Explore More
NBA referees are constantly catching backlash for poor officiating and missing blatantly obvious calls.
This leads to social media tirades by fans who become more enraged with each head-scratching call.
In an interview with ESPN’s Sage Steele on Thursday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that referees are in fact penalized for making these mistakes.
“[Officials] are absolutely held accountable,” Silver said on “SportsCenter” on Thursday. “We don’t publicize discipline for officials. We don’t think that would be appropriate.”
Sliver seemed to suggest part of this discipline is grading referees based on their calls which determines if they will be allowed to officiate in the postseason or not.
“Their assignments are affected by the quality of their calls, whether or not they progress into the playoffs and then round by round is impacted by the accuracy of their calls and their demeanor on the floor,” Silver explained. “So there is a system for overseeing and making those judgements about officials.”
One of most recent errors made was a crucial non-call in the last five seconds of the Celtics-Lakers game last month. LeBron James clearly got hacked on his way to the rim but no call was made. Instead, the Lakers went on to lose 125-121 to the Celtics in overtime.
Dennis Schroeder reacts on Instagram to Refs missing a foul on Lebron James in the final seconds of regulation against the Celtics.. does he have a point 🤔 pic.twitter.com/aiArLdlDzh
— hoopsallin (@hoopsallin_) January 29, 2023“I know some people in that particular call … in that Celtics-Lakers game were upset that there was no opportunity for replay,” Silver mentioned. “Many people focused on the coach not having another challenge. But remember in our league, you can’t challenge a non-call. And there’s a lot of difficulty there when you get into non-calls. You could suggest every moment of a game is a non-call when a call isn’t being made in a way.”
Being the commissioner since 2014, Silver has seen the league change quite a bit since he first took over the reigns. He understands that making sure a call is right is the most important thing about the process.
“It’s something we’re going to look at because my personal view is, I don’t mind the challenge system but also think the ultimate goal is to get it right, not put the pressure on the coach in terms of that additional tactic on using their challenge appropriately,” Silver said.
ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3R7j2tmam9flrGiuYysoKWulad6r67AZpuiq5Oeva21zZ6qZqqVm7KzscSsZJ%2BnomKvorCMnJilpKNk