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Old 11-24-2019, 09:03 PM   #1
thehef
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which sport has the best/worst overall officiating?

Which of the major sports has the best, and which as the worst, referees/officials/umps?

My own .02...

1. NHL - Occasionally they miss a hooking or slashing, or call one that's pretty questionable, but they very rarely seem to miss goal/no-goal, and the most part I don't recall many times where I've been amazed by a blown call or non-call.
2. MLB - They do a pretty good on the bases, fair/foul, and on catch/trap, and I'd say about 60/40 correct on (the very difficult) check swings (1st & 3rd base umps). But they are pretty brutal when it comes to the strike zone.
3. NFL - Just too many bad calls or non-calls. I rank them ahead of the NBA because I can pinpoint the reason the NBA is so bad, and it's not acceptable, whereas with the NFL, I have no idea why they are so bad. Plus, in the NFL we have 7 refs needing to keep an eye on pretty much all 22 players at a time, whereas in the NBA we have 3 refs that need to generally keep an maybe half of the 10 players at any given time (as off-the-ball players are typically just running uneventfully or standing there).
4. NBA - By far the worst. I mean, they do a pretty good job on the "who touched it last" and 'foot on or behind the 3-pt line" types of calls, but the real subjective ones - like charge/block/no-call, scrum-in-the-paint stuff, foot-in-the-restricted zone or not, 3 seconds yes/no, and the near-non-existent traveling/palming/carrying-over - they are brutal. Mainly because they make most of those calls by the reputation of the players involved, i.e., "star treatment," which I find very irritating.

Feel free to consider other sports, too.
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Old 11-24-2019, 09:59 PM   #2
Cobra Mgr
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Originally Posted by thehef View Post
Which of the major sports has the best, and which as the worst, referees/officials/umps?

My own .02...

1. NHL - Occasionally they miss a hooking or slashing, or call one that's pretty questionable, but they very rarely seem to miss goal/no-goal, and the most part I don't recall many times where I've been amazed by a blown call or non-call.
2. MLB - They do a pretty good on the bases, fair/foul, and on catch/trap, and I'd say about 60/40 correct on (the very difficult) check swings (1st & 3rd base umps). But they are pretty brutal when it comes to the strike zone.
3. NFL - Just too many bad calls or non-calls. I rank them ahead of the NBA because I can pinpoint the reason the NBA is so bad, and it's not acceptable, whereas with the NFL, I have no idea why they are so bad. Plus, in the NFL we have 7 refs needing to keep an eye on pretty much all 22 players at a time, whereas in the NBA we have 3 refs that need to generally keep an maybe half of the 10 players at any given time (as off-the-ball players are typically just running uneventfully or standing there).
4. NBA - By far the worst. I mean, they do a pretty good job on the "who touched it last" and 'foot on or behind the 3-pt line" types of calls, but the real subjective ones - like charge/block/no-call, scrum-in-the-paint stuff, foot-in-the-restricted zone or not, 3 seconds yes/no, and the near-non-existent traveling/palming/carrying-over - they are brutal. Mainly because they make most of those calls by the reputation of the players involved, i.e., "star treatment," which I find very irritating.

Feel free to consider other sports, too.
I've said I became a bigger NHL fan because I can't tell if the refs are cheating since I'm not familiar with the rules. Until last season's Cup playoffs, I would have no reason to argue with your list.

My take is they all are bad because of reasons specific to them.

NHL - They seem to be arbitrary w/their calls. The calls they do make are most of the time correct. But it seems to me they let a lot go. Why they choose to blow the whistle when they do I still haven't picked up on.

MLB - Their problem is their arrogance. I could take the mistakes. I can't take the egotistical & prideful way they carry themselves. The way they hold grudges over the smallest perceived slight and send players to the locker room if they detect a mental eye roll.

