thought nets at home was a decent chance for detroit but
Half Time Detroit Pistons - Brooklyn Nets 54:61


prob raptors at home lol
otherwise if they don't get it in houston on nyd this streak could go a while
those last 3 maybe, spurs/rockets at home or wiz

Detroit Pistons - Brooklyn Nets
97:97
4th Quarter


it's happening?

Pistons were up 97-92. Twitter blows up.

Nyets promptly score 13 unanswered.

It's not happening.

up 5, lose by 6. feels bad

gotta target that toronto game now, the record-breaker
that road trip could be rough if they don't get it, looking at 30+ and smashing the record


wait ... they only have 2 wins on the season? TWO!?
they started 2-1 lol
unbelievable

Grizzlies v pelicans

Ja gets “fouled” going to rim down 1 with 1.5 seconds left. Clearly not a foul. Refs taking 4 hours to review the challenge to try to somehow imagine a foul. NBA is so dumb. Refs and calls have way too much power. Can call a foul on every single play if you wanted to based on some of the nonsense they call and uphold in a review

In this case they did the right thing and overturned it after taking forever to be fair

Lolllll then they make it up with another ridiculous call. At least they changed the rule where you keep your challenge if you win it but not sure they overturn this one bc there was “contact” despite both guys jumping for a ball and Valenciunus just being bigger/stronger. Another 4 hour review coming

So, you're mad that they corrected a wrong call...

The slander of NBA refs needs to stop. Million dudes all around the planet, sitting at home, watching on TV with that perfect overhead angle, griping at 3 middle-aged refs not being able to keep up with 10 world-class athletes/giants while having to work from a far-worse angle than a TV watcher enjoys.

LOL'd at "refs have too much power". These guys get paid a tiny fraction of what everybody else on the court or in the first few rows of fans get paid, they get screamed at constantly by players, coaches, and fans, and the only time individual refs get brought up is when people are complaining about them and/or calling for them to get fired.

The majority of the time that someone complains about a ref missing a call comes in spots where it is literally physically impossible for the ref to have the angle needed to see the call.

Think about all those instances when a fan posts a video and is like, "look at this obvious foul that wasn't called!", and then half the responders are like, "that's not a foul at all!", and then they never find agreement even after watching every angle in super slow-mo a million times... one would think that would give these people vastly more respect towards refs and their impossible job. But nah.

I also laugh about all the people complaining the players these days always travelling/carrying/palming etc. Their infallible deity Michael Jordan did that **** as much as anybody in the league does today.

I always feel bad for the refs. I don't know what kind of masochistic maniac would take such a job, but I'm glad they do!

NCAA refs seem a tiny bit worse to me, and that's with the players being less explosively athletic than NBA ones. But again, all of these people have an entirely impossible and thankless job.

NCAA refs are 1 or 2 orders of magnitude worse than NBA refs. Like it's not even close

well said. The funny thing is that even at my local amateur level (think really really bad level), the players seem to somehow expect world-class refs that don't ever make a mistake despite them getting paid like 10 bucks an hour which is borderline volunteering

And if they don't call the game as they exactly expect it it's always a matter of "how can these guys be referees".

I can't imagine the difficulty of assessing whether a contact on a drive is a foul or not when we have world-class athletes going at it.

There should be a certification test where anyone who constantly complains about refs need to referee a game themselves without a single mistake. Only then they receive their free-to-complain pass

NCAA refs are awful. NBARefs are significantly better but a lot of them have significantly larger egos too.

Most of the problem with the the rules as written and the unwritten rules (e.g. superstar calls) and all that anyway.

"Orders of magnitude worse" might well be correct; I was being more diplomatic towards than NCAA than I should have. **** NCAA.

What percentage of basketball players do you think have never acted as a ref? 99%? 99.99%? People drive me crazy.

I feel that superstar calls are largely a myth, as well. I obviously don't have anything to back that up other than the feeling that refs' brains can't work sufficiently quickly to A: do their best to get the call right, and B: simultaneously be like, oh wait, that's LeBron, I can't call this!

