In light of the officiating quality this year, I would be very curious to know about how the NBA manages officiating quality (top to bottom). Is anyone that has the full picture willing to share the processes?
Cheers
Read the Rulebook.
I near spit out my coffee over this title.
You have to HAVE quality assurance to apply quality assurance.
“We’ve investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing”
- The NBA
NBA evaluates referees’ performance after each game with a “game observation report”. These game day observations are provided to referees in bi-weekly performance evaluations. Referees also receive more comprehensive mid-season evaluations from coach surveys and even more comprehensive end of season reviews from the league’s referee operations staff, using input from coaches and data on call accuracy. At the end of the season 36 referees are selected to officiate games in the playoffs. The number of games that referees are assigned to AND their placement among the top 36 has a huuuuge impact on salary, so there is a lot of incentive from their perspective to get things right.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/who-refs-the-nbas-referees/
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-nba-uses-its-data-on-referees/
Every single call made by NBA referees — and many of those not made — is graded by impartial observers, then inputted into a vast database including every official in the league. This data is used in ongoing referee training and development, and it helps in determining ref promotions and playoff assignments. Teams are even given partial access to and are allowed to make some inquiries into specific calls.
also:
Does being “transparent” mean sending a press release every time an NBA official is fined for misapplication of the rules (something that, per multiple league sources, happens several times per season)?
they understandably don’t want to publicize ref punishments and grading.
Fans think the officiating is way worse than it actually is because most fans don’t know the rules. Sure they miss some calls, but people out here acting like they’re missing 40 calls a game.
The biggest problems with officiating in the NBA is the rules, the way the NBA evaluates referees and the fact that some playwrs/markets are reffed differently. I suggest everyone read the L2Ms for an entire season.
The refs are given way too much leeway in application of the rules. The did an action affect SQBR is left open to interpretation by the individual refs. Which leads to wildly different outcomes on different possessions, and different crews. Even in the same game since as you go cross court the reffing responsibilities change. Meaning that when you are on defense different refs are responsible for different areas of the court than when on offense. Which leads to frustrations by NBA players and fans why are touch fouls being called on one side and the refs letting them play on the other side. Then when the 2 min report comes out say all the calls are correct cause both fall within the range of acceptable interpretation.
The NBA does NOT independently score a game. They take the call on the court and each call on the court independently of other calls on the court in their evaluation process. This is an awful way to ensure consistency. They should independently score the best call each play then evaluate the scoring of the refs on that. Speaking of scoring the refs, there isn’t good enough incentives or punishments to get them to be consistent. I think people forget about referee reviews before the seacacus review center. The NBA couldn’t get its refs to apply consistent standards on replay and had to take it out of their hands. So when people argue that there are reffing rewards and punishments… they aren’t good enough they don’t actually work. The ref union is waaaay too powerful.
Finally, the standards ARE different for different players and markets. People are really resistant to this, because they don’t like the implication. I will defer to the players on this… they know this and have been pretty open about it. Andrew Bogut said that his career ended cause when he left the San Francisco market he could no longer get away with illegal screens. Everyone has seen 1 tech Draymond and yet everyone has seen Giannis and Jokic get tossed this year against Detroit.
On average they probably even with their REALLY biased scoring system miss 40 calls a game. We have the l2ms… they definitely miss on average at least 2 in the last 2 minutes which puts the missed call averages at over 1 a min.
Haha NBA management? Good one. They barely know how to manage their own teams, let alone the officiating quality! The only process they have is throwing darts at a board and hoping for the best. Trust me, I’ve seen it in action firsthand. winks
You know hte last two minute report? Well the refs do the whole thing for the whoel game, they just release the last two minutes. Then, Tony Brothers and Scott Foster take the refs in the back and give them a spanking for each incorrect call. Left cheek for INC, right cheek for IC.
One of you nerds needs to train an ai to ref a game.
Narrator: It doesn’t.
One of you nerds needs to train an ai to ref a game.