Hey, Ref!

Christian Martinelli

The National Basketball Association is in the midst of the always exhilarating playoffs, and this year Lebron James isn’t one of the participants for the first time in over a decade. That has brought to light different storylines that we are not used to hearing about. Is it scoring? Nope. How about defense? Not that. Coaching? Not in the slightest.

Brace yourself.

The big storyline of the NBA playoffs has been the referees.

Yup. I’m sadly not joking. Every night it seems as though there is some sort of controversy, all stemming from some sort of foul call or lack thereof.

I’m personally a massive proponent of holding refs accountable for the garbage job they do, and I would love for announcers to call them out much more often than they do. But even I have to admit that things are getting way out of control in the NBA.

This is really just a basketball cultural thing that the newest generation of players all seem to have, but did you know there isn’t a single NBA player that has committed a foul this year?

They could slap someone in the face, leave a hand mark, give them a black eye, and these players would still run up to the refs with their hands up like they didn’t just commit felony assault, and should be behind bars for five to seven years.

There’s Metta WORLD-PEACE “accidentally” dropping the hammer on James Harden’s temple. Just one example.

Not only have they never committed a foul, but every time they take a shot they get fouled too. Crazy concept! Either they flop into the defender to draw the call or they scream, “AND ONE REF” whenever they get in the paint. The sad part is it works so frequently, because these refs are sick of getting yelled at every two seconds.

Although this is a league-wide culture, there’s one team that really embodies this awful new whining technique to the fullest. The Houston Rockets.

Houston averages 45.2 three pointers attempted per game, and still somehow is seventh in the league in free throws per game. How does that make sense?

It’s due to the obscene flopping, and crying they do for calls every possession of the game. Every time one of them take a three point they allegedly need an acre of space to land or they deserve three foul shots for “having nowhere to land”.

After the Warriors won game one of the Western Conference Semifinals between the Warriors and the Rockets, the players from the Rockets weren’t talking about how they could improve after missing 33-threes, or how they were out rebounded by twelve. No, that wasn’t the reason they lost. It was the refs.

James Harden the ‘king of flopping’, gets an outrageous amount of calls. He had the balls to say “we just want a chance.” My jaw just about hit the floor when I heard that quote. James you guys shot two more free throws in the game.

There’s a massive lack of accountability taken in the NBA, which differs a lot from other major sports leagues.

This is the type of behavior that is ruining the game. Players like James Harden that actively try to draw fouls more than just playing the game itself, then having the audacity to blame the final results on the refs. Kind of a wild premise that the player that relies the most on the refs to be successful would act this way, but whatever.

There has to be a point where it becomes too much. Players, coaches, fans, it doesn’t matter. They consistently argue every last call that is made, and then use it as an excuse for when the game doesn’t go their way.

It’s a culture that is stronger in basketball compared to other sports due to the gaff AAU organizations many of the great young players come up in. These AAU teams basically give the players full reign to play and act however they want, and the coaches no longer reprimand the kids. This leads to spoiled players who need to get their way or else they’ll complain to no end.

Not every player is this way. Some guys foul you, and put their heads down and go about their business. The majority do not.

Sure, I’ll chalk some of it up to competitiveness, there’s a lot of emotions out there on the court. I get it if there are a few outbursts each game. It’s human nature.

But there is no excuse for the constant bitching that goes on every play of the game. I don’t know how the refs do it. I’ve learned to have more respect for them seeing how bad these privileged athletes have become.

Now if I was a player I would be annoyed as well, the NBA has gotten extremely soft to the point that there’s basically no physical aspect to the game. That is obviously annoying for both the players and the fans, but if they don’t like it there’s better ways to go about it then screaming in the face of some 62 year old lawyer who refs grown men as a lucrative side gig. Remember the refs don’t make the rules. They only enforce them.

The NBA office is where the players should direct their anger towards. They’ve made the game tough to ref and play with taking away the physicality it used to have. Something needs to be done about that undoubtedly, but it’s time to stop crying. It’s time to play the game. The players know the rules, they know how fouls are called. A foul call has never been overturned based off arguing in the history of the NBA. So just save your damn breath man!

Play the kids game you’re all so blessed to be gifted enough to play. Refs don’t choose who comes out on top, the players do.

No more weak excuses, time to stop all the constant complaining and just get down to playing the game we all love as well as you can.

Keep complaining, and prepare yourself to feel the wrath of the deadly lowercase t.

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