They make bad calls all the time but they do not fix games.

Do refs impact a game? Yes. Are they the ONLY thing that impacts a game? No.

Game 3, Dirk had a chance to tie, but missed a free throw. Game 5 Josh Howard uses a timeout in between free throws instead of after the second to advance the ball. The refs were god awful in that series. They played a big role in that series, but championship teams rise above that.

If the NBA was rigged, then why would they have a team like San Antonio be this dominant? The Spurs have won championships and there is no talk of referees? Did the nba just all of a sudden not want to rig those games? No. The Spurs just played better than all the other teams.

Frok, bulls***. Whether you believe it's fixed or just an inherent bias, you can't possibly watch some games and not see it from time to time. Sacramento/lakers 2002 being the most obvious.

wouldn't work on my phone, but I got it to work on my computer.

[This message has been edited by TajMaballer (edited 5/26/2014 1:15p).]

I don't know how to post a gif, but a gif that I found replaying the patty mills offensive foul showed the ref watching the shot and once the ball went in he called the foul.

Wow DC. I don't have any words for that. I had pretty much blocked out those games (plus I was drunk and with a lady friend while watching them if I remember correctly). I didn't get to watch the game last night, were the calls in that 3rd that bad? Complete lack of contact by at least 1-2 feet bad? I cannot believe that this kind of **** would happen to us AGAIN against the same ****ing team. And you know the Thunder will not get a free throw parade against the Heat. They would lose that series. Again.

Harden sells the contact, but the Manu offensive foul call was right. He keeps his elbows up high and put himself in a bad situation. The other calls weren't very good, but the person who put that video together is just putting together calls against the Spurs. The same Spurs who benefit from calls LIKE EVERY OTHER TEAM!!! You can't seriously sit there and say that the Spurs have never gotten the benefit of the doubt from refs?

The Spurs are still the best team left in the playoffs and will probably win it all this year because they don't let calls from the ref get to them. Pop will have those guys ready to play tomorrow and focus on not getting out rebounded and playing with more energy. We will all forget this game if the Spurs win and start up more threads if they lose saying that the NBA is rigged.

[This message has been edited by TajMaballer (edited 5/26/2014 1:31p).]

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And for the overly dramatic troll attempt, were you paying on texags during Mavs-Heat for Wade's FT parade? I bet we could find some serious dramatization there.

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I'm assuming this is directed towards me but I don't exactly know what you are talking about

Why is it that Spurs fans say Rockets are the only ones that biatch about the refs, yet this exact thread appears every year with spurs fans convinced the league is out to destroy them? Seems a bit hypocritical, but carry on

the free throw disparity was simply a rare anomaly. the game was called fairly. the better team won

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They make bad calls all the time but they do not fix games.

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Hmmmm....we know of at least one that got caught.

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the free throw disparity was simply a rare anomaly. the game was called fairly. the better team won

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Rook obvious troll is obvious.

spurs homer is obvious too

So is this rook DC's psycho internet stalker or someone else?

Typical butthurt spurs fans, the refs are out to get us

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So is this rook DC's psycho internet stalker or someone else?

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Nah CJ I think this rook is just some other random dumb ass that is trying to troll.

I'm not a butthurt spurs fan, I was just curious if I wasn't the only one noticing alot of free throws last night taken by the thunder. The spurs didn't play well at all, and that's why we lost.

I'd have more sympathy for the Spurs had I not listened to them ridicule/dismiss the Mavs claims after 2006.

NBA is now Monday Night Raw...

Yes the NBA has always encouraged refs to swing games certain ways. And I'm not a Spurs/Mavericks/Rockets fan. Just the way it is in the NBA.

Welcome to what us Dallas fans have known since 2006.

Of course the rest of the board took great pleasure in trolling the Mavs fans with tin foil theories, but this is somewhat vindicating.

Every level of basketball has this same discussion going on.
Refs (in UIL or NCAA or NBA) want certain teams to advance, and leagues in some way incentivize the refs to do what is good for the league.


It is the greatest conspiracy theory going.



Look, I have enough of a posting record on here to show my extreme frustration with officiating, including an ongoing thread over who my least favorite official is at the current moment. I've also repeatedly stated my frustration with the way NBA officials call touch fouls out top, maul ball goes underneath, and extreme frustration that flopping still gets rewarded and rarely penalized.

The Ken Mauer 34 to 3 free throw game (Lakers v Grizzlies) was BS. And I was extremely P.O.'d after ZBo got the one game suspension for a closed fist push on Adams going into game 7 of the series.

But if I believed there was a conspiracy, I wouldn't watch.
If you really believe it then you also have to wonder why we never got to see Kobe v LeBron, or you have to also believe that Jordan got to be great because of NBA officials, not his hard work and talent.

