Calling Foul: NBA Bias Going Overboard Again

The NBA has a history of showing preferential treatment to their favorite teams in the league. Big time players (Shaq, LeBron, Kobe, Duncan) and big markets (L.A., Boston, NY) usually translates to higher viewership, which means higher revenue for the league. This isn’t unique to basketball, however, the NBA tends to show its biases a bit more noticeably (and auspiciously?) compared to the NFL, MLB, or NHL. How quickly we forget that only two years ago Tim Donaghy – a 13 season NBA referee who had officiated 20 playoff games – was caught fixing games. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that LeBron James is the most exciting player in the NBA and likely one of the very best athletes to ever play the game. I’ll also concede that going into the NBA playoffs I thought the Lakers and the Cavs were the two best teams and should likely meet in the Finals – I’m totally cool with that. However, I’m a bit uncomfortable feeling that the NBA seems to be pushing for the same result.

Though I don’t religiously watch every playoff game, more often than not it seems there is a always a critical foul called (or not called) in the closing minutes that has a significant impact on the momentum of the game – and it usually always favors the NBA’s golden child/team of the night. Perhaps more obvious is how certain players “get away with” more than others. Dwight Howard’s sixth foul in Game 3, a pretty clean block off Lebron James, would never have been called had the players been reversed. In fact, Howard has racked up 66 fouls in the Eastern playoffs, while LeBron has only been whistled 18 times … hmmm.

I imagine that officiating an NBA game is not unlike grading student papers: It’s just as easy to justify ‘C’ as it is to justify an ‘A’ for the same work. In other words, grading is pretty arbitrary, based primarily on the subjective whims (or nit-pickiness of the teacher). Likewise, whether or not a referee sees someone drag their pivot foot, palm the ball, or “taunt” another player is completely at their discretion – regardless if they happen to be looking right at it.