NFL - You've heard me say it before, they are too old. And the league seems to do little to weed out the incompetent. And I can't stand the way they favor some QB's when it comes to hits in the pocket. I can't graze A-Rod's facemask, can't hit Brady too hard, can't fall @ Brees' feet, but I can knock the logo off of Cam Newton's helmet.

NBA - You hit it on the favoritism. It trickles down to the college level as well. Plus they are too old. And they too often anticipate the call instead of actually seeing it.


I think one reason why officials are so bad is because they each, correct me if I'm wrong, are supervised by a career official. I understand the logic behind it. You want someone familiar w/the job & the rules. But it also ends up putting people in charge who overly sympathize w/the ones under them. It is no different when the police have former officers handling their discipline. Then when a real tragedy happens, you hear the offending officer has a long list of complaints & incidents. Why weren't they fired? Cause the ones in charge were too sentimental and empathetic, giving them the benefit of the doubt when it wasn't earned. Somewhere in the chain, they need an outsider or outsiders to bring checks and balances.
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Old 11-24-2019, 11:51 PM   #3
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An average MLB game has about 75 plate appearances. An average NFL game runs about 125 plays. A typical NBA game has well over 200 possessions. When you factor in NBA refs having to constantly run up and down the court and not having the consistent vantage point and limited responsibility the officials in the others have, it's no wonder they can't maintain the same standard. Reffing in the NBA is much, much harder than MLB or the NFL.
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Old 11-27-2019, 05:26 PM   #4
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I haven't watched the NBA since 2005. So I really can't say anything about them. I just don't remember those refs being anything remotely approaching how bad the NFL refs are. But again, I haven't watched the NBA in a long time so I don't know how much it has turned for the worse.
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Old 12-05-2019, 11:17 PM   #5
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I wouldn't say the NHL has the best officiating as much as I'd say it's the least bad
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Old 12-11-2019, 08:09 PM   #6
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Michael Jordan ruined NBA officiating. After a few seasons and multiple games against the Bad Boys, David Stern had to do something to protect the Golden Goose.
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Old 12-29-2019, 01:54 PM   #7
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Ahem.
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Old 12-31-2019, 09:13 PM   #8
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Soccer has the worst. Any British soccer fan will tell you that. Their team has never lost a soccer match. It's always been the referees who caused the loss.
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Old 01-10-2020, 03:46 PM   #9
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I textbook example of terrible NBA officiating:

1) Right in front of the referree, a 6'11", 250 lb dude levels a 6;0", 184 lb guy, not giving the defender space to anticipate the pick, and leaning into him. Again, right in front of the ref. The non-call is bad enough, but it's the least of the officiating blunders in this sequence...
2) Walker lashes out verbally, which would be expected. According to Walker and those around, while profanity was used, it wasn't personal towards the official. Allowing a star player to immediately react after both a hit like that and a non-call that goes against him is what a good referee would do. He should get a little leeway in that situation. That's screw-up #2 on the ref's part...
3) Not walking away and instead immediately tossing Walker for complaining about the hair-trigger 1st T, is the idiot ref's 3rd bonehead move.

This entire sequence of terrible refereeing happened in less than 10 seconds.

While I generally agree with (I think it was) Cobra Mgr that part of the problem with bad refereeing/officiating in most of the major sports is that refs are too old, this might be a case of an official - in this case Evan Scott, in his first year and all of 27 years old - not being experienced enough to handle the situation. Hopefully the NBA will view this as a teachable moment for this knucklehead.

Looking at this sequence in the larger scope, consider if the player was LeBron instead of Walker:

a) LeBron would for sure get the call 9 out of ten times, and 5 of those times they'd go to the monitor to see if the pick was a flagrant foul.
b) On the one time out of then that James did NOT get the call, he'd be allowed to berate the ref much more so than Walker did, without a T.
c) In the unlikely even that LBJ actually got T'd up, no way he'd get immediately tossed for protesting the 1st T.

