I Miss the Old Refs

Are today's refs scared to make a tough call?

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

There is this quote from Pat Riley—and I might be making it up, but it’s so good that I don’t even want to look it up to see whether it’s real or not—from his post-Showtime days as coach of either the Knicks or the Heat, where he said something like: “Commit a foul on every single play, because there’s no way the refs will call them all.” [Ed. Note—Actually, Phil Jackson said it ABOUT Riley.] If one were to adapt this quote to the chaotic end of Game Two between the Spurs and the Thunder, it would be more like: “Commit five fouls on the final play because they won’t call any of them.” 

In the case of the Thunder/Spurs debacle (just look at the official L2M report!) it wasn’t a case of relying on young officials. The referees in that game were Ken Mauer, Marc Davis (who was the sideline official for that final inbounds play), and Sean Corbin, who have a combined 69 seasons of NBA officiating experience. Mauer, with 30, has the most. Davis, with 18, the least. This is not just a matter of experience. This is, perhaps, a matter of personality.

with the official last two minute reports, it’s pick your poison—make a call and be vilified live, or don’t make it and be criticized later.

Which brings us to Joey Crawford, the 39-year veteran official who retired earlier this season after suffering a knee injury. The 64-year-old Crawford was lots of things—temperamental, showy, overly sensitive (he once famously tossed Tim Duncan from a game for laughing on the bench which resulted in his indefinite suspension). He often seemed to needlessly make himself the center of attention. People did not like him. But he also took no shit, and wasn’t afraid to make a call even in a crucial moment, provided he thought it was the right call. Put Crawford’s retirement alongside Dick Bavetta’s, who called it quits at the end of the 2014 season after his own 39 years, and that’s nearly 80 years of refereeing experience lost in just two seasons, leaving Mauer and Ken Garretson (29 years) as the league’s most experienced officials. Mauer is 61, Garretson 57.

Maybe what I miss isn’t the old refs as much as just-plain-old refs. The perfectly coiffed Mauer is just three years younger than Crawford, but it somehow seems like a way larger difference. Guys like Bavetta and Crawford had a different, less deferential relationship with the players, no doubt reflective of when they entered the league and what the league was like then. The difference between 40 years ago and 30 years ago is stark. Crawford started in the NBA in 1977, right after the ABA merger, before Magic and Bird. The don of referees then was 50-year-old Earl Strom, who got his NBA start in 1957 when the league was all of 11 years old. According to the late Darryl Dawkins, Strom welcomed Bavetta to the job by punching him in the face.

Mauer, on the other hand, refereed his first NBA game in 1986. He started alongside veteran officials including Strom and Jake O’Donnell (who got his start in 1967), but by that time the players had taken firm control over the league and the old crowd was on their way out. O’Donnell’s final game took place in the 1995 Western Conference Semifinals, when he controversially ejected then-Rockets star Clyde Drexler, with whom he’d had previous issues. O’Donnell’s 2,134th game would be his last. Other long-tenured refs clashed with new players (and new owners) as well—case in point being Bennett Salvatore's Game Five of the 2006 NBA Finals.

Salvatore, who got his NBA start in 1981, defined his job simply: "It could be a travel in the first moment of the game, as well as a play-ending foul," he told ESPN in 2007. "You have to be strong enough just to do what you're doing, and hope that it's right. But the most important thing is that you know what your employers believe it to be, right or wrong."

There is a lot that goes into refereeing. They are beholden to many masters, not least of which being the truth. The last thing I want to do is tell NBA officials how to do their jobs. As Yahoo’s Dan Devine pointed out, it is a job you probably do not want. Now, with the official last two minute reports, it’s pick your poison—make a call and be vilified live, or don’t make it and be criticized later. It seems most referees nowadays would rather make no call than the wrong call. They're willing to accept the latter to avoid the former. They make a choice. And the further we get into these playoffs I miss guys like Joey Crawford, who wouldn’t see a choice to be made there at all.

Latest in Sports