The Drubbing

Officiating in the NBA has gone through an intentional, systematic, year-by-year shift. The advantage tipping further and further in favor of the defensive side of the ball. The amount of offensive foul calls, all over the court, with or without the assistance of a defensive “flop” is officially outrageous. But his is nothing new.

Then there is the “clearing” foul, when an offensive player going up for a layup is whistled for a foul when they push away the arm of a defensive player that is trying to block their shot. However if an offensive player is dribbling the ball outside of the arc, they’re allowed to “block” an attacking defender’s advancing arms with their arm. This inconsistency came to light over and over again in the Orlando vs. Celtics series.

The NBA even highlights how a defensive player is allowed to “hand check”, but when the offensive player attempts to guard against that play (which is by rule a foul) by extending his arm to protect the ball, he is whistled for a personal foul.

For anyone that thought Bowen learned to be dirty in San Antonio

The NBA claimed that they were going to crack down on this. Their solution, fine the floppers. But I cannot recall one player getting fined for this during the entire season

The one notable exception to this is when an offensive player attacks the rim, which was highlighted in the second night of NBA conference championship play when Dwight Howard was accessed his 6th and final foul. And that is when an offensive player is running toward the hoop, rises up and has their shot contested by a defensive player at the rim.

Unless the defensive player turns their body to let the offensive player pass by them, and contests the shot only after it is released, then they will be awarded a personal foul, without question. Regardless of whether or not the defensive player goes straight up, regardless of whether any contact is made at any point in the play between any part of the two players bodies. A foul will be called on the defensive player. The unbelievably poor call made against Howard is just the most recent instance of this.

Players like Derek Fisher, Manu Ginobili, Kobe Bryant have made a living off of this while the big man bias in officiating continues. Strong, dominant big men like Shaq, Dwight Howard, Yao Ming, Al Jefferson, Elton Brand and Carlos Boozer get elbowed, shoved and hacked every single play and nothing is called 99% of the time. But every single time a guard drives into them or they box out just a little to hard, they get whistled.

These are all grown men. Let them play like it.