CLEVELAND, USA – The National Basketball Referees Association asked the NBA on Tuesday, June 7 (Wednesday, June 8) to stop issuing reports on the last two minutes of tight games to analyze the accuracy of late-game calls.
Just 5 days after NBA commissioner Adam Silver backed the reports as important to show transparency, the officials union said making the reports public harms referees and the sport by creating hostile environments and says there is no evidence reports have helped create more trust with fans through open self-criticism.
"The Last Two-Minute Report, we do to be as transparent as possible with the public in terms of how we think critical moments of the game are being officiated," Silver said. "We're in the second year of our Last Two-Minute Reports and I still remain strongly behind them."
The referees outlined reforms and recommended changes if the NBA continues making the reports public for games that won by a margin of 5 or fewer points.
According to the NBA, referees make the correct call 96.2 percent of the time on whistled plays and 87.2 percent on all plays in the final two minutes of games.
"Now, I understand the criticism from some of the teams: What's the point? Why are you telling the world that this call was decided incorrectly? Nothing can be done about it after the fact," Silver said.
"In terms of building confidence in the public, they want to see consistency. They want to understand if we call something a foul, why we called it a foul, and we often give explanations for why we believe something was a foul, whether it was correctly called or incorrectly called.
"Also the fans want to have a better understanding how we see the game. And it gives them transparency into the media so they can judge us accordingly."
In May, the NBA admitted in the reports that referees had botched by not calling Russell Westbrook for traveling late in Golden State's loss to Oklahoma City in game one of the Western Conference finals.
In Oklahoma City's second-round series against San Antonio, the league admitted officiating crews made errors in the second and fifth games, both that benefitted Oklahoma City.
"We're building trust and integrity in the league. People are going to recognize that officials are going to make mistakes. They are going to try to understand why," Silver said.
"Last Two-Minute Reports are showing the referees get it right about 90 percent of the time. I'd like that to be 100 percent. I'd love to get zero errors. I don't think we're ever going to be there. But we can learn from these reports." – Rappler.com