NBA commissioner Adam Silver has touched on the actions the NBA takes against referees for missed calls in the wake of missed calls that went against Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James last month.
According to Adam Silver, “officials are “absolutely held accountable” and disciplined for making such errors via ESPN;
“We don’t publicize discipline for officials. We don’t think that will be appropriate,” Silver said Friday in an interview with ESPN’s Sage Steele on SportsCenter. “But their assignments are affected by the quality of their calls, whether or not they progress into the playoffs and then round by round is impacted by the accuracy of their calls and their demeanor on the floor. So there is a system for overseeing and making those judgements about officials. But more to your earlier point about getting the calls right, that’s again not a new issue.”
“I know some people in that particular call you mentioned in that Celtics-Lakers game were upset that there was no opportunity for replay,” Silver said. “Many people focused on the coach not having another challenge. But remember in our league, you can’t challenge a non-call. And there’s a lot of difficulty there when you get into non-call. You could suggest every moment of a game is a non-call when a call isn’t being made in a way.
“But so what’s the beginning and the end of the play? And if indeed the officials missed the foul but then the other team is saying, well, go back 15 seconds, they missed something else there, it’s not an easy issue, but it’s something we’re going to look at because my personal view is I don’t mind the challenge system but also think the ultimate goal is to get it right, not put the pressure on the coach in terms of that additional tactic on using their challenge appropriately.”
“I don’t want to suggest there’s a magic bullet here,” Silver said. “I don’t think it’s just about incentivizing players to play more, that the teams are as much a part of the load management as the players are, because again, I think there’s been a societal shift. Everything’s about winning a championship these days and it’s less, I think in all sports, about how you perform day in and day out. And so it’s a cultural issue as well.
“There are a few things we’re addressing in collective bargaining, for example, I think we ensure that some of our awards require a minimum number of games be played, that we’re celebrating not just average number of points, but total number of points, that the culture is guys being out on the floor as much as they can.”
Flip to the next page to watch Adam Silver address the issues of missed calls…