They can't even keep control of a youth league game, what do you expect

So your team lost this weekend?

Don't tell one of the best referees in the world that reff'd today, he doesn't know what he is doing. 3 x's Olympic referee and reff'd the Olympic gold medal not long ago.
Easy to blame the refs when you score 36 points in the 2nd Quarter and only 34 points for the next 2 quarters. Refs fault obviously.

"Don't tell one of the best referees in the world" Aylen is no where near the best umpire in the world. If he was he would be in the NBA making several hundred thousand per season. He is close to the worst umpire in the NBL

Strange that he refs in the Olympics and the NBL fans think he can't ref. I guess that makes all the other Olympic refs shit too.

"Easy to blame the refs when you score 36 points in the 2nd Quarter and only 34 points for the next 2 quarters "

Sixers lost the game themselves. That doesn't mean the standard of the umpiring is good. The umpiring is pathetic in the NBL.

Just because Aylen gets sent to the Olympics it doesn't mean he is an excellent umpire. I imagine the conversation is like this

Olympic Official "Please send your most experienced umpire to the Olympics"

Basketball Australia "Well Aylen has probably had 25 years in the NBL we will send him"

An umpire could be in the NBL for the last 3 years and each year done an excellent job and they will still send Aylen.

As I said if Aylen was such an exceptional umpire the NBA would have brought him over. There umpires make up to $500k. He is an average umpire at best and each game continues to make calls that aren't even close to being correct.

It's terrible. Taipans won by 9 today so I'm happy but the refereeing was still ordinary. I'm not so upset with the 50/50 calls, it's the fundamental basics that they miss that really annoys me. That and the lack of consistency within games and across the league. They might as well go back to two refs and save a few dollars if the league is happy with second-rate refereeing.

KingJames compare Aylen's salary and the amount of evaluation that he receives from the NBL compared to what NBA refs receive. The same thing applies for the players too. The NBA is also called completely different to all other leagues in the world too. If the NBL had the same budget as the NBA did for refs imagine how good the refs would be.

Compare the reffing from the start of last season to now.Standard is very ordinary and i dont barrack for Adelaide.

reffing was generally ok today. didn't notice anything too unfair.

think its a case of when the chips are down in periods like today, they get the blame.

sometimes its weird reffing but overall, the reffed ok. otherwise, kings got a raw deal in the first half

@Wilson Sting "it's the fundamental basics that they miss that really annoys me. That and the lack of consistency within games and across the league." That is perfect right there!

"So of the 38 referees who went to the world champs who werent American they are all shit?"

No but doesn't mean they are the best in the world either. Just because Alyen has 25 years experience doesn't mean he is a good umpire. We can agree to disagree but I think he struggles to control games, lacks consistency and every game makes one or two extremely bad calls.

@Ganymede 86. I would love the umpires to have more money going towards educating them. At the moment I feel they have no accountability as the umpiring around the league continues to get worse. Having said that other than a few bad calls today they did a good job and I thought the umpires in the Sixers vs United game did a great job. So it seems to be better but doesn't make up for how it has been during the rest of the season (non sixers games included)

"So King James how many non USA citizens have refd in the NBA?"

I imagine Europe referee's get paid well also so they have no reason to go the NBA.

"the umps should be able to use the replays like they do in the NBA" Agreed that would help. Unfortunately we don't have enough camera angles.

"I thought if it was a flop it was a straight tech?"

It was at the start of the season but they seem to have changed that now due to the criticism. So now it is a warning and then a tech

Anon - I wouldn't worry about slowing the game down. NBL is a highly staccato game. Count the breaks in today's game. Or any game. It takes ~100 minutes to get through 40 minutes of playing time, with ~35 minutes of in-game breaks. 5 more minutes for 4 replays would not affect the product from the continuity point of view. And like the cricket has done, the tension around the outcome of the replay can be made part of the product.

It'd certainly be no worse than watching the repeated 4 second Sydney possessions followed by foul shots that made up the last 90 seconds of today's game time. Five of them. I can't imagine waiting for replay results could slow the game down more than that - or be more anticlimactic.

Whoever said that some ref should be in NBA, being a FIBA referee and NBA referee is very different. Different rules in each, if i remember i dont think any NBA officals were in the olympics

Evaluated by two fat blokes in the stands yeah that means heaps

The standard of refereeing is terrible.

This isn't just based on the 36ers result today, or Wildcat home games which are shrugged off as biased opinions: virtually every televised game has left me frustrated.

With regards to NBA referees: at least they are able to effectively implement a league-wide strategy ('superstar calls', advantage to the offense etc)... something our officials (Mal Cooper included) are seemingly incapable of achieving.

Fish rots at the head.Time for Mal to go.Got to be somebody better out there.

I'm an Adelaide fan, I thought Sydney got the rough end of the stick. There were some clear fouls missed on Childress drives in the first half, and what the hell was up with all the travel calls? This is entertainment, if it's negligible don't call it. That travel on Childress on the spin was just silly. Yeah he may have just travelled, but who cares, casual fan see all these travel calls and roll their eyes.

Just thinking of it from an entertainment point of view. It's probably a credit to the umps they spot these travels, but I think it's the wrong emphasis for the health of the product to TV viewers who aren't Bball tragics.

If it's that bad, and you guys are that knowledgeable....how about you get out there and start lifting the quality of reffing in this great nation of ours?

No?

OK - continue to bitch about it on an Internet forum....that should fix it.

I agree with the above two comments, just hated the emphasis on travels.

"the umps should be able to use the replays like they do in the NBA"
They can.


