Putting The NBA's Review System Under Review

Scenes like this must stop

One of the great things about sports is its constant evolution.  As times change so do the games.  Teams are added and rules are changed or altered to make the games better, not only for the players, but for the fans.

Probably the greatest innovation to alter sports is the use of instant replay.  With the advanced technology we now possess, fans can now see right away if a call on the field, court or ice was missed or justified.  It only seemed rational that this same technology could be used by game officials to make sure calls, especially those that could change the outcome of a game, are correct.

All sports now have some kind of review for certain plays, and every year the use of replay seems to expand.  But by far the most frustrating and illogical use of replay can be found in the NBA.

Like most sports, an NBA game has constant swings of momentum.  One team will go on a huge run only to have the opponent come right back with a run of their own.  Coaches even strategize and use timeouts in an attempt to move momentum to their respective side.  These swings not only affect the teams involved but the fans as well.  Emotions run high during professional games, and having the home crowd behind a team can give them an extra push to take their game to a higher level, in addition to making the game more entertaining to the fans at home.

However, the system for review that the NBA employs destroys all of this.

Replay in the NBA is limited to buzzer beaters, determining if a shot is a two or three point field goal, assessing flagrant fouls and to correct time issues.  The three referees suspend play once there is a stoppage and go to the scorers table to look at the suspect play on a monitor to decide on the correct call.  The unfortunate thing about this is the massive time delay this causes, the break in flow it creates, and advantage it can create for one of the teams.

We are seeing this more and more in the playoffs this year, where a ball goes out of bounds, the clock runs a little long, and there is more than a five minute delay while the officials huddle to decide how many tenths of a second to add to the game clock.  This causes a team that may be hot to suddenly cool off.  It rewards a team that may have used all of their timeouts to have an additional huddle, allowing the coach to draw up a game plan for the rest of the game.  It causes all of the excitement to be drained from the fan base while they sit and wait.  There is nothing more exciting than the last few minutes of a game, and this system demolishes everything that makes those last few minutes exciting.

So what can be done?

We only need to look to the NHL (yes, hockey!) to see the way all major sports should conduct their reviews.

In the NHL every goal is reviewed.  That's right, EVERY goal for EVERY game is reviewed.  This is done through a "command center" in Toronto that watches every game being played.  If a goal is scored that is questionable, the review is underway before the celebration by the scoring team is even over.  The on ice official is immediately notified by Toronto and play is delayed while this review takes place.  The review rarely lasts five minutes and the call on the ice is confirmed or overturned.  The referee's don't huddle and don't pull out a tv to watch the play over and over.  They merely put on a headset and wait for the decision.  And if there is a clock issue, that problem is resolved  by off ice officials within a matter of seconds as well.

By utilizing off ice officials for these specific issues that may come up, the NHL is not only getting the play right, but preserving the flow of the game for everyone involved.

There is no reason while the NBA and other major sports can't do the same.  The on court/field officials aren't the only ones who are qualified to make these calls.  And to destroy the tempo of a game for something that can be done in an instant by an official in a press box is just inexcusable.  There are official timekeepers at games, why aren't they correcting the clock issues?  If a shot is a three when it was called a two on the court, why can't an official quickly review it and correct the score during the next stoppage without causing an additional delay?  These leagues already have official scorers, so why not employ an "official reviewer"?

The answer seems so simple, yet there still is a stigma within the officiating community that exists when it comes to replay review.  A lot has to do with the egos of the officials, not wanting to have their calls overturned by someone other than themselves.  Many want to keep the human element alive within these sports, as if that is a justification for not getting a call right.  But the bottom line should be what is best for the game, the players and the fans.

Although the NBA's current review format may lead to the right calls, the system itself is just wrong.