Tensions between the NBA, referees, and players are higher than ever

Nothing the NBA can ever do will end the inherent tension between players and officials. Nothing the NBA can ever do will end the inherent tension between coaches and officials. And nothing the NBA can ever do will prevent an occasional moment in which those tensions manifest in something that looks like a fight.

The league is in one of those moments now. Referees have seemed particularly aggressive in unleashing technical fouls and ejections this season. Within the span of a week in November, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant (twice) were all booted from games. Durant has one additional ejection on his ledger this year. DeMarcus Cousins has two. Gregg Popovich was ejected twice in November. Counting players only, there have been 19 ejections this season, or one every fourth day.

That seems like a lot. But it’s not, compared to last year. There were 69 total player ejections last season, a much more frequent rate than what we’ve seen in 2017-18. This batch of boots has just appeared to be more notable because of the caliber of players involved — Durant hadn’t been ejected at all last season, LeBron had never been ejected in 15 years — and the questionable rationale in a few of those high-profile ejections. Instead of Markieff Morris and Brandon Jennings getting tossed, we’re getting mild-mannered Anthony Davis and Steph Curry. It’s been a bigger story, even if there’s no data suggesting ejections are becoming more frequent.

But narrative matters. So here we are.

There’s been a fairly major shake-up in the executive management ranks related to officiating in recent months. Byron Spruell, an NBA outsider, was hired as president of league operations last year. Part of his task is overseeing the ref program. He has rebooted it extensively at the executive level in his 18 months with the league.

Heading into this season, Bob Delaney — the former ref and mob cracker — left his role managing officials on a day-to-day basis. Michelle Johnson, a retired Air Force lieutenant general, replaced longtime executive Mike Bantom as the head of officiating operations in October. (Bantom was reassigned.) Just last week, the NBA announced the hire of respected veteran official Monty McCutchen to take Delaney’s old job.

Based on Jeff Zillgitt’s reporting for USA Today, McCutchen has been an ad hoc mentor for refs for years. The NBA thinks those skills are needed on a wider scale, and so McCutchen was tabbed to lead the effort. Improving communication between players, coaches, and officials has been pushed as the biggest need. He also talks up the role he’ll have in training and developing officials.

All this change might look like a reaction to the rise in tension between players and refs. But really, this is a typical flare up that happens to coincide with growing pains as new leadership finds its way.

There’s another factor at play, one that McCutchen might struggle to navigate. The NBA referees union has been more vocal than at any time in memory over the past year, fighting in public over the league’s embrace of “last two minute” reports and other accountability measures. Given the changes at the executive level in terms of oversight and priorities — Spruell has been vocal about using analytics and data to improve performance, including among refs — there is a good bit of tension between rank-and-file officials and their managers at the league office.

Here’s a good sign that refs aren’t feeling heard by management: The union’s executive director reached out to meet with the leadership of the players’ union, as reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. This is both a smart step toward calming tensions, and a bit of a slap in the league’s face. NBA management typically serves as a mediator and arbiter of judgment between refs, players, and coaches. Instead, the refs went straight to the players to try to broker peace. Based on Woj’s report, the conclusion the two sides came to after a two-hour meeting: It’s the league office’s fault.

The short version is that refs claim the NBA has instructed officials to put up “the stop sign” — in essence declining to discuss the players’ concerns during games — when players complain about calls. Players hate this and get even madder, often verbally abusing the officials. Refs turn that stop sign into a T. The escalation continues. You see the problem.

Except the league told Woj that it does not teach refs to shut down conversation — Spruell says that the stop sign “is not in their toolkit now,” perhaps indicating it was previously used but abandoned, which perhaps suggests that the message hasn’t really gotten across to the working officials. (Or it could suggest that the refs like using the stop sign because it provides temporary relief from verbal abuse, and they believe the NBA condones using it.)

This is a communication problem. McCutchen has been tabbed as the person to solve it. He certainly has the respect of fellow refs as well as players and coaches. The Los Angeles Times surveyed players and coaches on the best and worst refs last year; McCutchen came out as No. 3 behind only Danny Crawford and now-retired Joey Crawford. Given that refs (through their union) and players have indicated they want to communicate more, and given that this has been the league’s biggest selling point for McCutchen, it looks like everyone is moving in the same direction.

That said, the problem at the core of the issue remains: It’s not clear to anyone — not refs, not players, not coaches, not fans, and maybe not to league management — how much arguing and complaining players and coaches can or should get away with. Technicals and ejections remain inconsistent. We usually blame refs for that, but perhaps the league is giving unclear direction to its officials. Perhaps players and coaches are getting excessively aggressive.

In the end, the league needs to decide how much protest its officials will allow, and the league and officials need to stick to that threshold. Until then, the unclear expectations for all involved will only serve to fray the relationships and spark new fires. This should be McCutchen’s priority: Setting a standard for player-ref discourse with buy-in from all parties, communicating that standard to everyone, and ensuring his officials enforce it. Without that, the next big flare up is only a couple incidents away.