Where INCONSISTENCY Happens...

Anyone who watched Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Cavs and Magic last night know exactly where this blog will be going today.

Officiating in the NBA is broken. Badly. And it has to be fixed before fans start to believe the outcome of NBA games is determined the same way they are in the WWE: based on ratings and popularity.

Now don't get me wrong. I am NOT one of the conspiracy theorists that believes the NBA assigns officials to a specific game in order to try to dictate a specific outcome, nor do I believe that NBA officials are crooked or that games are fixed.

What I am saying, however, is that the officials have become so inconsistent and so accustomed to anticipating the outcome of plays that the integrity of the game is being jeopardized as a result. Last night's game provided a plethora of examples that help to prove my point. The most glaring was the foul called on Dwight Howard late in the 4th Quarter. Howard cleanly blocked LeBron James' three-point attempt, but was whistled for a foul. Replays from every angle plainly showed that the block was clean. There was no contact with LeBron. Why was the foul called? Because it looked like a foul. And because the player shooting was LeBron James. And I haven't even mentioned the non-foul call in the waning seconds of a game in the Denver/Dallas series where the NBA admitted the officials made a mistake - a mistake that likely cost Dallas the game.

So why is this happening? I think I have a likely answer.

Not too long ago, it was rare to find more than a handful of NBA players that could make highlight-reel plays. And even those players didn't do it more than a couple of times a game. But NBA athletes are now bigger, stronger and better than ever. A play that would have led SportsCenter 10 years ago might not even make the "Top 10 Plays of the Day" today. Dwight Howard can dunk on a 12 foot goal. A 12-foot goal! So why is it so hard to believe that he could block a LeBron James jump shot without commiting a foul?


Examples of blatenly blown calls exist in virtually every NBA game. I doubt that can ever be fixed because officials are human. But that's not the real issue with NBA officiating.

The real issue is inconsistency. Inconsistency around which violations are called, when violations are called and on whom those violations are called. I would wager that if you secretly polled NBA players, coaches and general managers that they would overwhelmingly cite inconsistency in officiating as the biggest issue facing the NBA today.

Just what, exactly, is inconsistent with NBA officiating? Here are few examples. You don't need a specific game reference. Take the video from any NBA game this season and I guarantee you will see every one of these examples called a different way at different times of the game.

1. The "hip check" illegal screen. In my opinion, this is the one foul that is called most inconsistently. I don't think anyone minds the offensive player making a little slide after setting the pick, but when he throws his hip into the player chasing the ball, that's a foul. Every damn time. But I've yet to figure out what criteria officials use for calling the illegal screen. If you can figure it out let me know.

2. The hand check. The rules about the hand check are very simple. If you use two hands on a player who doesn't have the ball, that's a foul. Yet, time and time and time and time again, we see this called when the ball is at the point and the play hasn't even started to develop while the bigs under the basket are involved in a sumo match for 42 minutes without a single whistle. And then, for no apparent reason, somebody gets called for the hand check in the paint with the game on the line.

3. Traveling. Now, I'm not talking about the extra step that everyone complains about. In fact, in most cases video shows that on the plays where people think a player traveled, he usually did not. No, what I'm talking about is the player that receives a pass on the wing while moving, takes two steps after catching the ball then changes pivot feet before taking a dribble. Now, I couldn't care less if they call that traveling or not. But what I DO care is that they call it the same way every time, every game.

So I've listed three examples that I promise you will see called differently in each of the remaining games of the NBA playoffs. But what's even more infuriating is that you're going to see each of those examples called differently within each of the games yet to be played. There is absolutely no excuse for that. A foul in the first minute of a game should be a foul in the last tenth of a second of a game. A foul called against the 12th man on the Clippers roster should be a foul when Kobe Bryant commits it. A non-call today should be a non-call tomorrow.

The only way the NBA can fix this issue is to first admit that the issue exists. At that point, the rules committe can determine how to address these issues. I think that one factor that the NBA is unwilling to admit is that speed and finesse of today's game has passed many of the veteran NBA officials by. They may know the rules and more importantly the intent of the rules, but they cannot accept that the skill of the players has advanced beyond the skills they saw when they were rookie officials. As a result, the whistle blows when it shouldn't because their years of experience with players of lesser skills leads them to believe a violation must have occurred. They are letting the NBA of the past interfere with the NBA of today.

Officials are human. I know. I was an amateur umpire for 26 years, and I know that I never called a game where I didn't make at least one mistake. But the one thing I always strived for was consistency. A strike in the top of the first inning was a strike in the bottom of the ninth inning. The NBA should demand the same of its officials, and should replace those that can no longer meet that standard.

The best athletes in the world deserve the best officials in the world. It's time for the NBA to do whatever it takes to make that happen.