Fined For Criticism??!!

[sawfer]

Rasheed Wallace of the Boston Celtics was fined for criticizing!!

I mean come on, get real, it was clear that the officials were unable to control the game! Have you even seen the Dallas Mavericks
unfair whistles? this Celtics V Mavericks NBA games (http://www.sawfer.com/nba) are always out of control!!!

[Falcon63]

Yeah, the NBA is very poorly run, in my opinion. I mean seriously, if the refs make constant bad calls, they should be fired. And whenever they screw up, the NBA just covers it up, and punishes anyone who questions them.

[apc]

i just hope that money goes to charity

[deadspot]

Yeah but it's been this way forever, and all the leagues fine players/coaches etc. for criticizing refs. Even when they obviously deserve it. That being said...

Since our post history starts over, I want to take this opportunity to revisit my rant against the purulent state of NBA officiating. Not just for the betting scandal, or the other undertones of corruption rampant within their ranks. No, it's actually because they're the most incompetent, inconsistent, and thin-skinned officials in pro sports. None of them ever hesitates to fly off the handle when a player even dares to look at them askance, tossing out T's like dealers at a card table. They never fail to get emotionally riled up with a crowd's momentum, making terrible calls for the home team at the worst possible times. They live by the rule that two wrongs make a right, and makeup calls are the rule, not the exception.

And on it goes, occasionally making games so frustrating as to be unwatchable. I know they have difficult jobs, with incredibly fast-paced, gigantic individuals constantly bashing into each other and they have to make split second decisions on sometimes fuzzy data, and often with a player or coach whining in their face about every decision. But are those really excuses? The lack of precision and consistency with which they work would not translate into any other profession and be allowed to stand as acceptable performance. And the corollary to that fact is perhaps the only mitigating factor in their existence - that the Law of Averages mandates the havoc they wreak on the game evens out over all participants over time.

That, my friends, is a sad commentary when the only "positive" thing you can say about NBA refs is that they will eventually suck equally for everybody.