A Coaches’ Challenge Won’t Solve the NBA’s Officiating Dilemma
Advanced technology and player behavior have put the league in a tough spot.
At the NBA’s annual Board of Governors meeting Tuesday, a pair of new changes to instant replay were unanimously approved for the 2019–20 season. Notably, teams will now be given one “coaches’ challenge” which can be used to trigger a review of a number of calls.
Similar challenge systems have been tested in the G-League and are currently being used in Summer League play, making NBA implementation the next logical step.
To initiate a review, a coach must immediately call timeout following the play in question and twirl his finger, the same motion referees currently use to signal assistance from the NBA Replay Center.
If the call is successful, the team will get to keep its timeout. The challenge can be used at any time prior to the last two minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime, when all reviews will be initiated by officials.
The coaches’ challenge is an idea ripped straight from the NFL playbook, and, interestingly, marks the first time that personal fouls can be reviewed outside of determining whether one was flagrant.
In theory, the idea makes sense, allowing teams a chance to correct an officiating error, leading to a more accurately called game and less post-game controversy. However, in practice, the new system will do very little to improve the on-court product, and will only lead to a greater emphasis on officiating, which weakens the game.
Let’s get one thing out of the way — the idea that NBA officials are bribed, biased, or simply bad at their jobs is ludicrous.
NBA referees are among the most scrutinized people in the world. They have to blow their whistles in real time, while viewers can rewind each play, slow it down, and see if from multiple angles, allowing them to get a perfect look and criticize every mistake. To make errors even more visible, The NBA publishes Last Two Minute Reports of every game which list every incorrect call made by the refs at the end of games.
These officials are graded on their accuracy, with the best moving on to earn bonuses and work NBA playoff games. There is every incentive to get calls right. Referees have become racially unbiased and are now trained with help from VR. During games, they can signal help from other referees in a remote replay center the NBA constructed just to make sure things are as accurate as possible.
The NBA takes officiating accuracy seriously, and they are very, very good at it.
Yet, officials are more criticized than ever by players, fans, and the media. Michael Lewis, the author of Moneyball among other works, tackled the question of why in the first episode of his podcast, Against the Rules with Michael Lewis, entitled “Ref, You Suck!”
The NBA’s officiating dilemma is a paradox. NBA referees are so accurate and unbiased that star players aren’t getting the beneficial calls they’ve gotten in the past. The lack of star treatment causes them to complain, pushing a narrative that the officiating is poor.
This forces the league to continue pushing new initiatives like the Replay Center, Last Two Minute Report, and the coaches’ challenge to make the game as accurate as possible. It may lead to more stoppages, but it’s absolutely necessary, as NBA commissioner Adam Silver told Lewis.
“If people don’t believe that the league office is unbiased and that the officials are unbiased, you’re going to have a problem, regardless of the accuracy of the calls. You cannot turn the clock back on transparency.”
However, perfection remains unattainable, which means there is always something for people to be upset about.
This is where the real problem lies.
The NBA is caught in a lose-lose situation. In an ever-expanding effort to make officiating as perfect as possible, they’ve added another new feature to the game. But what will the coaches’ challenge actually accomplish?
A basketball game features hundreds of potential whistles. Allowing teams to challenge one will hardly change a thing, and teams may be reluctant to use the challenge, saving it for a big moment late in a close contest.
Occasionally, calls will still be missed, and when they are, people will assuredly campaign for expanded use of the challenge system, only leading to more stoppages and increased emphasis on the referees, which takes away from the actual basketball.
Most of the calls that are hotly debated and that we remember take place during the last two minutes of games and won’t be affected at all by the new coaches’ challenge.
I‘ve written before about getting rid of replay review in sports completely. I recognize that it will never happen and that such a belief is very controversial, but we should take a hard look at whether reviews are actually improving the game.
As it currently stands, replay is being expanded in just about every sport. Yet, it hasn’t made us more satisfied. We’re even angrier about missed calls, and it leads to support for increased reviews. At some point, every single action may become reviewable.
With the new coaches’ challenge, we inch closer to the Replaypocalypse.