My vote remains that of the major sports, the officiating in the NBA is BY FAR the worst.
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Old 01-10-2020, 07:09 PM   #10
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https://twitter.com/StoolGreenie/sta...fan-drink-toss

I textbook example of terrible NBA officiating:............

While I generally agree with (I think it was) Cobra Mgr that part of the problem with bad refereeing/officiating in most of the major sports is that refs are too old, this might be a case of an official - in this case Evan Scott, in his first year and all of 27 years old - not being experienced enough to handle the situation. Hopefully the NBA will view this as a teachable moment for this knucklehead.......
The only thing that would cure that is not hiring a ackjass in the 1st place.
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Old 05-08-2022, 07:15 AM   #11
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Seems like a good time to resuscitate this thread to reiterate that NBA refs are the absolute worst. As I texted a friend yesterday, "Every NBA ref is Angel Hernandez."
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Old 05-22-2022, 01:33 AM   #12
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the ones that FIX games. (thank you NBA for admitting that)
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Old 05-22-2022, 12:43 PM   #13
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I only watch NFL and MLB so I can't accurately make a list.

With that said, no matter the sport, guys in their 50s and 60s trying to keep up with athletes in their 20s and 30s just makes no sense to me whatsoever.
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Old 05-22-2022, 03:11 PM   #14
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Officiating is a no thanks business so I am not going to say anything bad about any of them.
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Old 05-22-2022, 03:29 PM   #15
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I feel like the NBA asks its refs to do more than my other sport, so it’s a tough comparison. I also think that unlike MLB umps, when they’re asked to officiate differently or change their interpretation of a rule, they are far, far more likely to do than MLB umps. Personally I find myself scratching my head at a bad call with baseball more than anything else, I think, although I think they do a good job outside of calling balls and strikes. I think the NFL does fine but they change rules a lot so they get a lot of flak.

My rankings are probably like…

1. NFL
2. NBA
3. MLB

I can’t speak for hockey because I don’t watch hockey.
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Old 05-30-2022, 05:12 PM   #16
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The refereeing in last night's Celtics/Heat game cemented the NBA's refs as the absolute worst. Even the guys doing the reviews got 'em wrong...

What's strange to me is that some of the really tough & close calls, where it's not even obvious to the live eye that a player nicked the other guys arm on a jumpshot, or nine hands were mixed up in ball deflected out of bounds... these refs get so many of those calls correct. But they botch so many of the other ones... especially the block/charge calls. Those seemed to made on a whim or reputation... and the replay challenges don't even get them right often enough.
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Old 06-07-2022, 05:05 PM   #17
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The refereeing in last night's Celtics/Heat game cemented the NBA's refs as the absolute worst. Even the guys doing the reviews got 'em wrong...

What's strange to me is that some of the really tough & close calls, where it's not even obvious to the live eye that a player nicked the other guys arm on a jumpshot, or nine hands were mixed up in ball deflected out of bounds... these refs get so many of those calls correct. But they botch so many of the other ones... especially the block/charge calls. Those seemed to made on a whim or reputation... and the replay challenges don't even get them right often enough.
I vaguely remember hearing that this season the NBA referees were going to change the way they make those block/charge calls. They would no longer automatically give the player on offense the call, as they had been doing. If the player with the ball initiated contact, an offensive foul would be called.

But I see that there has been no change. I've seen so many cases where the defender is outside the restricted area, and stationary, and the player with the ball just runs inti him, but the player with the ball still gets to shoot free throws.

This is of special interest to us in Cleveland, because our Kevin Love is very good at putting himself in a position to take charges, but as often as not he gets called for the foul.

And then of course there is the situation where one player is dribbling, the defender is in front of him with arms extended, and the player on offense just lowers his shoulder and slams into the defender, over and over...that, to me, should be an offensive foul.

