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Letter to Kevin O’Connor and the Competition Committee
Posted by: Jazzaholic on May 17th, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.First of all, congratulations Kevin!
Let’s hope you and the Competition Committee can push through some much needed changes.
Here’s some items for your agenda.
- I’m not sure if all arenas are like the ESA, but season ticket holders are severely penalized, instead of being rewarded, when they attend games. At home we get to see replays from several different angles. At the game, we usually see NOTHING!!! The Jazz don’t even have to do anything special, just show the same replays they show on TV at home. Afraid of causing a riot from all the missed calls?
- Publicly list the missed calls for each referee, and the amount of the fine, after each game. Let’s get some transparency in officiating. Perhaps the star favoritism could be abolished.
- Clean up the acting, belly aching and whining after every call. Have the refs call a technical, regardless of the players star status (perhaps even more so for the stars). Every year the league starts out saying they will do it, and every year, it’s back to the same old crap!
- Stop the flopping. Excessive reactions or play acting deserves a technical. We’re tired of players flopping, then following it up with a couple of snow angels and a rendition of the ‘worm’, in order to sell the foul. Stop the acting! Levy fines after the game for the bad actors.
- Call the moving screens! Is this a completely forgotten rule?
- Start calling charges correctly. Make a player be set BEFORE the player coming in leaves his feet! Stop the jumping in front of players, moving their feet, sliding and all the other permutations of drawing a charge. Let’s have the players actually play some defense, instead of this sham.
- Consider a 4th referee. NO not on the floor! A video ref, who can review every call. Give him the authority to review and reverse any call, any time. If 2 of the 3 floor refs don’t agree, they can review it. It would probably speed up the last 2 minutes
- Kobe, and multiple others, carry the ball more than they dribble. If the league is going to eliminate dribbling the ball, then do it, otherwise call the carry and force the players to dribble.
- Traveling should be between games not during every possession. Players catch the ball and change pivot feet. Now with the King James Rule, a player can almost make it to the rim for a dunk from the 3 point line, without dribbling. After they give up their dribble, they drop the ball and act like someone hit it off their hands, so they can restart their dribble.
- A novel suggestion from JazzAdict was…Get the refs off the court completely. Give them 2 or 3 cameras/monitors, positioned to give a complete view of the their area of the court. Set it up like a video game, with slow motion, stop action, zoom etc. They could have an overhead, and a couple of views of each play. Call the fouls from a video booth. This would stop the players whining, because no ref would be on the floor. Set up the foul lanes, foul line, center court (8 sec) and sidelines (out of bounds) with a cyclops, like they have in tennis, to make the calls electronically. As it is, these short, old men can’t keep up with, or even see, the play most the time. It would also eliminate the prima donna refs, who have bigger egos than the players.
I’m sure you have your pet gripes.
The big question is, how do we get our gripes to Kevin and the Committee?
Jazzaholic
Replies: 16
Views: 1436
* * * * * 2 Votes
16 Responses
I think the refereeing is going to become SIGNIFICANTLY worse if Pacers and Spurs make the finals. I know I am hoping that it is Pacers and Spurs. You know Stern doesnt want the Spurs who have the lowest rated finals ever. I look for thw Pacers to get totally jobbed out. I hope Sterns plans go to hell. Let Go Pacers…and Spurs.
Kevin o’ connor or David stern?
And I would love to see pacers-spurs final. Small market teams unite!
Moving screens are my BIGGEST peeve almost every screen that is set is illegal. Also traveling is bad. They need to understand that If a player is set with his two feet he catches the ball and steps forward it is a travel, if a guy runs down the floor and catches it and does not dribble it is a travel.
Agree with the superstar calls! It gets ridiculous
There is no possible contact with King David. He’s in that moated castle in NYC, with a 24 hour Swiss guard. So, no, I’m just hoping Kevin would see it and pass it on to the committee.
I’d like to see a couple of newbies, OKC and IND, in the finals. I don’t see anyone getting past the Spurs, but they’ve had their titles. Spread the wealth.
Anybody but the HATED Lakers. I’d like to see Boston and Miami lose too. Down with Big Markets and Big Spenders!
