NBA must make the call on some glaring problems

Michael Conroy/AP

Joel Embiid. Giannis Antetokounmpo. Kawhi Leonard. Zion Williamson. The usuals.

Jimmy Butler. Julius Randle. Kristaps Porzingis. Maxi Kleber. Bojan Bogdanovic. Jarrett Allen. Mitchell Robinson. The unexpected.

And here we are again. The same.

This column was supposed to be strictly about the epidemic that has plagued the league for years during the playoffs, and how this year had reached the point where something had to be discussed as openly as a congressional hearing or a former president’s court trial. Figuring out why the league not only is not what it once was, but how it continues to never live up to what it could and should be every year, stunting its own growth by making “the best ability is availability” a thing.

But then the refs stepped in.

Taking all of the focus off what players are not playing and what players continue to not be available onto their officiating as they seized control of the outcome of game after game after game after game.

As much as the NBA, at this time of year, has an injury problem (the Knicks are a key example: they just lost their fourth player, OG Anunoby, in Game 2 to a hamstring injury; and a foot injury may cost them Stevenson’s prodigal son Jalen Bruson for a game or more), major players being out has played a role in determining who will become the eventual champion. The officiating role has been “marginal” (new referee buzz word used when reviewing in-game calls) in shaping the outcome of who wins and who doesn’t. Now that issue looms large.

Larger than the emergence of the Timberwolves. Larger than the questionable belief the Celtics keep making us have in them. Officiating has become the story of these NBA playoffs. Red octagon. Full stop. Game over. Now: How does the NBA — which is so deep in the shadow of the NFL that it’s hard to see itself as a competitor — handle this?

The two (or three) missed calls in a three-second span at the end of Game 1 between the Knicks and Sixers; the make-up for those missed calls in Game 3 with more bad calls that favored the Sixers instead of the Knicks to level the outrage; the reversal of the Michael Porter Jr. call on D’Angelo Russell in the LA/Denver series that led to the beginning of the collapse of the Lakers; the non-technical and/or non-ejection of Nuggets coach Michael Malone for violating at least three rules in running on the court to “have a conversation” with a specific official while being held back by members of his coaching staff; the blown calls (plural, ie: phantom kicked ball, phantom moving pick call, phantom out of bounds foul) in the final 90 seconds of Game 1 between Indiana and New York, that plausibly cost the Pacers the game; the blatant missed calls on the Pacers’ Tyrese Halliburton being almost purposely pushed in his back by the Knicks' Josh Hart; everything connect to and with the Nuggets' Jamal Murray’s petulant and reckless behavior during Game 2.

It’s gotten to the point that the Pacers coaching staff, led by a straight-up, fed-up coach Rick Carlisle (who was just fined $35,000 for public criticism of the officiating and questioning the integrity of the NBA), filed a grievance to the league offices based on a combined 78 wrong and/or missed calls that occurred against his team in just the first two games of the series that they believed favored the “large market” Knicks. Again … larger than Orange and Blue skies.

As the “Referees Suck” chants being heard league-wide during games drown out the “MVP” chants when elite players are at the free-throw line, the NBA has to come to the realization that it has a serious problem on its hands. One that if not addressed immediately is going to become an infection far more damaging than Tim Donaghy.

The in-game “coach’s challenge” has become pointless because they get the right decisions made on the wrong challenges and the wrong decisions are made on the right ones. And when there should be a challenge, the wrong call is unchallengeable. And the league’s “two-minute report” is the biggest fraud since the NCAA’s “scholarships for play” mandate they held over athletes for over a century. The continuing trend of missed and omitted calls tipping the direction of playoff games (which often results in shifts and swings of momentum in series) has taken center stage. And we’re still only in the middle of the second round with another round and a half to go before we even get to The Finals.

How it’s going to end, we don’t know. The NBA needs a ref cleansing to save itself from itself. All of this negotiating for rights deals and league expansion, none of that is going to help the growth of the NBA until they get to the bottom of two issues: Player availability and officiating. Last season they tried to do something about the former by implementing load management rules. But injuries still flexed their strength and still have an impact. But the latter? Yeah NBA, good bleeping luck with that.