Adam Silver reveals how the NBA deals with referees mistakes / News - Basketnews.com

Adam Silver said that referees' assignments are affected after crucial mistakes but the league doesn't announce it because it thinks it wouldn't be appropriate. The commissioner believes that giving the coaches a way to challenge no-calls would negatively impact the game.

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The NBA officials have been under heavy fire recently, especially after several calls or non-calls that went viral on social media.

Basketball fans have been questioning whether the referees receive any kind of punishment for their errors during crucial moments. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has publicly confirmed that there is a way of dealing with the errors.

"We don't publicize discipline for officials. We don't think that will be appropriate," Silver told during an interview with ESPN's Sage Steele. "Their assignments are affected by the quality of their calls, whether or not they progress into the playoffs and then round by round is impacted by the accuracy of their calls and their demeanor on the floor. So there is a system for overseeing and making those judgements about officials."

The most recent example that caused public outrage happened during a game between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers when Jayson Tatum fouled LeBron James when he was attempting a last-second layup that could've given the Lakers the win but no foul was called.

The referee union later even publicly apologized for the mistake.

"I know some people in that particular call you mentioned in that Celtics-Lakers game were upset that there was no opportunity for replay," Silver addressed the episode. "Many people focused on the coach not having another challenge. But remember in our league, you can't challenge a non-call. And there's a lot of difficulty there when you get into non-call."

"You could suggest every moment of a game is a non-call when a call isn't being made in a way. But so what's the beginning and the end of the play? And if indeed the officials missed the foul but then the other team is saying, well, go back 15 seconds, they missed something else there," the commissioner explained.

Silver thinks that just giving coaches another opportunity would not serve the game.

"It's not an easy issue, but it's something we're going to look at because my personal view is I don't mind the challenge system but also think the ultimate goal is to get it right, not put the pressure on the coach in terms of that additional tactic on using their challenge appropriately," he said.

Earlier this week, a report surfaced that the NBA is planning to tie the end-of-season awards with the number of games played. In this way, the league was reported to try and incentivize the players and deal with the load management issue which has caused a decrease in the number of matches played by the game's biggest stars.

Silver confirmed that the league is considering it as an option.

"I don't think it's just about incentivizing players to play more, that the teams are as much a part of the load management as the players are, because again, I think there's been a societal shift. Everything's about winning a championship these days and it's less, I think in all sports, about how you perform day in and day out. And so it's a cultural issue as well."

"There are a few things we're addressing in collective bargaining, for example, I think we ensure that some of our awards require a minimum number of games be played, that we're celebrating not just average number of points, but total number of points, that the culture is guys being out on the floor as much as they can."

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