SALT LAKE CITY — Any time Jerry Sloan got misty, it was a notable event. But it happened one night in 2003 as he was discussing his seven-game suspension for shoving a referee.
They could have confiscated the $3,000 suits, hand-sewn silk ties, charter flights and luxury hotels and Sloan would have been fine. But a suspension hit him where he lived.
It’s a good thing he’s not coaching today. The NBA has announced plans to use either four or five officials in nine NBA Development League games this year, beginning Dec. 26. The move is a trial balloon to see if it would work in the NBA.
“We are committed to finding ways to better serve our game and provide the highest levels of training for our officials,” NBA director of officials Bob Delaney said. “We are confident in how our three-person system works and are constantly thinking of ways to improve our game. The four- and five-referee initiative is a prime example of that focus and will help the NBA with research and development. The NBA D-League provides the perfect opportunity to conduct this test.”
Looks like the perfect opportunity for disaster, too.
Five refs? Even Sloan would have grown weary of the cursing.
As the NBA explains it, there will be two four-person configurations and one five-person arrangement. Jazz coach Quin Snyder calls the move “great” and compares it to having umpires at every base.
“I know they’re working like crazy at it, so I credit the league,” Snyder said. “That’s what we’re trying to be, always looking for ways to be better. Why not that?”
He points out that change happens, and if nobody had initiated the 24-second clock “we’d be aghast.”
“To me, having been in the D-League, that’s what the D-League is for,” he said. “Why not do more?”
Because sometimes less is more. Teams say they want more vigilance and fewer missed calls. But do they want more stopping? More reviewing? Heaven knows they don’t need two more people huddling by the scorer’s table.
The Jazz Summer league in 2016 included four-person test crews, which must have stirred Snyder’s interest. In Wednesday’s Jazz-Oklahoma City game there was plenty of complaining. Boris Diaw reversed and missed a layup, barking and glaring at referee Derrick Collins during the return down court. Three minutes later, Rudy Gobert was shoved beneath the rim by Steven Adams, but again no call. Snyder chipped away at the refs for those oversights and others, looking like a man wronged.
As long as the NBA is considering new things, maybe it should go the other direction and have players call their own fouls.
Gobert: “That foul was on me! Sorry. I think I deserve a flagrant.”
Russell Westbrook: “No, no, my fault. Really. Are you hurt?”
Adding refs is bound to add congestion, which is too bad. Currently, personal foul calls are down. Other than the lockout-shortened 1998-99 and 2011-12 seasons, no year since 1948-49 have averaged fewer personal fouls than the last five.
Foul calls are going down, even as enforcement could be going up.
Sounds like a recipe for three-hour games.
Sloppy play with no called fouls is ugly. But stop-and-go traffic is worse.
“I think three guys do a great job, but four helps,” said Jazz guard Rodney Hood. “I’m fine with it.”
The Detroit Pistons attempted in the late 1980s to force officials to deal with a team that fouled on every possession. During the back-to-back seasons they won titles (1989-1990), they actually were just 14th and 10th, respectively, in personal fouls committed, making the Bad Boys statistically about average.
But that doesn’t mean they were a clean team; they just wore out the officials.
It’s hard to imagine how more refs would help today. Physical force is down. The dunking is sensational. Outside scoring is rising. Officials need to let the game flow.
If two is company and three’s a crowd, what is five? It’s a committee. When’s the last time a committee improved anything?