NBA Refs, They’re Craptastic!

I’m not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but the worst part of the NBA (besides the overly long season) is the quality of their referees. Star players get more than a fair share of calls, see LeBron. I would expect that since the NBA has the best players in it, shouldn’t the best referees also rise to the NBA as well? One would think.

Case in point, today’s Lakers v. Suns game. The Lakers got the correct call when Smush Parker stole the ball from Steven Nash in the closing seconds, pushed the ball up to Kobe for the game tying basket. But in OT, when Nash was surrounded, it was pretty obvious he was calling for a timeout, but the referees not only didn’t give the Suns a timeout, they ignored a foul and called a jump ball instead. Atrocious.

Kobe did hit the game winner and deserves credit for that clutch shot, but the hometown Lakers received 31 free throw attempts to the visitors 15. Something needs to change.