be young and crazy) should favor younger people as refs. The League probably rates this 'experience' thing too much, and to be honest refs have made countless mistakes at critical stages of the game, so that point is moot in my book. Furthermore, the longer a ref stays in the league the more of a subconscious bias he builds against players, teams and specific plays. Im not talking about unconscious racial bias, but about histories with certain teams and organizations. A referee who made a mistake against one team might be much more leniant next time a huge play occurs, a ref might not like a certain player due to past games and be less leniant. Like Gilbert Arenas claims to do, players can even analyze refs and see what trends certain refs show, and play accordingly. So, a ref should not stay in the league too long.
New, younger refs will try their hardest to ref the perfect game and stay a NBA ref. Rumour is that all the current refs are quite close to eachother and it is time to break this closed circle apart, time to split the gang. Competition, and having to be at your best to keep your job will most definitely improve officiating as a whole.
2) Transparency: The Turkish football league can be a good example to build on for the NBA. An official watches every game from the stands and rates a referee's performance. Those who score low points do not get to ref as many games. Those who score really low even get a suspension and are taken off refereeing all together for a certain time. These ratings are made availably to the public even. Every week there are a couple dozen TV shows focusing simply on replaying certain calls in that weeks games and analyzing whether the correct decisions were made. Of course ex-refs are in the studio to give 'expert analysis'. In the end, everything is out in the open and much like a player, a ref's actions have consequences and his future relies on his performance.
3) Freedom of Speech: What is up with the NBA and fining players/coaches/GM's for statements they give the press after games. Doesn't this seem abit like communism? Players/Coaches lives are altered by decisions of refs, you would think that they would have the right to voice their oppinion. With the recent developments, the League has no longer any rights to suppress the oppinions of its employees. If you were cheated by your company, wouldn't you feel like you had the right to at least complain about it!
4) Infinite Tolerance Policy: The Stern tyranny introduced a zero tolerance policy at the begninng of last season. This was a way that Stern felt he could keep his trouble-prone players in check and make the game more viewer friendly. Well that was obviously an unforgivable error, but perhaps he had the right idea. However, instead of making the players have no rights on the court it is time to take away that bulletproof vest and crown away from the refs. You look at football, and players yell, scream, and swear at referees without remorse. While there should be limits, it is time to put a stop to this nonsense where referees continiously take center stage. I dont want to hear referees names anywhere, anytime, for any reason. I don't want to see them in allegations, I dont want to see them running in races against ex-players, and I sure dont want to see them teching people up for looking at them the wrong way. They are just there to make sure the game progresses correctly, they need to stop acting like prom queens and getting upset at anyone who doesn't suck up to them. I saw far too many ejections last year, especially in the playoffs and against Golden State. I want to see some proper basketball, and not some middle-aged man in stripes shitting all over it.
5) Fixing the 'stupid' rules: While we are dealing with officiating, we might as well cleanup those rules that just make no sense. The Diaw-Amare suspensions and the 'stepping onto the court as a benchplayer' rule must be changed, that is clearly overdue.
Also, no one except Gilbert Arenas and Dwyane Wade can be happy about the amount of small contact fouls that are called. The search for MJ still continues, but the true heir will never be someone who benefits largely from such tight officiating.
Of course, no one has forgotten the constant fouling of Ben Wallace/Shaq at the end of games fiasco either, I hope. One weak area of a players game should not be enough to force him not to play. Intentionally fouling someone, shouldnt be a way to not only get back in the game but take out the most dominant player to ever play the game.
Last and perhaps least, what is up with the semi circle. I like people getting posterized as much as the next guy, but do we really need to alter game rules to make this possible. There's a reason why FIBA aka 'basketball without the stereoid-like entertainment injections', does not employ this rule. What's next, are we gonna have mini trampolines on different parts of the court?
Whistle has been Blown
Like I said, many good things will happen to the NBA. Perhaps the most important one being that we won't be forced to tear out our hair in frustration over the many non-basketball related fallbacks associated with the NBA. With the proper foundations and infrastructure back in place (rules, refs, policies) we can focus on just enjoying the game. The NBA might see yet another drop in ratings, and refs overall might suffer over all, but that's not something for us to worry about. I wouldn't even support a wage increase for refs, as suggested by some - like $200,000 is not enough salary to have the best nonseat in the house every game. In fact, I may even decide to take up that dream of being an NBA ref afterall.
3 comments:
You see, Tutkish and Greek people aren't so didderent! It's always about the ref. There have been times I was ten minutes late for the sports program, and then I would watch for 4 hours and not even get to see the goals in the Derby (except if they were disputed over, fior a ref nmmistake). Perhaps we should clone Stern, and have him referee every team sport event in the planet!
Haha yea the extreme and obsessive referee analyzing can get annoying and tedious, but at least there is transparency and people can voice their oppinions. This way a referee would have to be crazy to not try to ref a game properly - and hence avoid being in television/newspaper headlines for the next week.
Week? Back home, they stiil make fun of a erf that got beaten for an AWFUL game he had in 1992! It's more than an obsession, it's clear cut madness. And when the money is that much, people might say the hell with it and just go for the cash
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