NBA’s officiating transparency
Referee and game crew part of pool reports
NBA referee Tom Washington admitted in a pool report after the Lakers-Thunder game Thursday night that his crew made an incorrect call.
It is a stark contrast to the pool report issued after the controversial Rams-Saints NFC Championship Game in which referee Bill Vinovich told a reporter he didn’t see the pass-interference play and gave no explanation why there was no call on Saints quarterback Drew Brees’ pass to Tommylee Lewis, defended by Nickell Robey-Coleman.
In the NBA, a vague non-answer is not possible because referees are given written questions regarding the play. Then they review the play on video and talk with referee operations staffers in the NBA replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey, before submitting answers. The pool reporter is allowed to ask reasonable follow-up questions.
In the Lakers-Thunder game, Lonzo Ball fouled Russell Westbrook with 2.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the Thunder trailing 122-119. Referee Haywoode Workman called it a shooting foul, awarding Westbrook three free throws. He made all three, tying the score and forcing overtime.
But after the game, which the Lakers won, Washington, the crew chief, said in the pool report, “The official called the foul because at the time he thought Russell had started his shooting motion and he was clearly behind the three-point line and there was illegal contact by Ball. … And upon being able to see the review of the play, we realized that the illegal contact actually happened prior to his upward motion, so it should have been a side-out.”
In the NFC Championship Game, only the referee was made available and the two other officials who were in position to see the play were not made available.
Vinovich was unable to answer for them. Nothing in the NFL policy dictates the referee must watch the play in question.
Vinovich told the pool reporter: “It was a judgment call by the covering official. I personally have not seen the play.”
Even though Workman wasn’t made available to the pool reporter in the Lakers-Thunder game, Washington had access to video of the play and provided a transparent answer.
In certain circumstances, the NBA makes multiple officials available in the pool report. That has happened multiple times, including during the NBA Finals.
In the 2017 Finals between Cleveland and Golden State, referees Mike Callahan and John Goble answered questions about why Draymond Green wasn’t ejected even though the announcer said Green had been issued his second technical foul.
Said Goble: “I noticed the reaction by Coach (Steve) Kerr and then assessed the technical foul. In the moment, I thought I had verbalized to the table that the technical foul was on Coach Kerr. After looking at the video, I did not verbalize to the table, and looking at the video, I should have done a better job of making sure that the table knew the technical foul was on Coach Kerr.”
Said Callahan: “At that time, we did not do a very good job of listening to the PA announcer and we did not hear him announce it. I take full responsibly for that.”
Up until the 2015-16 season, the NBA allowed referees to address only the application of rules in the pool report. Since then, referees have been able to address judgment calls, too.
If the NFL had a similar policy, they would have been able to address the interference call in the immediate aftermath of the game. It wouldn’t have changed the outcome, but it would have provided a transparent admission of what happened.
In one watershed moment in the history of pool reports, Major League Baseball umpire Jim Joyce blew Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga’s perfect game with two outs in the ninth inning. Joyce called a batter safe at first base when he was clearly out.
“I took a perfect game away from that kid that worked his ass off all night. … It’s probably the most important call of my career, and I missed it,” Joyce told reporters that night in 2010.
It was a transparent admission that revealed the human side of trying to make the right call.