Crucial call for league: Make calls consistent
Confusion on foul rulings, Hack-a-Shaq strategy slow pace of game.
NBA, tighten up. As we lurch toward the Finals on June 4, new commish Adam Silver must consider changing up the current model.
There is a disconnect in rules interpretations coming out of the front office and way too much wiggle room from the referees to the scorer’s table to the replay center in Secaucus, N.J.
The lack of consistency is threatening to make the most visually beautiful sport in America a finger- nails-on-the-chalkboard exercise of television, spent watching the backsides of refs at the scorer’s table and those dumbfounded looks on the faces of pl ayers who can’t execute one of the sim- plest of all skills, the free throw.
The offseason will be dominated with free agenc y — where will Kevin Love and LaMarcus Aldridge go? — but the bigger issues revolve around how the game is called.
Let’s start with those oh-so-popular flagrant fouls. When Atlanta’s Al Horford reacted to Cleveland’s Matthew Dellavedova rolling up on his legs after diving for
a loose ball with a badly aimed elbow that hit Delly’s shoulder and not his face, the referees hit him with a Flagrant 2 foul and ejected him from Game 3. This coming after Dellavedova crushed Kyle Korver’s ankle during a scramble for a loose ball in Game 2.
The Hawks radio announcer was so put off by Dellavedova’s previous actions that he announced during Game 4 that “Tonya Harding” was checking into the game with Dellavedova at the scorer’s table.
One day later, Houston’s Dwight Howard and Golden State’s Andrew Bogut got tangled up for a bit and Howard reacted with what appeared to be an ill-intentioned elbow to the face. He was assessed a Flagrant 1, despite making contact with Bogut’s mug, which allowed him to remain in the game.
Had the league found cause to upgrade the foul to a Flagrant 2 a day later, Howard would have been automatically suspended for Wednesday’s Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.
“It was a very close call as far as I’m concerned,” president of basketball ops Rod Thorn said upon announcing Howard would not be suspended. “As Bogut is holding his arm down, Howard tries to extricate his arm. He doesn’t hit him with his elbow, by the way. He hits him with the back of his hand, maybe a touch of the wrist. To me, it was unnecessary, but I didn’t think it was excessive.”
Next time you get hit in the face by a 280-pound man, tell me it isn’t excessive and I’ll show a guy that just got hit in the face.
It would be a lot simpler if they just eliminated the Flagrant 2 and label all excessive fouls as just plain flagrant with an automatic one-game suspension if you get two in one game.
Not only would it save the league office countless man hours in determining what is flagrant and what is not, it would speed up a game that’s been slowed to snail’s pace for one reason or another.
Including the Hack-aShaq.
This is where Silver must be really careful about making a sweeping decision that can overshadow all that goodwill he built up by the way he handled the Donald Sterling case.
The Hack-a-Shaq is Medusa-ugly basketball, but not nearly as brutal as multimillionaires who can’t shoot 50 percent on a 15-foot shot with no hands in their face.
In Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals, Clippers post DeAndre Jordan, who owns a .417 career free-throw percentage, was hacka’d into 28 first half attempts. He finished 14 of 34 from the line, and the game lasted 2 hours and 53 minutes.
The worst thing Silver can do is not allow teams to purposefully foul opposing players because a coach should always be allowed to exploit an opponent’s weakness.
While the best answer is to “just make your free throws, dude,” it isn’t that simple. Silver could implement a rule that would allow a team two hacks away from the ball per quarter, which would cut down on rim assault by rock layers like Jordan and Howard.
Overall, the Finals will be must-see TV. The league will score big at the box office and in the Nielsens.
It’s something we can’t miss.
Minus the flagrants and bricks.