The NBA has been full of its ups and downs, from the sudden departure (but later return) of Derrick Rose to the valuable dominance of James Harden. Its expected for NBA players and coaches alike have been on the news front of the Association yet this season we’re seeing something different. A group of remarkable yet questionable people are taking the spotlight of the NBA. These people are THE REFEREES.
The referees have been shadows of the game and they’re the most forgettable people in the league and yet without them, there is no officiating or any rules in the Association. But when you look at them this season, you’ll ask yourself if the referees are doing too much of the officiating or if they taking their decision taking personally rather than professionally.
Not to take anything away from the hardworking individuals but the refs have this way of ruining a game especially at a fans point of view. Take the Carmelo Anthony ejection incident, all Melo did was pull a move that had him sort of elbow Jusef Nurkic but come on! A flagrant 1 would have been appropriate but not a flagrant 2 when Melo didn’t intentionally elbow Nurkic.
And the LeBron James ejection, which saw the very first career ejection of the King, was a simple or rather shaky disagreement between LeBron and the ref. When you look at it in a critical view you can say the ref should have called a technical foul but what did he do? He sent The King back to the locker room in what many saw as an oversensitive decision. We may not know what LeBron had truly said to the ref but it was not a great thing to see LeBron tossed out the game due to a missed call.
However one incident I can back a referee’s decision is the Shaun Livingston. See Shaun was posting up, may have gotten fouled but didn’t get the call. It’s okay to protest the ref’s decision and get back to the game but its not okay to storm to the ref, headbutt him and expect him to change his call. And that’s exactly what Shaun did to the ref and for a professional player like Shaun Livingston it’s not okay to approach the referee like that. So yes, the ref was right to eject Shaun.
We should all understand that referees take a massive toll at making calls in the game and they often take a lot of criticism from fans, critics and even the whole Association. But they don’t deserve to be treated with disrespect from players but they need to open their eyes more and start making proper calls that aren’t based on the players or the teams. However, the tension between the refs and players isn’t old and it certainly won’t stop but let’s hope Adam Silver (the man in charge of the NBA) will take this matter seriously and find a solution for refs and players.
IMAGE CREDITS:
Header – https://cdn.nba.net/nba-drupal-prod/2017-11/nba-refs-huddle_0.jpg
Image 1 – https://usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2017-_oklahoma_city_thunder_at_minnesota_timber.jpg?crop=0px%2C0px%2C3272px%2C1962px&resize=1000%2C600
Image 2 – https://cdn.nba.net/nba-drupal-prod/2017-11/lebron-james-ejection-cavs-heat.jpg
Image 3 – https://clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/24740557_10215042004220978_1182953498_n.jpg
The Baseline 
