Written by Zach Harper | 22 March 2009

"Some things you cannot take out of the arsenal of the officials. It's not a stare to start some kind of disagreement or goad him into getting ejected, it's just like, 'Hey, enough is enough.' And basically he didn't even stare him down. He walked away, he turned his back per what he is trained to do and he removed himself from the situation."

"As far as we're concerned, Billy Kennedy followed every rule according to the referee's manual as it relates to handling situations like this. The only person in this scenario who has had a pattern of behavior that is unprofessional is Doc Rivers, not Billy Kennedy." -- Referees Union Spokesman, Lamell McMorris

This quote speaks to the extremely divided sides of the current power struggle in the NBA. Officiating is the most blamed and ridiculed aspect of any sport for a team's losses. And nothing has been under more scrutiny the last three to five to ten seasons than NBA officiating. There are plenty of acceptable reasons for missed calls because of the human error element involved but there's often times when it seems like refs are in a bad mood/wanting to get some of the spotlight mood and that they pick incidents with players and coaches.

The most notable one was the Joey Crawford, Tim Duncan debacle from a couple of years ago that nearly ruined the credibility of one of the top officials that this sport has ever seen. One of the more memorable ones for me was back in the JailBlazers days in Portland with Rasheed Wallace in full tantrum and Steve Smith trying to play the role of Bruce Jenner to his group of Kardashian level of crazy players. Rasheed Wallace was perturbed about a call from veteran referee, Steve Javie. Rather than his typical arms flailing and expletive flying display of discord, Sheed just stood on the floor after a timeout and stared at Javie while the players entered the court from an extended national television timeout.

What happened next was quite amusing and alarming. As Sheed continued to stare, Javie seemed to grow more and more agitated. He hit Sheed up with his second tech of the game and all hell broke loose. Wallace had to be detained by his teammates and Steve Smith pleaded with Steve Javie didn't want to hear it. He told Steve Smith to get away from and that Rasheed was trying to intimidate the official. Now, I'm all for believing that certain players are crazy enough to do something bad to a ref on the court. I mean, if a cool-headed individual can head-butt an official like Nick Van Exel once did then anything can happen. But this one seemed a little odd because it was a nationally televised game and Javie didn't have a lot of substantial evidence to eject Rasheed from the game.

Once again, with maybe their worst approval rating of all time, the referees seem to be unnecessarily stepping into a spotlight that doesn't belong to them. The referee union seems to be upset that Doc Rivers "picked a fight" with an official and that the official was also fined for the same incident. I think that if the fine hadn't been announced, then this quote probably never hits the media. But since it did, they have to step up for their member and throw out a less-welcomed statement than something by PETA.

I think that refs should be fined for egregious mistakes just like players and coaches are and I think that they deserve the same public ridicule by announcing these fines and even suspensions if the league deems it necessary. The refs have to be held accountable for their mistakes just like any employee who screws up at their given job. Perhaps if we make these things public, it will lead to better officiating and less valid complaining from players and coaches about why the refs cost them the game.

Let's all have some accountability here.

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