The Verdict is in...NBA Refs continue to suck it up

Being a sports fan, I usually enjoy watching games in the company of fellow sports fans. It's not too hard in most sports to find someone who is willing to head to the bar and catch a game with me. But many of my friends won't go near making the trek to watch an NBA game, even if it's in the playoffs. They don't want to watch the refs call a foul every ten or so seconds, or every time a guy flops on the ground. My friends always say that it's not really a game if there's no sense of continuity or freedom.

Well, last night's game between the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic definitely reinforced the ridiculous nature of refereeing in professional basketball. Celtics center Kendrick Perkins was called for two technical fouls by ref Eddie Rush that were at best doubtful. Luckily, the NBA announced today that one of those technicals would be rescinded so that Perkins wouldn't need to be suspended for Game 6. Glad to see that the NBA isn't fully incapable of doing something right.

One constant theme of both of these technicals is that they were made quickly. Unless a guy is sucker-punched, the refs should allow the situation to develop a little more. Do a few swear words really merit impacting the final outcome of a game or potentially even the playoff series? At this rate, NBA coaches might need to introduce my mom's once-famous technique of having a coin (or $100) jar for swearing so that their players can be upstanding gentlemen that always act polite. The NBA is a physically demanding sport. The Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic are two of the more physical teams. There comes a point when the teams need to be allowed to just play the game instead of having the refs decide how every second should be played.



But this issue is about more than just these specific technical fouls. It's about the way that the NBA operates. Why wait until after the game to make such an important decision? Perkins is an integral part of the Celtics team and their efforts to contain Dwight Howard. Without him in the lineup, the Celtics never had a chance, and ended up getting blown out. If baseball and football have review after a certain play, why doesn't the NBA allow the same kind of opportunity for any given situation to reverse a call? We may have to sometimes ask What If's in sports, but the NBA makes this happen much more than it should. Install a time limit to come up with a decision, make that decision immediately after the play has ended, and move on. Not that hard NBA.