NBA Refs

I had to take a break from studying to get something off my chest. What I have to say is simple: the refs in the NBA are by far the worst of any professional league.

Today I watched the Bulls play the Pistons. A great game, which, unfortunately, was decided by the refs in the end. In the fourth quarter, with the score tied 93-93, Billups pulls up for a jumper. He misses the shot, but for some reason, which at the time was unclear to me, Webber was wide open for the putback. When looking at the replay it became quite evident why there was no one near him: he completely pushed off his man, P.J. Brown, with two hands and arms extended. The whistle must have conveniently malfunctioned, because the replay also shows the ref no more than 5 feet away, staring directly under the basket. The Pistons went on to win the game 95-93 and the Bulls had another game stolen from them, the first being when they hosted Toronto before the All-Star break. In that game, they did make the call under the basket in the final seconds, but this time it was agianst the Bulls. I had no problem with the foul, in fact it was refreshing to see a call being made that everyone knows is not 9 times out of 10. But then Gordon comes down and goes up for the jumper to tie the game, gets bumped into the first row and the whistle once again remained silent.

Maybe I'm coming off as biased right now, being that I'm a Bulls fan, but they get the short end of the stick more times than not. And I'm not the only one complaining about the incompetency of the NBA refs. Believe it or not, Marc Cuban is right about them. They stink, period, and I'm sick of them deciding games in crucial moments. For the health of the league there needs to be a different referee-evaluation process put into place, because if things like the end of the Bulls-Pistons game continue David Stern will have a full-blown mutiny from the players and their union in a few years. Jason Kidd put it best when he said it's like three blind mice running around out there.

There, I got that out. I feel better now. Back to studying...