Based on these things, I would say the NBA has the worst refereeing. The NFL is only slightly better because of the absurd way pass interference calls are handled. These days, it seems, if a safety even looks at a receiver, it's pass interference.
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Old 06-07-2022, 06:04 PM   #18
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I think the NBA needs to tweak the rules somehow to where the whole block/charge becomes a call that rarely needs to be made. I don't know exactly how they'd do that, but IMO it's a really ugly part of the game, both from an aesthetic perspective and the inability for the refs to consistently get them right (not to mention that - on challenges - the replay guys can't get them right).

Two of the worst types, IMO, are a) moving screen calls (less so are the non-calls because at least the action continues) and, 2) where the defender - usually a secondary one - moves his body into the path of a offensive player (sometimes an already airborne one) at the last possible moment for the sole purpose of taking a charge.

Again, I don't know how exactly this would work. The following are not to be taken too seriously, but just as possible examples:

- Disallow any screens where either foot of the screener is outside the offense's three-point line. ("Down-low" screens where guys are running the baseline are less-annoying that those "up-high" screens, IMO.)
- Disallow a secondary defender from being able to draw a charge call within the paint.
- Direct to the refs that most block/charge calls should be "play on" unless there's an obvious and violent collision and the fault of one player is also obvious.

I'm not saying these would be ideal, but the first one would benefit the defense and second would benefit the offense, with the third one presumably being a wash. So there's at least a tradeoff. And with those first two things being disallowed, players would surely attempt those maneuvers much less frequently, resulting in significantly fewer plays to be evaluated for a potential block/charge call.

Just my .02
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Old 06-07-2022, 06:58 PM   #19
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Not sure about current NBA guidelines but the palming, traveling, and dislodging the defensive player from his position calls make watching basketball painful . Bill Russell would be worthless in today's game . Wilt would likely be scoring 100 points on average per game ....... Basketball use to have 2 officials - now 3 >> maybe 4 are needed but they still have to make the calls by the rules -- and they just do not.
NFL , I ask what are the rules . DB's no contact after 5 yards -- yet on every play there is "hand" fighting all the time downfield both offense and defense ......
MLB --- umpires have always been part of the game but they call the rules ,,,, Umpires have followed the rules and gotten in trouble > George Brett homerun with foreign substance is an example . And the new rules make it a joke -- you hit the ball where the defense isn't . *** the "k" zone at the Houston ball park looked like a box on TV last night
NHL - they need an official around each goal all the time - and enforce the crease.

Bad officials -- golf ------ soccer ....
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Old 06-07-2022, 09:42 PM   #20
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Not sure about current NBA guidelines but the palming, traveling, and dislodging the defensive player from his position calls make watching basketball painful.
Agree, and I would love to see the NBA at least interpret and enforce palming and traveling to the degree that the NCAA does. But that's never gonna happen because I don't think the NBA would agree it has a problem in this area (fans in the key demographics pretty much love all the shenanigans that go along with palming and traveling), whereas I think they'd admit that the block/charge stuff is neither consistently interpreted & applied, nor an attractive part of the game.

Speaking of traveling, there was a play a few weeks ago near the end of the 3rd quarter of game 6 between the Celtics & Bucks (the replay was shown with about 28 seconds to play, but the play itself occurred with about 36 seconds left in the quarter)... This play is a glaring example of how poor (and/or biased towards great players) NBA referees are: Giannis had the ball just beyond the free throw line and went into one of his patented spin moves to the hoop. As I recall, all three blabbers - J Van Gundy, M Jackson, and Breen - gushed over the move as it happened live, and then on replay, JVG gushed some more... At any rate, it wasn't just that Giannis traveled, it was the degree to which he did so. The only question was whether he took five or six steps (upon multiple reviews of the replay, I can't determine which). But not only was this a "no call," the announcers - even on replay! - thought it was a great play ("What a spin! And extension!!" said JVG). Absurd.

This is not an example of a difficult rule to interpret or a close call. It was 5 steps! Minimum! How do three referees miss something as obvious as this?
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