Ref Bashing

About a week ago, my homework assignment for everyone was to see how often players look to the refs whenever a contested shot is missed. If you did your homework, you know the answer is way too much. If you didn't do your homework, you need to stay in for recess and watch Shaq shoot free throws.

In a game this week, Paul Pierce took three and a half steps and jumped before passing. The ref called traveling and Pierce was shocked as he stared down the ref. We could say that Pierce was working the ref, or we could say that this is a classic example of a player whining, "Don't you know who I am, you can't call that on me." I say the main reason Pierce reacted like he did is that he has taken three or more steps plenty of times before, and it usually wasn't called traveling.

It's easy to blame players for acting like whiners, but we should spend more time concentrating on what's causing this behavior. Every time a player looks at the ref after a call or a no-call, we should remember that this player got the call to go his way before. Simply stated, this behavior is caused by the inconsistency of NBA refs.

• sometimes you can take three steps, sometimes you can't
• sometimes you can change your pivot foot, sometimes you can't
• sometimes you can hand check, sometimes you can't
• sometimes you can make contact on the follow through, sometimes you can't
  

I could go on and on. Yes, the NBA is a difficult game to officiate and there is some subjectivity involved, but the level of inconsistency in today's NBA is ridiculous. If a classroom has twenty students misbehaving, it's the teacher's fault. If we can hold teachers to this standard, why can't we do the same for NBA refs.