The NBA Finals are upon us and it’s time for those band-wagoners to arrive and the Cavaliers fans to finally burn their Heat jerseys. As your social media rants and debates are surely to spark, bashing the other team and the structure of the game, I’m sure at least one post will pop up about the refs favoring the team you aren’t cheering for. We’ve all been there. Your team loses and you need a way to justify the loss. Obviously your team doesn’t suck or else you wouldn’t cheer for them; so there MUST be some other reason they lost! Clearly it was the refs fault: they missed a travel call, they favored the other team, the foul ratio was not equal—the list goes on.
Is it Legitimate to Blame the Refs?
Trust me, as a Boise State fan I know that the refs are always “screwing us over.” I mean, just look at the last second play during March Madness against Dayton…in Dayton (which is never supposed to happen, so this one might even be above the refs’ heads). But can a guy get a foul call?! Obviously there was a vendetta against Boise State because the “little guy” is never supposed to win, right?
Now, to all you haters that will call me a crybaby, a poor sport, a…I think you get it—I have a legit argument that refs can and do in fact alter the outcome of games. It may not always be in obvious situations such as a last-second no-call, but it does happen.
The NBA: Just a Bunch of Babies
As much as I love basketball, I cannot stand to watch the NBA sometimes because of the whining and flopping that goes on. Watching this year’s playoffs I learned that LeBron James cries more than my four-month old nephew.
Even though he was called for 31 total fouls in the last 10 games of the playoffs, it seems that (based on his reactions) he hadn’t committed a single one. On top of that, he feels he is fouled on nearly every play. Now, James isn’t the only crybaby in the game, but when a star athlete is in the spotlight more than others, it’s more noticeable. Even Taj Gibson of the Bulls says he’s “too good of a player” to complain.
Now, I played basketball all growing up and had my fair share of complaining. (My favorite thing to say to the refs: “Don’t you have to touch them for it to be a foul?”). As I got older and started playing intramurals (that’s right—intramurals), I decided that the refs will always “suck” and I just have to accept it and move on. You’d think a grown man that gets paid millions to play a game (LeBron literally makes $70 million a year on contract and endorsements) would have a little more class than a poor college student.
Then again, the league wants the stars to look good to keep the fans happy; so does star power affect how a ref calls a game? We know that star power boosts ticket sales, so do the refs favor a star to make them look better, which makes the crowd happier keeping ticket sales high? I’m not saying they do, but it seems plausible.
Yes, the Refs DO Make Mistakes
The refs may not be as bad as the players make it seem, but they also aren’t perfect. Which is why, I believe, they have implemented reviews in sports because, as long as they have a good camera angle, the camera doesn’t lie.
You can also get a fair vision of the fallibility of the refs by the commentators’ immediate reaction to bad calls. Obviously they aren’t perfect either, but they do have the luxury of reviewing the replay before deciding how bad a ref’s call might have been. But the refs don’t have the same luxury of constant replays, thus they make mistakes constantly.
But Do Refs Realize They Make Mistakes?
Of course they do! Hence, the ‘make-up call’. Ever see a horrible call (or lack of a call) and then a few possessions later they make an even more ridiculous call in favor of the other team? This is a make-up call. For those saying that the make-up call doesn’t exist…it absolutely does!
In fact, economics professor Paul Gift from the Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business and Management did a study on the existence of the make-up call. Gift watched over 1.1 million possessions from 6538 games from 2006-2011. In his observations, he found that there WAS evidence of a make-up call with the most likely source being the offensive foul due to it often being an extremely difficult judgment call.
Not Necessarily the Refs’ Fault
In their defense, it can be difficult to call fouls in any game when there is such a ridiculous amount of flopping going on (just want to point out that LeBron was featured the most in this video). So let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. If you think you can do better, why don’t you put on a ref’s threads and give it a go?
But, this does go to show that the refs can and do alter the outcome of games whether big or small. So next time your friends hate on you for blaming the refs, stand your ground because it may have been the refs’ fault!
