Ghosts of EuroBasket: this season's EuroLeague officiating asks for improvement / News - Basketnews.com

BasketNews Daily Writer Pijus Sapetka reviews the most debatable officiating mistakes in the first 17 EuroLeague rounds, providing possible solutions for the near future and comparing the 2022-23 situation with last season's EuroLeague edition.

Credit: SPO – Scanpix, Screenshots Credit SPO – Scanpix, Screenshots

Yes, officiating topic again... Refereeing was a constant theme throughout FIBA EuroBasket 2022. Well-known coaches (Vincent Collet, Ergin Ataman), one of the best players in the world (Luka Doncic), a few EuroLeague stars (Mario Hezonja, Nicolo Melli), and plenty of others were complaining about this part of the game.

"Give us EuroLeague referees" was one of the most popular narratives among the European basketball community.

Would they have been the solution? The 2022-23 EuroLeague season makes us question it.

EuroLeague refs and table officials made four critical mistakes in the first seventeen rounds that the organization itself officially acknowledged.

And we are ignoring some other questionable calls during the dying seconds of the EuroLeague duels.

For example, Round 15 match in Istanbul, where Scottie Wilbekin was called a dubious personal foul against Aleksa Avramovic, who then decided the outcome of the game at the free-throw line.

Officially confirmed mistakes:

Round 2: AS Monaco vs. Anadolu Efes Istanbul. EuroLeague admitted that referees made an error by not calling a foul against Vasilije Micic with 6.0 seconds left, and the game tied at 82 in the 4th quarter. Anadolu Efes point guard attempted a 3-pointer, while John Brown landed on the right foot of Micic, and then Jaron Blossomgame also made contact with the same right foot. Still, no foul was called on the play. Efes lost in overtime. Round 5: Real Madrid vs. Virtus Segafredo Bologna. EuroLeague recognized the USC (Unified Scorers Crew) mistake in the 4th period and corrected the final result of the match. The crew wrongly introduced a free throw conversion of Dzanan Musa instead of the turnover committed. The situation was not corrected during the game leading to a wrong final score of the game 92-95. The correct final score is 91-95. Round 11: ALBA Berlin vs. FC Barcelona. EuroLeague confirmed that referees failed to start the game clock and didn't recognize the error, as the timekeeper was also late in starting the game clock after Nikola Mirotic's missed free throw with 4.7 seconds left, which gave ALBA extra 3 seconds to tie the game or take the win. Round 16: Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade vs. FC Barcelona. EuroLeague admitted that Nikola Mirotic stepped on the sideline and committed an out-of-bounds violation that should have resulted in possession of the ball being awarded to Crvena Zvezda with 3.3 seconds remaining. Instead, Barca's star forward hit an incredible buzzer-beating three-pointer to send the game to overtime. The Catalans ended up winning.

As we can see, Monaco-Efes and Zvezda-Barcelona's officiating errors directly affected the final result. The same scenario could have happened in Berlin as well.

Though, EuroLeague defended such speculations in their official post-game statement, saying that "if at any moment the play would have altered the result of the game, the game clock error would have been reviewed in the Instant Replay System as this is a reviewable play."

Meanwhile, the ghost free-throw of Dzanan Musa had no major effect on the final outcome.

Anyhow, officiating issues exist, and EuroLeague has made the first decisive step to acknowledge them.

Despite that, the organization fails to play according to its own rules. EuroLeague's motto says that "Every Game Matters".

Considering the competitiveness in the league this season, every result counts. A single unfair loss can potentially lead to some teams flopping and not making the Top 8, while others can lose a home-court advantage ahead of the playoffs.

"We know that it's impossible to referee a game without making a mistake," retired EuroLeague ref Luigi Lamonica said. "The important thing is that if we know that we have made it, we must study it and understand the reason."

Exactly. Everything is a learning process, and making mistakes is what makes us human.

But if we have said A, we must also say B: domestic games should be learning material for the best European officials because the current EuroLeague level doesn't excuse the wrong whistles, particularly in crunch time.

At the same time, refs have more technical assistance than ever before, and the number of mistakes is increasing. They have been recognized by the league, but it's a little consolation for Efes or Red Star.

Possible solutions

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