Also, 3 of the 4 top teams right now are in Indiana, OKC, and SA. And 2 of the next 5 might be Portland & Memphis (along with Houston, GSW, and LAC). Those aren't exactly hot media markets.


I just think it is bias, and I think the way the game is set up makes it too hard for the refs to call right now.

But no conspiracy.


[This message has been edited by Iowaggie (edited 5/27/2014 4:43a).]

[This message has been edited by Iowaggie (edited 5/27/2014 4:45a).]

I really doubt there is a conspiracy on a grand scale, but the data fully supports that the best players get more calls. We have seen this trend skewed by a large margin throughout series, so it at least is a question worth asking. Is that due to individual bias in refs, who give these best players or teams the benefit of the doubt since they are supposed to be the best players? Also home games typically favor the home team, again is that individual bias or because the refs don't want to upset the home crowd?

I mean the NBA had a ref get caught betting on games, so to assume this isn't even in the realm of possibility probably means you have your head in the sand.

Again, I don't think it is blatantly swayed towards specific teams, but there is huge swings in who wins and who loses based on the refs. As a fan, you are left hoping that the refs don't screw you that night. There is no other sport where I feel this way.

The lack of consistency with officiating is my biggest frustration with the NBA.

I think with the technology we have available now, there is no reason we can't have a panel of refs watching on screens not even on site so they aren't skewed by the home crowd. They don't even need to see the score or time available in the game. If over 60% or so push the bottom making a call, then an automatic whistle blows. If not then the game goes on. Have one or two refs on the court to deal with the clock and ball placement.

Have the panel graded out to keep the best panelists on and ditch the rest. That way the nba fans aren't going into games scouting the officiating crew as much as the teams. There is no reason this couldn't happen and the money saved on travel would probably make something like this more cost effective as well. This would probably lead to less fouls called overall, but more importantly consistency throughout the games and among players which would be great for the game.

I've said for years that every major sport needs to keep their refs accountable. I believe the MLB has a review after every season and if an umpire misses too many calls they're no longer employed by the MLB.

The NBA reviews their officials frequently as well, but nothing changes. The only material result of the reviews is a few extra travel calls the first couple weeks of the regular season.

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Why is it that Spurs fans say Rockets are the only ones that biatch about the refs, yet this exact thread appears every year with spurs fans convinced the league is out to destroy them? Seems a bit hypocritical, but carry on

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I dont know whether I buy into the conspiracy or not. I dont know that the NBA wants certain teams to make it to the finals rather than just have ultra competitive series and more buzz, such as the buzz that comes off of poorly officiated games.

It takes a huge toll on the game, and once the Spurs dynasty comes apart, I likely wont watch the NBA at all other than the occasional spurs game. If you dont have a rooting iterest, the games are actually kind of boring. We know that most every game is going to be close with about 6 minutes left. Then if your team is up, you are just going to be watching free throws on one end and the other team driving and getting fouled on the opposite.

Recently, we've had consistent foul disparities with only one team: the ****ing OKC Thunder. Even against the Heat in the finals last year I felt like Lebron and Wade got some calls, but overall it wasn't that badly an officiated series and seemed to really only have one poorly officiated game.

You could probably talk me into believing that there's a certain unwritten and unspoken understanding between the refs and the NBA that their careers will be better if they call games a certain way, but I have a hard time believing that the NBA actually directs the refs to swing games. I just feel like someone would eventually record these conversations, write a book, and destroy the entire league. It would be nearly impossible to keep it covered up for this long.

I think it's more likely that officials are influenced by home crowds and a certain kind of confirmation bias when it comes to the best players.

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You could probably talk me into believing that there's a certain unwritten and unspoken understanding between the refs and the NBA that their careers will be better if they call games a certain way, but I have a hard time believing that the NBA actually directs the refs to swing games. I just feel like someone would eventually record these conversations, write a book, and destroy the entire league. It would be nearly impossible to keep it covered up for this long.

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This. Same reason that it wasn't the mob that killed JFK. Pretty much everyone in the mob was arrested and a ton of them spilled the beans on everything to save themselves. You don't think one of them would have been like "I can give you the JFK killer evidence if you let me go live in Scottsdale with my family under a new name" if they could actually prove it.

Conspiracies are way too hard to keep under wraps because too many people have to know about them and each person that knows about them stands to make millions by uncovering the conspiracy and selling his story.

These refs make like a quarter-million a year. Very nice money, but they would likely get a nice eight-figure retirement check if they uncovered a game fixing scandal that included people like David Stern.

The officials themselves benefit from it.

The top refs will do three games of the 7 game series. Second level will do two of the games.

If team A is going to sweep and you are going to be assigned to games 3 and 6, it is in your best interest to have team B win game 3 and hope that team B wins game 4 or 5 to extend to game 6. They get paid per game they ref in the playoffs. It is all bonus money for them.