Officiating – what can we learn from the NBA?
The Pedowtiz report relating to officiating in the NBA has been released in the wake of recent officiating issues in the NBA. Although it deals specifically with issues of misconduct regarding officiating and betting on games, there are some aspects of it that could prove quite useful for basketball leagues and officials in general, and possibly also for us in South Africa.
Click here to read the Pedowitz Report.
The section “NBA Officiating Program”, starting on page 41, gives a bit of insight into a professional programme.
The sixteen refereeing performance standards (included in the report on page 45) aimed at accuracy and consistency are also briefly described, and shown in the diagram below.
It’s fairly obvious that game officials carry a high level of responsibility, and as any coach would attest, the quality of the officials can drastically impact a game’s outcome. Therefore it is critically important for SA basketball that we develop quality officials along with quality players.
For those interested in the NBA investigation, here is the NBA’s media release following publicaion of the report.
Considering the bad decisions we’ve had over the weekend and the season, this article is relevant. Hopefully we look at the issue of referees, their training in greater detail before we map a way forward for SA basketball.
Ciao, V
just to add on what Vic just said, i believe that our officials (referees and table officials) have relaxed since they know that there are no longer referees being groomed to take over. at the end we are held at ransom by their decision since there are no enough refs.
since when did our refs attend a refresher course or still at that, how many of them follow the changes made by Fiba every year. even at this day, you will have officials who do not know that the last 2 minutes of a game is start stop irrespective of whether its a basket.
hopefully, the 2009 basketball season will see improvements by our officials to match the standard of the games.
Refs
You know what happened this weekend.I was coaching the gals and the refs decided that they wanted to prepare for their next game and left it in the 3rd quarter.Neo thought coaching and playing is hard.Try reffering and Coaching.I HATE REFS.
Kim, Hate is such an angry word! Try despise, that feels good.
Seniors are coming up and I should watch what I say……..I dont hate refs nor do I despise them,I just dont see eye to eye with them SOMETIMES.On a serious note though,I was so embarassed at what those refs did to those ladies and one should refrain from doing things like that.I hope that refs do improve cos its getting worse as we speak.If there will be seniors,you will see some calls out of this world.
if i were you Kim, i’ll keep quite cos you might end up being ejected from your first game at the seniors. which province are you coaching now. i mean there are three provinces involved with you.
Willie
Not forgetting that I was called in to a DC at the last seniors for ‘allegedly’ swearing at a ref during our game against WP.This ref was sworn by the WP coach the whole game and then at the end of the game I tell him that he is useless and then he reports me for swearing him.I am having difficultys with this seniors preparation and which province to choose.
Northern Cape,Free State and Eastern Cape.NC were so scared of running that I just play with them and not coach cos I dont want kids leaving bball cos of my hard training session.The most logical one would be FS,because I have been doing 85% coaching work there and I have actually enjoyed the transition from ladies ball to the Mens game FULL-TIME.Then there is EC,Family,enuf said.I have been trying to build something for the past 5 years and was starting to bear fruit.Yes,Nosipho and Sphokazi are part of that(go UJ).
To spin one back at you,who says I will be given the opportunity to coach one of those teams.I will however be working with the players to ensure that they prepare well.I feel FS has GREAT potential especially WHEN they get Lesego,Simal,Melato,Eric etc to play for their hometown.Same with the ladies ie Seipati ,lesego etc.If I dont get neither job,I will be working hard helping the players individually as quite a number have requested that already.
You can never lose your job as coach….its not a presidential position my brother. Look at whos talking Mr Limpopo/Gauteng?
well, you gonna get offers from the three provinces and maybe including limpopo. am not sure if i’ll be attending the seniors this year and if i am, limpopo is my definate choice. as they say, home will forever be home. atleast they not scared of running (ha ha). Kim, since you know people at BSA, please ask them to have the semi-finals friday evening and finals saturday evening. that is if it’ll help.
we can learn everything,The question must be what can we learn from the NBA as whole,from running the league.I think we need to learn about the structure of the NBA beore we can learn about officiating.The standards are high because it is big francise the are involved in basketball.We need to learn from FIBA not NBA,because we play different rules from NBA.We can only use NBA officiating when we play with NBA rules
Home will be forever home willie…If EC decides to appoint me then I would have many enemies.Imagine that you are a coach and happen to be coaching the whole year in your league and win the league and they go get a coach who no longer is in touch with the players that are currently playing.How would you feel?
