Draymond Green, the NBA’s leader in total technical fouls, thinks something needs to be done about the relationship between players and officials.
No need to read between the lines here. Green told as much to The Athletic’s Anthony Slater (h/t NBC Sports for first pointing this out):
“It’s bad,” Green told The Athletic. “It’s horrible. It’s really bad. I don’t know why it is. But I think it’s ridiculous. It’s ruining the game. … It should be one of, if not the main priority, to be solved. It definitely should.”
Green has grown so frustrated with the situation that, when asked for a possible solution, he threw out a radical idea.
“They can get a new crop (of referees), a whole new crop,” Green said. “Too many personal things going on. Too much me against you. It just don’t work that way.”
Of course Green feels this way. He’s immersed in on-court foul-count drama as much as anyone in the league. And, to his underlying point, his reputation precedes him. Though the referees are not fully responsible for what’s going on—or even necessarily wrong in their interpretations of most mid-game decisions—there has always been an element of past behavior to the way games seem to be officiated.
Take DeMarcus Cousins, for example. Refs are ostensibly quicker to T him up because of his prior outbursts. And it’s the same story with Green. He’s been the subject of much controversy—2016 playoffs anyone?—and thus, it seems, isn’t given the same leeway as a Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant.
Fair? Unfair? Who the hell knows. But bringing in a whole new crop of referees would represent beyond drastic measures and, again to Green’s point, just isn’t possible. And officials, to their credit, may not see what they do as unfair treatment. They might just think giving certain players a shorter leash ensures things won’t get out of control. Again, this may be fair, it may be unfair.
The real moral of the story, though? There’s no way to entirely remove subjectivity from how NBA games are officiated.
