Charlotte Hornets most recent team caught in referee criticism

Being an NBA referee means being criticized. During the Charlotte Hornets’ latest game against the Dallas Mavericks, Luka Doncic picked up his 16th technical foul of the season. At 16 technical fouls received, the player is suspended for one game. Important, as the Dallas Mavericks (currently 11th in the Western Conference) will need every win they can muster to make the postseason in a crowded conference.

The technical, and therefore the suspension has been rescinded.  So far, no explanation has been submitted as to why the referee’s technical was rescinded. Doncic recently received a fine for making a money gesture to a referee after a call went against the Mavs late in a close game.

The referees this season, perhaps more so than any other time since the Tim Donaghy scandal, have been the focus of a lot of negative media. Fred Van Vleet recently had a viral postgame moment that singled out a particular referee, Ben Taylor. Van Vleet said that whenever Taylor is refereeing one of Van Vleet’s games he is one of those refs that makes it personal.

Is it harder than ever to be an NBA referee?

While Van Vleet called out Taylor specifically, he did mention that there were a handful of referees that were guilty of that type of behavior. Van Vleet was later fined for his comments, something he acknowledged at the beginning of his statement that he expected and was willing to pay it.

Van Vleet wasn’t the only player that has expressed an issue with the officials lately, Scottie Barnes was tossed from a game by Scott Foster for allegedly talking to himself. And the Los Angeles Lakers made quite the stink earlier in the year after several calls didn’t go their way late in games. The most egregious was the missed foul on Jayson Tatum when he hit LeBron James on what would have been a game-winning layup attempt.

That missed call was enough for even the NBA to not only acknowledge the missed call but openly speak about the difficulty in refereeing the NBA games. Since that Jan 29th game, the Lakers have since had the most free throw attempts of any team, according to Statmuse.

The NBA began publishing two-minute reports to break down the events of the last moments of games for the sake of transparency. Having a product in entertainment completely devoid of malfeasance is important in a spectator sport. Particularly a spectator sport that generates billions of dollars in betting revenue. And that transparency hasn’t quelled referee angst.

Maybe the increased criticism is because of the remnants of what happened with Donaghy that the criticism is at such a fevered pitch. Or maybe, with streaming services like League Pass, which allow people to see every play of every game (with frame-by-frame detailed replay), fans are more aware of every refereeing gaffe. Or perhaps social media and 24-hour sports channels’ general analysis of sports minutia has made disparaging remarks so popular that it echoes.

Regardless of the reason, the NBA has an issue on its hands with how the game is being officiated, or at least how it is perceived. Whether or not more transparency (like referees being available to be interviewed by the general media after games) will help is anyone’s guess. But having lingering questions about the integrity of the game is a large problem that likely isn’t going away soon.