Comments on: Ballers http://www.journeytothemiddle.com/?p=390 Seven Guys, advancing Mediorcrity, one post at a time. Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:52:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Mohsen http://www.journeytothemiddle.com/?p=390#comment-3318 Mohsen Wed, 04 May 2005 17:43:05 +0000 http://www.journeytothemiddle.com/?p=390#comment-3318 The game was awesome, and I still feel like if Houston can get past the pesky Mavs, they'll be in the finals. I've been meaning to blog about this, but it seems like to me, of the three major sports, the refereeing in basketball is the least mechanical and most arbitrary. Of course, I'm not saying that there isn't a lot of room for disagreement regarding what is a strike and what is a 5 or 15 yard face-mask, but I've been watching basketball for more than a decade and I still don't even know the definition of a foul. Seriously, what is it? Excessive contact? Does it matter who initiates the contact? Is there no threshold level, but a relative difference between a foul and non-foul? Does this relative difference vary per game? Is good refereeing essentially calling arbitrary fouls <em> but calling them consistently and evenly on both teams throughout the course of the game</em>? If so, is there fixed defintion of a foul? (I'm begining to sound like my casebooks.) More than football (leaving aside the infamous "tuck" call that handed the Pats the AFC championship 'gainst the deserving Raiders in '02) and baseball, it seems to me that referees in basketball have the biggest impact on the outcome of the competititon, which means in this sense it's not a far cry from figure skating. Even so, it's my favorite sport (basketball that is). The game was awesome, and I still feel like if Houston can get past the pesky Mavs, they’ll be in the finals.

I’ve been meaning to blog about this, but it seems like to me, of the three major sports, the refereeing in basketball is the least mechanical and most arbitrary. Of course, I’m not saying that there isn’t a lot of room for disagreement regarding what is a strike and what is a 5 or 15 yard face-mask, but I’ve been watching basketball for more than a decade and I still don’t even know the definition of a foul.

Seriously, what is it? Excessive contact? Does it matter who initiates the contact? Is there no threshold level, but a relative difference between a foul and non-foul? Does this relative difference vary per game? Is good refereeing essentially calling arbitrary fouls but calling them consistently and evenly on both teams throughout the course of the game? If so, is there fixed defintion of a foul? (I’m begining to sound like my casebooks.)

More than football (leaving aside the infamous “tuck” call that handed the Pats the AFC championship ‘gainst the deserving Raiders in ‘02) and baseball, it seems to me that referees in basketball have the biggest impact on the outcome of the competititon, which means in this sense it’s not a far cry from figure skating. Even so, it’s my favorite sport (basketball that is).

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