NBA Officiating: Worst of All Major Sports?

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2009-06-01T18:32:00-04:00

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659 3281  We all know NBA officiating has its problems, but is it really the worst?Dan Bickley, in a <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/2009/05/26/20090526spt-bickley.html">recent article on azcentral.com</a>, touched on the sorry state of NBA officiating.  There was also an online poll in the article that asked the question "Which major sports league's officiating is the best?"   As of the date I write this article 1,931 people have participated in that poll, and the results are:   NFL: 45.68%   MLB: 39.41%   NHL: 12.74%   NBA: 2.18%   The NBA only mustered 2.18% of the vote?!  Now let's put this poll in perspective, here.  The majority of the participants in the poll were most likely Suns fans, and it's no secret they're not exactly fond of NBA officials or the NBA front office, especially since Robert Horry's infamous body check of Steve Nash and subsequent suspensions of Amaré Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for leaving the bench area.   Phoenix Suns fans trust NBA officials about as much as they trust a scoop of ice cream not to melt into a gooey mess within minutes on a hot Phoenix summer day.   Still, only 2.18%?   It makes me wonder what the vote totals would be in a national poll.  I have to believe that even though the percentages might be different, the order would be the same.   Bickley noted:   "During the regular season, [Lebron] James averaged only 1.7 fouls per game while playing an average of 37.7 minutes. That's remarkable. He also received 22 first-place votes for defensive player of the year, an award that normally requires physical, aggressive play. Yet James never had more than four fouls in any of the 81 games he played during the regular season."   (I must admit, I was happy when Orlando destroyed the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals. I was sick and tired of all the Kobe-LeBron hype.  But I digress.)   Contrast that with STAT (Amaré Stoudemire).  I don't have the specific numbers, but sometimes it seems that if he looks a guy funny, he gets called for a foul.   I was listening KTAR on the way to work one morning, and Ron Wolfley did point something out that really stood out to me.  He said that basketball is the most difficult sport to officiate.  I would have to agree.   Still, is there not something that can be done about the blatantly obvious problems?  If the fans don't trust the officials, how do you think the players and coaches feel?   Yet...for all the problems, us basketball fans keep coming back for more!  Why?  Because darn it, we love this game.   Maybe, if we really love it that much, we need to stay away from it for a while until Stern and Co. get a clue. 0.0.0.0