In 2020 I watch the NBA All-Star game and it was the first time that both teams actually wanted to win from the start of the second half. 10 of the best players and their ego’s going at it, it was awesome to watch. But WOW! Every single call was argued and disputed with angry players yelling at the referees. It seemed as if every player on the court was yelling at the poor refs.
Why do basketball players argue with the referees call? Basketball players argue with the officials for a number of reasons, it is a bad call, an unfair call, or even a miss call. Players in the heat of the moment of an intense game sometimes are unable to control their emotions. When a player argues or yells at a referee it can result in a technical foul or an ejection depending on the severity of their actions.
Today, we will take a look at why players argue with referees and what they are saying. Is there really an advantage to arguing a referees call? All this will be covered and more in this article.
Being a Basketball Referee is a Tough Job
I am a firm believer that all referees are human beings. Yup! They have a difficult job at hand and I believe being a referee is the hardest officiating job in sports. There is so little room for error, you get the call wrong you get yelled at. You get the call right you get yelled at. Has anyone ever said good job ref, great game today when it’s all said and done. Maybe? But you won’t hear it from the losing side of the team or their fans.
You have to be mentally strong as a referee and be quick with a good comeback, I don’t mean comeback in the form of a joke or punch line but the comeback in explaining yourself as if you are giving out a parking ticket.
Officiating a game isn’t easy, not only the players but the coaches are can be twice as bad, think about it every call, one of the referees has to run by both benches up and down the court and have to hear the barrage of comments from both coaches. Each of which is making a case for their team.
And if you think it stops there, it doesn’t. Add in the Home Team’s fans. Every call right or wrong is followed by boos. Which I am sure they are used to. Until you get that one guy in the crowd that knows everything about your officiating past and personal life.
One thing to keep in mind part of a ref’s job at halftime is that they will meet with the officials of the game and review important game footage for the first half and discuss what happened. So It isn’t like they are not aware of a mistake or bad calls they made. I think in the end every official wants to officiate the game evenly, sometimes the way a team plays makes it seem as if an official is siding with one team over the other or isn’t doing their job.
Basketball Players Who Argue with Officials
The game of basketball especially in the NBA is full of emotion, drama, and egos on and off the court. There can be times where a player will not agree with a call, actually, it seems to happen every minute of the game. For example, a player felt he was fouled when going up for the layup and he was hit on the arm hard enough that even the official should have heard the “SMACK”. It leads to a disagreement between the referee and the player. The player says he was hit, the referee says that’s not what he saw. If the argument continues it can get more personal and an exchange of words can follow resulting in a technical foul for the player.
As you can see a player doesn’t have much power when he’s trying to get his point across in a state of anger. Not only doe he does not have much power at all, but he is arguing his point in an emotional state which puts himself at a disadvantage to himself. Also his team is left to guard a 4 on 5 fast breaks at the other end without him. When a player is focused on anything other than the game itself he’s not 100 percent there, which can lead to poor judgment and bad plays.
Is there any Advantage to Arguing with the Referees call?
So what’s the point? Why do players continue to argue then? It’s frustration, it’s hard to control your emotions when nothing is going right, it’s basketball players wearing their heart on their sleeves. This is a good thing, to play with all your heart, but it can be a crutch at the same time.
In my opinion, there is no advantage to arguing with the refs, I am a firm believer that refs can hold grudges against you. Like I mentioned earlier their humans too and yes it is their job to officiate the game evenly, but rub a referee the wrong way and don’t even look his way after a miss call. They will T you up.
In fact, I believe some players argue with refs because they think they are intimidating them, and I doubt it works. I just don’t see otherwise why a player would bother arguing. Rarely if ever does an official change the call on a shooting foul or illegal use of hands call.
There is no benefit to yelling at them especially swearing at them. This happens so much in the NBA I am blown away that the refs do not call this more often. Why wouldn’t a referee use his power if the player is swearing at them or towards them it absolutely makes no sense.