The ref-bias thing I believe in is the home-court whistle. Any ref would prefer to hear cheering instead of booing (which sometimes even reaches the point of an anti-ref chant), so they subconsciously err on the side of the home team. I vaguely remember reading something that said road teams pick up more fouls than home teams. I actually believe that's where most of the 6-point home/road swing in the odds comes from, compared to how the crowd affects the players.

Superstars get calls bc they have a superstar play-style, ftmp. (Generally that they're too quick for the defender.)

There's things on the fringes like swallowing the whistle when Bron has five fouls. Maybe most clear thing I ever saw was giving double-techs for jawing and it was Gary Payton's second one early in a game at home. He kept saying, "I'm outta the game!" to the ref, incredulously, and then they huddled and changed the call so he wouldn't be ejected.

yeah i feel like the league has cut down on some of the superstar call stuff under silver and let them play more, may the best team win. when stern was at the helm it was borderline pro wrestling

one current thing that tilts me is how everyone freaks out about late (even correct) calls, so as a result refs tend to anticipate fouls instead of calling what they see. would much rather they just call what happens instead of guessing, and if it's late, oh well, better than getting it wrong

Impressive rant.

I feel for the refs too. It's not their fault. It's just that the game is over officiated and literally anything can be a foul so it's become completely subjective and it decides games. Last night the Morant review took forever to review when it was clear there was no foul. They're looking for any little thing when it could have been expedited so much faster. I'm a fan of replay getting things right. Then the Valenciunus play was just silly. it was 2 guys jumping for a ball. That should not decide games. They reviewed that forever too and I completely lost interest and didn't even stick around to see how it turned out. Saw the box score today the game went to OT so guessing they upheld it.

My problem isn't with the refs per se. They have an impossible job. it's just the game itself is so over-officiated and anything can be called on any play. So it makes it completely subjective. I'm in favor of erring on the side of less fouls being called personally rather than more

CHET. Best player in the world by 2026? Maybe.

CHET is a problem at both ends of the floor.

CHET + SGA with this solid selfless supporting cast has to title in my lifetime.

Thunder most likeable, watchable team in the NBA

while i agree that berating schmos who make $10/hr just doing their best is in poor taste, google tells me "NBA referees are some of the highest-paid officials in professional sports, with a salary that range from $150,000 to $550,000 per year." i'll go out on a limb and say that comes out to >$10/hr when the season is 7 months and they probably get paid for flights/board on top of their 3 hour per day stints. at that point, armchair quarterbacks are more justified in expecting higher level judgment and expert ability to assess game action.

then factor in the additional layer of potential -- some might say inevitable -- corruption tim donaghy style. he got caught because he was too blatant for too long, like mike postle. one can only imagine the earnings potential for refs playing the long game with well-timed, well-concealed fixing calls. firmly believe we need more, not less, skepticism of refs across all major sports even if it's overdone. they can live with the abuse on their 6 fig salary. watchful eye etc.

https://medium.com/sportsraid/do-nba...t-18123c6d46dd

https://netconversion.com/innovation...uperstar-bias/

iirc from the documentary donaghy was known to softcall stars (when he didn't have vested interest in the other team) because he knew it's what the nba and fans wanted. hard to believe there is not a subtler form of that going on in general.

indeed, i would be surprised if the effect of home crowds was greater on home team players than game officials. rest and court familiarity/acclimation (DEN prime example) probably factor in too.

Interesting insightful posting the past few days

Main variable is whether he can access enough shot volume to be an elite scorer. No matter what, the floor seems very, very high if he stays healthy.

This is where star treatment is most clear cut imo. If a guy like Lebron or Curry gets five fouls, especially in a playoff game, the bar for refs to call the sixth foul is incredibly high.

main variable imo is the state of his ankles cause I just always get super nervous (maybe wrongfully so) watching such a tall thin individual

But I have hopes. I remember the days on this forum where we were saying Embiid would never play a minute in the NBA

Got inspired to search for Tut posts on Embiid back in the days, amazing stuff. TZ doctors taking the loss again

Just searched for my first comment on him. Anticipated cringe.

Huh, I stand by that. I like the comp. Zach could ball, him in a longer body would be problems. Dream comps are still silly imo, he's way too slow.

6'9 250 translates to 7' 280 about right.