Jazzaholic
Technically, OKC has a championship, back when they were the super sonics
Just looked at the jazz history and anyone can see how favoritism has cheated the jazz out of games, especially against Lakers and Bulls. Even when Lakers beat Portland and Sacramento in the conference finals. King Stern cares about money and ratings.
Pacers need to win game 4 to put the pressure on Stern to job out the Pacers in 3 straight games. I LOVE that coach Vogel called out the Heat as floppers!!! All choaches from nonsuperstar teams need to complain to put the officials on the spot.
I hate Westbrook so I dont want OKC winning. I only want Boston in as long as Miami is in cuz I dont see Philly beating Heat. But I hate KG, so I want them out also. I hate Blake and Lakers so no explanation there.
I hope the spurs beat Pacers in the finals so Duncan can retire, and that will bring the Jazz closer to championship. The more I watch the Spurs the better I feel about the Jazz. I think the Jazz are 2 or 3 moves away from championship contention.
You’re right, before the Thunder came the Sonic Boom.
I can’t stand Fish Face, but it is the HATED Lakers, and there is some satisfaction in watching Fish Face stick it to his former team.
Duncan retire? He’s playing better now than his 1st championship.
KG is really a jerk, but he’s sure playing better than he has in years.
I may have to switch to the Clippers in my spread the wealth campaign…Naaaaa, they’ll be lucky to win a game.
Jazzaholic
Ya, thats what I’ve been reading. Thats why Duncan hasn’t signed a new contract. Pop and the whole team wants to send Duncan out on top. Duncan doesnt want to play anymore 82 game seasons. If they dont win the championship, I think hell sign a new contract. So I hope they win it all.
Realistically, I’d be good with addressing:
-Flopping ~ Van Gundy HATES floppers and at the referees discretion, needs to be a “change of possession” or a FT for the other team like a defensive 3 seconds.
-Traveling ~ Lebron, Durant, and Kobe get away with this almost every time they post up. They catch the ball in the post, then shuffle their feet ’til they establish the pivot foot. It really puts the defender at a disadvantage with the calls they already get.
-Refs ~ This one is always going to be tough. I don’t blame it on the refs as much, since Stern makes all the calls. The Kings should have a ring (Game 6 2002 vs Lakers). I think overall refs do a good job. I sat court side a few years ago and these players are so fast and physical it’s hard to catch every little thing that happens.
Oh, if you’re going to go as far as to fine refs for their poor officiating – the same needs to go for players flopping
2 grand per flop…just playing.
Like David Robinson retired as champ after 2003.
Ahhhh YES…fines for floppers. It sounds like a charitable organization.
They wouldn’t have to fine the refs. They could have 30% of their salary based on the missed calls/correct calls %.
This should include blown noncalls too.
Hold on MrsJazz just set a totally illegal, moving pick on me and I had to roll to the basket.
Jazzaholic
Stopping flopping is unrealistic. It is already penalty enough that if you flop it leaves your team down a man and usually results in a wide open shot.
Also would you really want the refs to be able to call flopping when a star like Kobe really fouls our small market players. It would be awful if they had that power.
Accept that it is a mental part of the game. It’s a strategy that has been used since the beginning. It already has a risk/reward built into it and it would be just as frustrating to get a flop called against your team when they were really fouled as when the opposing team gets a call for flopping.
Stern will really be put under pressure when the air-conditioner comes on and all 10 players on the court flop at once, with 6 doing snow angels, 3 doing the worm and one feigning an epileptic seizure.
It would be enough of a penalty, if the refs started calling charge/blocks and moving screens correctly, but they don’t.
I was just watching King James and DWade hook and grab every time they do a spin move. Then every time they go straight in, they push off. Is this just star power, or are the old men, who are supposed to be watching the play and calling the fouls, developing cataracts?
Jazzaholic
I saw an NBA commercial a little while back with Kobe doing a typical Kobe move to make a shot for himself. Its slowed down, with soft “feel good” music playing and he travels. Clear for anyone to see. They not only ignore it during the games they celebrate it later!
I was just thinking if Duncan goes out after a championship. I would do anything but trade Favors to nab Leonard.
Yes, there’s a lot of traveling music and celebration on the tube.
You’re not getting Leonard. SAS isn’t trading him.
Jazzaholic