I am also looking at the prospect of another coach,coaching and not the same old kim.If I had such a influence on changing BSA seniors schedule dont you think that I would have attended BWB by now.Please Willie,I am not that big.I am a small fry like everybody outthere.Still trying to attend BWB.
I was looking the numerous areas that refs need to cover as per the diagram and was wondering how some of the refs would fair.I had some laughs especially when it came to game awareness and control.I hope that refs could setup an association just like joe suggested for coaches(of which I support)and maybe refs would not have to depend on BSA for any continuos improvement plans for them.Dont get me wrong,I honestly think that there are some good refs outhere that try keep up with whats happening but the majority dont bother.
Although FIBA and NBA are different,I think the ideals would still be the same.Only the rules knowledge would be different.
on the refs, i agree with you that most of our refs don’t bother to learn more. i’ll give you an example, for one Fiba issues a referees manual with updates every year informing everyone about the changes in rules and etc. the manual is freely available on the net. how many do read the manuals and they will even show you diagrams regarding control, movement and responsibilities.
how many a times do we see a referee calling a fast break foul but he is positioned on the other hoop while there will be a referee next to the action. will give you a scenario, 2 weeks or three weeks back we were playing, a ref next to the action calls a foul and goes through all the motions of reporting it to the table. when he is done, one of the graded refs who even ref at african qualifies came from the other end of the court and instructed the table to change the call. obviously i protested and guess what, after the game he comes to me to apologise for doing that.
The best decision was the one I saw this Sunday Ball Addicts vs. Tlou MGI, with 13 second on the clock, Ball addicts score a 3 and are up by 1. MGI has no timouts left and they call a time out, referee blows a time out, Ball addicts rush to the bench, table disputes the timeout, referee asks players to come in. As far as i know this is a technical foul against MGI for calling a time out when they didn’t have any left. I would understand if it was anyother team we would say they did not know but this is Naftal’s team and if anyone knows the rules its him.
Ball addicts bench was closer to the hoop they were defending, meaning their plan of a full court press was interrupted by the time-out mix up, by the time they are setting up MGI is already attacking, Charles attempts a 3 no good Naftal rebounds basket good MGI wins by 1 point.
Their many issue that I see already,this is a typical bribery of refs situation.No one is suppossed to call a timeout besides the table.Only when the table signals a timeout then may the ref signal that as well.I havent gone to my rule book lately but I know that NBA if you have no timeouts and you request one,you will be hit by a tech.With FIBA rules,you cant request Timeout to ref so it would make sense that the table would first check if you have a positive balance on your timeouts and then call it.
In my scenario you wouldnt get a Tech but the game would continue.
Thanks everyone for the comments. From the sound of this discussion, a structured officiating programme would do wonders for our local game.
What concerns me most is reference to a lack of newer referees coming through. Is there hard-evidence of this, and does anybody know the reasons why? Hopefully BSA will be addressing this as part of their new plans, but the fact is there is a long way to go.
As for this article, I believe what we can take from the NBA is the referees professionalism and high standards. Certainly, we would need to follow along the actual FIBA rules since those are applicable, but it would be great to see SA’s referees taught the art of refereeing like professionals. Granted, until our leagues reach the point where referees can specialise and be paid enough to pursue this full-time, it will be a challenge.
Currently in SA, there is already an idenpendent Technical Commission, however, like the rest of bball it is dysfunctional.
This commisssion is independent from BSA and thus acts on its free will, which I find problematic cause there is no oversight from the structures. As a result of this lack of oversight, the commission only becomes active when it suits certain members within the commission and apparently favouritism is prevalent with the members.
Personally, I think that the commission should be subservient to stuctures to ensure accountability. This suggestion is not just my opinion but it is exactly how the FIBA Technical Commission is governed.
Like the PBL, I am of the opinon that the current Technical Commission was organised by disgruntled whites who wanted to maintain control after amalgamation.