What are players saying to the refs?
Let’s get to the point, of this paragraph. Players when they are heated because of a bad call they are not saying nice things to the ref. Such things that are said are as follows: Bull ****, **** You!, Get the **** Outta Here!, Etc.
I don’t know how the NBA allows the players to abuse the officials in this way, it literally is mental abuse. Although I am not the biggest fan of basketball officials, I am a fan of human beings, and swearing at them as you walk away or in their face is ridiculous.
If you are wondering how do I know they are saying these things? I watched the NBA bubble there were no fans you could hear everything clearly, sometimes it was cut off but cameras other times not.
On top of this, the players in the NBA argue non-stop with the referee’s and it can actually become extremely annoying. One such call came in a game just before the end of the half when Lebron James argued a call made by a player who took the last shot at the last second by attempting a step back three but traveled in the process.
The result was the basketball did not go in. James still felt like he needed the referee to make the call. This should be said, players need to pick and choose their battles if you are going to make an argument, don’t try to make an argument for every call. Now Lebron James being the face of the league can get away with this.
Another such argument players tend to make is to tell the referee to look up at the jumbo screen above them, you know the one that keeps track of score and fouls. But, referees are ordered not to do this. It can completely through them off if in fact, it was a missed call. Not only that but it is no advantage to them to do this. This can show favor for the player that they made a bad call, or it can show the ref how wrong or right they were when it has no advantage to them.
Fines for players for technical fouls?
When a player yells at a referee and says or does something he shouldn’t, it may result in a technical foul. A technical foul is a warning to say watch your mouth because if you get another one you will get ejected. This also adds to your personal fouls and if you already have 4 or 5 fouls depending on what league you are playing in, that would have you fouled out.
When you do receive two technical fouls you have to leave the court and head to the locker room, you are not allowed to be in the gym for fear of continuing your tirade. If you are playing in a professional league you have to pay a fine. For the NBA the fines for technical fouls are as follows:
First & Second Technical = $1,000 Fine
Third & Fourth Technical = $1500 Fine
Fifth & Sixth Technical = $2,000 Fine
Seventh Technical = $2,500 Fine Plus One-Game Suspension
Why Do Coaches Yell at the Refs?
Coaches on the sidelines are in constant connection with the referee’s discussing practically every call and trying to reason with the refs. A coach is more calm and collective and understands that not every call will be perfect. A coach will not argue just a single call but a collective of calls or how the game is being officiated in general. That is when a coach will start to yell if things are not going there way.
One of the things a coach will yell to the officials about is to call it fair both ways. Or the classic that just happened on that end, the exact same play, why wasn’t it a foul on our end. A coach will have the opportunity to have more leeway to speak to the ref openly than a player does. But again when the emotions are high, and the game is on the line, all that calmness and patience goes away pretty quickly if it is a close game or things are not going their way.
What are officials saying to the players?
A number of things, first and foremost how they saw the play. Secondly, they are in fact receptive to the player’s response to the call. Third, they are quick with a rebuttal, as to what happened and how it happened.
I think it would be good to point out that I believe there is an advantage to respecting the refs and talking to them like human beings on the court. I think you could even get more calls on your side.
A quick story:
In my Men’s league I had a game where we played the first place team in our division and they were really mouthy. In this game I knew this referee (not personally just from playing) and if you rubbed him the wrong way, it was bad for you. This team ended up getting 4 technical fouls that game. Our team stayed quiet, never got involved in the talk. That mouthy team was up 2 points with 4 seconds left. We had the last shot, I got the basketball from an inbound underneath our own basket that we were defending.
I dribbled up the basketball after receiving the inbound pass up the court and was swarmed by literally 4 players at half court. I shot it and missed completely. I heard a whistle blow at the buzzer, I didn’t think anything of it. I hear more screaming and yelling. Guess who gets to shoot three free-throws for the win. I made all three and won us the game. The best part was no one touched me. It just looked like someone did, the call was made. You be the judge.