Fix The NBA Idea - Referees Should Be Required To Wait Half A Second Before Blowing A Whistle
I'm trying my best to live in the love side of my love/hate relationship with the NBA, but this foul called on Jokic put me over the edge last night. Now I'm not here to harp on the refs for being pathetic morons who continue to ruin the game. I'm not even here to drag Chet for his mere existence in the league being an indicator for how soft the league has become in allowing weak walking sticks to make it through the natural selection process. Instead - I come with an idea to at least think about that might curtail these weak flops players lay on and, in turn, the dolts blowing the whistle in response. I'm not sold on it fully yet. Just thought of it last night seething to myself at the abomination of a call I just saw.
Make referees wait a half second before blowing the whistle for any call.
Take notice tonight for Knicks/Celtics or any game after just how immediate any call on the floor is. It's insanely instant. Too instant. These refs are trained to identify and respond to a call with a speed no slower than a video game cpu. Bezos would kill to get any of these guys on the packaging line.
Seriously though. Why are we making them do this? And in the seldom instances refs do give a "late call" for a quarter second, they're called out on the broadcast as if they're lazy or indecisive. Sure - the speed of the game is fast and you don't want to give the impression that a ref called a foul due to something good or bad about to happen.
But tell me this. Is this the preferred alternative?
I was thinking about this compared to football. Any time a ref blows a whistle to stop a play dead it's generally because of some pre-snap infraction that is so obvious there is no way to screw it up. Of course - they find a way here and there - but that's not the point. A tackle jumps up pre-snap. A defender launches himself over the line in a kamikaze "stop the tush push" attempt. You get it. But aside from that - refs don't blow the whistle for fouls. They throw flags. And even the fraction of a second it takes for them to reach gives them time to change their mind before the flag is launched.
Not the case in the NBA. That whistle is in mouth with tongue at the ready. Any social research paper will tell you it takes the human brain a quarter of a second to receive stimuli yet there these guys are expected to process at PS5 speeds. Sure - it'll take a little getting used to. But I can't help but think this would allow refs to course correct when they realize how blatant a player flopped. Because I'll be honest - I could go without seeing things like Julius Randle preparing for the role of JFK's Final Day.
