Foul Culture in Basketball Stinks Right Now
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The complaining about officiating in the NBA, and men's college basketball for this matter, has gotten out of hand. Look, I've never been a fan of refs. When I was a player I disliked them, and as a coach for junior basketball now, I dislike them even more. Refs make decisions based on biases, on a feeling or if they are mad at someone for coming after them. They tend to make proper calls more times than not, but it's still a feelings based job. It's frustrating and annoying, but that's the way it is. The problem I have is twofold, kids I coach are acting like current players, and the talk to the media is becoming way, way too much. I want to touch on the kids acting like current college and pro players first.
I have coached my son since he was in third grade. He is an eighth grader now, and it has gotten worse every year towards refs. No one takes accountability. Whenever they get called for a foul they put their hands up and say the refs are bad. When they do get a clean block or steal, but a foul is called, you'd think the refs had made a joke at their family's expense. The kids that I now coach, if you ask them, have never once committed a foul. Whenever they are called for one they think the ref is out to get them. It was so bad this year that I told them during practices I wasn't going to call anything unless it was egregious, just to try to get them used to the reffing in our league. They would get so mad at me that they would complain about a lack of foul calls in a team scrimmage. That is sickening to me. It is not always the ref's fault. Kids commit fouls on almost every single play. It's the truth. But, when my eighth graders watch men's college games, or the NBA, they see their favorite players getting called for fouls, throwing their hands up and screaming at the refs, putting all the blame on them. It has to stop.
I could say the same thing for falling down on the ground to try and draw fouls. I have kids who aren't great, so their solution to being on the floor is to fall down, hoping that the refs call a foul on the opposition. I will have kids blatantly miss layups, go to the ground and get free throw shots. Or, if they don't get a foul call, gripe the rest of the game. This destroys any flow we may have at the moment. The second a kid drops to the ground, that kills any team defense you want to play. This is rampant more so in the men's college game too. I was watching some games during the week and I noticed so many kids trying to draw contact as opposed to just making layups. And if they don't get the call, they spend their time picking themselves up off the floor and griping at the refs all the way down, essentially making it four on five going the other way. This is just an awful new occurrence in games. Kids don't know how to properly shoot layups because they see their favorite players going for contact instead of just making the shot. Kids need to stay on their feet, and so do the pros and men's college players.
Now to the NBA.
Look, I get it, the Thunder get away with murder. Shai Gilgeous Alexander knows how to contort his body and get foul calls. They mug their opposition going for steals every single night. But the foul stuff is not what makes this team great. They play hellacious defense. They have the MVP on their team. They have a great frontcourt on defense. They have rim protectors. They have everything a title winning team needs. It is not just the fouls that have gotten them to this level. So for the coaches going to the media, none of you are Phil Jackson or Greg Poppovich. This doesn't work like it used to. Refs aren't going to watch these press conferences where a coach berates refs and starts to get calls all of the sudden. Also, what star player, past, present or future, hasn't foul baited? Michael Jordan did it all the time. LeBron James is still doing it to this day. Luka Doncic spends more time with the refs than he does playing defense. Shaq spent his early career at the foul line. As did Kobe, Wilt and Hakeem Olajuwon. Star players in the NBA get preferential treatment. That is how it has always been and always will be. So coaching bringing this nonsense up again is just that, nonsense. It's also sour grapes. Just deal with it. As for LeBron groaning about "marginal" calls, get the hell over you. You are the second greatest player of all time. You have gotten so many preferable calls throughout your illustrious career. I feel like he has only gotten worse with the refs since Luka Doncic joined the Lakers. But for LeBron to come after the refs, don't bite the hand that feeds you, especially at 41 years old now.
Refs aren't great. They have a tough job and 50 percent of them are not very good at what they do. They also get too involved in important games, and no one is in those arenas to watch the refs. But the constant griping, on court and off, that has to stop. It is making it even tougher to watch full games at this point. Basketball is not the sport I used to watch. People are too busy flopping, or trying to draw contact, or yelling at the refs. The game isn't as beautiful as it could be, and I think it can get back to that if the stuff with the refs calms down a bit.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.