AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2007 > May > 02
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Racial bias? How about just plain bad?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It took a far-fetched academic study to bring your boy Blog-Z and the NBA’s mouthpiece on officials together.
With respect to the folks at the New York Times and Penn, the league’s lousy officiating results shouldn’t be blamed on race. That’s too easy. That’s the escape hatch I refuse to allow anyone to open in explaining away what is by far (in my eyes) the worst aspect of the pro game.
I like to take the We-Are-The-World approach when evaluating NBA referees. They don’t see color. Truth be told, they don’t see at all most of the time.
They’re simply horrendous. And they prove it most every night when they make calls that didn’t happen and then miss obvious calls that the camera angles make painfully obvious to those of us that spend our nights watching these games.
There was a time when I was convinced that the Boston Celtics got all the calls and my Lakers (hey, I grew up with a father that made sure it was Lakers or nothing so long as Magic and Showtime was on the floor) were consistently getting the shaft from the guys in stripes.
But now that I see the games up close and personal (depending on the arena) for a living, I know better. The officials, for reasons no one can understand since they’re protected better than Angelina Jolie on an adoption mission in Africa, foul up calls on everyone.
I was on the couch last night watching them ruin the end of the Mavs-Warriors game. There’s no doubt in my mind the Mavs were coming back to win the thing. And they deserved to, thanks to the Warriors’ refusal to finish the game off the same way they did when they climbed out of their 21-point hole. But that’s another topic for another day.
There were three calls, though, (all in the final three minutes) two of which the officials missed that certainly could have changed the way the game ended.
They missed a foul by Dirk Nowitzki on a Jason Richardson jumper from the corner. They called Baron Davis for a blocking foul in the air as he was shoved off by Devin Harris (Jimmy Clark motioned for a charge but must have been overruled by Ken Mauer, the guy with the slicked-back hair and the sawed-off Pat Riley look going). The third thing was Mauer’s foolish ejection of Stephen Jackson for clapping as he walked to the foul line late, when the game was already decided.
The officials continue to escape the public scrutiny that everyone else at the game, including the officials scoring crew, dance team girls and mascots, have to endure every night. I think it’s one of the most egregious mistakes the NBA continues to make (shielding their officials from postgame - public - scrutiny). Players can be fined for simply mentioning an official by name, yet the officials are excused from the scene when their mistakes have a direct impact on the outcome of games. It makes no sense whatsoever.
Racial bias, however, is a much too convenient of an explanation for the continuous human error that plagues the game. They’re just plain bad.
Worse yet, they’re threatening to ruin some of the best opening round playoff action I can remember in recent years.
