Thunder leading the pack in player-ref friction
About once a month, an NBA referee loses his cool. Courtney Kirkland will butt heads with Shaun Livingston, or Tony Brothers will talk smack back at player complaints, or Kenny Mauer will interject himself into a player/fellow ref discussion and take over. About once a month. An NBA player will lose his cool — yell and complain and sneer and demonstratively politick — virtually every other possession. Ninetysomething times a night, in every game, all across the NBA.
So tell me again why the NBA has scheduled a summit Saturday between player, ref and league representatives, hoping to diffuse the bad blood that has boiled up throughout the league this season? Discussions are not necessary. Better behavior is.
Players need to shut their mouths.
All this talk about improved communication and enhanced relationships is merely code for wanting refs to sit there and take the incessant complaining that is part of every NBA game. This is a one-way street.
When Russell Westbrook yells at James Capers, you don’t see Capers ask Westbrook why his foul shooting percentage is down 12 percentage points this season.
When Kevin Durant gripes to Ed Malloy, you don’t see Malloy suggest to Durant that it was really weak to sign with Golden State.
When Chris Paul slams down the ball and glares at Tom Washington, you don’t see Washington walk over to CP3 and mention that it’s about danged time he made a Western Conference final, don’t you think?
But NBA players question a referee’s eyesight and judgment literally
dozens of times a night. And the league allows it because of tradition and because of power.
The latter is why players complain in the first place. Players run the league. They don’t run the NFL. They don’t run Major League Baseball. But players run the NBA. They have a sense of entitlement, and the better the player, the worse the entitlement.
Of the 23 NBA players with at least six technical fouls this season, 13 are either all-stars or have been perennial allstars. Draymond Green leads the league with
14. Westbrook is next at
12. Durant and Dwight Howard have 11 each.
The Thunder embarrassingly leads the league in technicals, with 41 in 59 games. Its big four all rank among the top 22 in the league in technicals. Carmelo Anthony and Steven Adams have seven each. The mildmannered Paul George has six. All the rest of the Thunder roster combined has two (Raymond Felton and Patrick Patterson one each).
It’s in the culture in Oklahoma City. From the superstars to Billy Donovan to the always complaining broadcast crew, the Thunder has created a blame-the-ref environment that is not conducive to championship basketball. The Thunder’s success is despite such an attitude, not because of it.
“The reality is, the officials have a really hard job, and our players have a hard job, and it’s a very very competitive game,” said Donovan, whose seven technical are tied for fourth among coaches. “There’s going to be emotions that get in there. The communication part is really important. The officials want that, the players want that.
“But I think you want to be in a situation where you’re working with the officials. That’s the way I would kind of liken it to. Not going to get every call right. We’re not going to be perfect in everything that we do. But the reality is, you have to have a coexisting relationship there. I think it’s important you have to control your emotions and you can deal with them, because again, they do have a hard job.”
The NBA is staging the summit under the guise that player/referee relations has deteriorated. The company line is that the influx of new refs, feeling a little intimidated, has created friction.
That’s nonsense. The friction is caused by players who have crossed the line. Players are supposed to play. Coaches are supposed to coach. Referees are supposed to referee. Referees, except on the rarest of occasions, referee, and they do it remarkably well.
But coaches a little and players a lot have deemed themselves the proprietors of officiating, too. Stars consider themselves to be fouled on every play and have never committed a foul themselves, but they are the experts. They don’t want better communication. They don’t want an explanation on a call. They want the ball and the whistle. They want all the power. And the Thunder is leading the pack.