Big Shock: NBA refs favor home teams, and those facing playoff elimination.

Economists publish study that shows refs give slight edge to teams trailing in games, trailing in a playoffs series, and those playing at home.
I don't mind the NBA disputing the study, but it doesn't even seem to have cared about reading it.

http://www.oregonlive.com/nba/index.ssf/2009/06/professors_nba_officating_stud.html

 

Remember this one from two years ago, suggesting there was a racial bias in the way referees called games?

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/2007-05-02-nytimes-study-refs_N.htm

 

... and teams from New York, Los Angeles and Boston when they're facing small-market competitors in playoff series.

 

Actually the study disproved THAT premise.

 

Yeah, because LeBron's in a small market.

 

you know, maybe the teams facing elimination play harder or maybe teams get energy from the home crowd... but to say officials cheat is just getting old. The NBA refs are the best in the world at what they do. Are they perfect, nope. But for an economist to say they cheat and have credibility... maybe the economist should be worried about economic issues...

 

How do they know?

 

The study hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

 

YEAH! How's my ecomony doing! Bitches.

 

You cannot possibly have watched the NBA for the past 20 years and truly believe the officiating is anything but a disgrace. I don't think the study says they were necessarily cheating; the article suggests a link between attendance and favoritism, so maybe it's the psychology of making a quick decision under duress. But the officiating is just piss-poor, whether it's intentional or not -- and with all the unanswered questions about the Donaghy case and Stern's huffy dismissal of any talk about the situation, you really do have to wonder.

 

All I know is when I'm watching the NBA playoffs and I see two teams play five, six or seven times, the least consistent thing game to game is the officiating. Now I realize they bring in new crews every game with different styles and make the teams adjust to the officiating, and it's different from football and baseball, but I just don't see hockey teams getting a third more or a third fewer penalty minutes from game to game like I do a basketball series.

 

Officials are human beings who get caught up in the emotions of the moment *and* fans who go on about awful reffing are wrong.

Both statements are true.