"I thought if it was a flop it was a straight tech?"
"It was at the start of the season"
You're both wrong. It's never been an immediate automatic tech for flopping. Warnings are given unless the flop is particularly blatant, pretty much exactly the same as anything else that can be penalised with a technical.

Need a new term for Childress forward Flops. 4 fouls called yesterday for him simply leaning so far forward on the turn and falling on his face. We have the Flophage, we have Childrop !

Anons ruining a decent discussion as usual.

Standard is really bad this year. It really turns casual fans off. I wont watch neutral games because of how terrible it is.

I acknowledge that officials, and fans, are human.

I also know that the rules of the sport are there for a reason - to ensure a fair contest between teams/players operating from the bases, so the less interpretation the better. Simply calling the game according to the written rules is hard enough.

Irrespective of which teams win and which teams lose, the refereeing is an issue. Objectively the standard is not good, and that impacts on the SPORT, even if it's 'the same for both teams'.

Going back to two on-court officials per game would be start. Would concentrate the available talent [i.e., we and the players would see more of the better refs and less of the poorer ones], change the on-court mechanics so they focus more on what is happening on the court and less on whether they are in the right 'sector' or whatever it is they call them, and make sure there isn't a 'spare' ref conveniently standing by the team bench where he or she can get into a nice conversation with the coach and lose focus on the game.

While we're at it, what is it with coaches putting their arms around players and coaches, and vice versa? Maybe says they want to be friends rather than arbitrators responsible for managing the game and ensuring a fair contest based on skill and ability.

All that said ...
- travels are important [see my earlier comment about operating from a standard base then think about trying to (legally) guard someone who changes pivot feet as s/he wishes]
- the standard of refereeing would improve quite considerably if coaches focussed on getting the ball handler/cutter taking his/her defender onto a screen so the poor player setting the screen doesn't feel the need to 'chase' the defender to get a 'pick' rather than a run past.

"With regards to NBA referees: at least they are able to effectively implement a league-wide strategy ('superstar calls', advantage to the offense etc)... something our officials (Mal Cooper included) are seemingly incapable of achieving."

The disappointing thing is last season they did that pretty well for the most part, but it seemed to get lost this season in the crusade to wipe out the flop, which was a flop in itself.

I've noticed just lately the refs have stopped giving so many flop warnings (though still two absurd ones on the weekend) and they are getting back to calling the game more consistently. I thought three games this round were called very well.

Hopefully it wasn't just an accident and we see a consistent return to the officiating from the second half of last season.

Referees Olympics gold medal game... still called terrible

Vidmar was right all along, such a pissant town with pissant supporters

Perhaps there should be more of this:
http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8934691

Wilson had 7p on 1/3 FG and 4/4 FT in the final quarter. So five possessions ended with him for seven points.

The rest of the team was 5/16 FG, didn't get to the FT line and committed 5 TO. That is 21 possessions for 10 points.

Wilson has his strengths and weaknesses, just as Ervin did last year, but people who are blaming his offence for the 36ers' woes have blinkers on.

If you want to talk about his defence fair enough, but you should probably talk about a number of his mates too.

4 2/3

Look, while the standard of refereeing in the NBL leaves a lot to be desired.....the NBL has a long way to go to match NRL referee incompetence.

As someone who follows rugby league, the amount of blunders they make, even with the benefit of video replays, is beyond a joke.

If i had criticism of Wilson is that he tends to play in spurts.I think the 6ers need a more consistent 4 quarter scoring spread.What i did find interesting was why Perry got subbed after knocking down 2 threes in a row.If hes feeling it leave him out there.

Agree on that Holden, some of those NRL decisions are mind-boggling, and they seem to happen week after week. NBL refs do a far better job than that.

Serious question: can anyone name any league in all of Australia where the majority of followers don't seem to think the officiating is a disgrace.

Cause I've yet to find one.

So either Australians are constitutionally incapable of officiating well, or else there's something in the culture that makes the average Australian spectator completely stupid when it comes to assessing it.

One thing I will say is that I am glad basketball hasn't gone the way of a number of other sports in that the refs don't rely on video replays to make their decisions, even if the replay in the arena proves they got it wrong. Right or wrong, they call it as they see it and very rarely will they use a video replay to make a call.

Rugby league, rugby union, cricket, tennis....even Aussie rules, more and more they are using video replays and they still get things wrong. And often.

"One thing I will say is that I am glad basketball hasn't gone the way of a number of other sports in that the refs don't rely on video replays to make their decisions, even if the replay in the arena proves they got it wrong."

Lol! Do you read what you actually write?

Let me spell it out for you, using your own words:
"I am glad....they got it wrong."

But it is good to know that there is at least one fan who goes to the games to watch and admire refs.

I am with you all the way - if only we could get rid of the 10 guys running around in singlets, the show would be so much better.

And then there would be definitely no need for any fancy video replays.

I'm with Holden, I can't stand stopping and waiting for a video decision. The game must go on!

No one is ever glad when a referee gets something wrong during a game (except those who benefited obviously), but as a fan I am more accepting of human error when they make an on the spot decision rather than getting it wrong despite viewing numerous replays.

As we have seen over the last few years in sport, having the video replays available to officials doesn't always mean that they get it right. Hell, as I said just watch an NRL game and see how many times the video ref gets things wrong....and how much time they actually take doing it.

I guess I'm kinda old school in that thought. I would rather a ref make an on the spot decision based on what they actually saw with their own eyes rather than continually stopping the game just to view a replay. That is the kind of thing that makes watching the NFL so hard for me.

Either way though, at least one set of fans per game is never going to be happy with the refereeing. You're never going to please everyone.