FIBA Officiating Is Wack!!!

It’s my ball so if we don’t play by my rules, we’re not playing!!!!

Guess what Clippa J. You are going and playing in a FIBA World Championship tournament. Yes, a FIBA tournament. The refs and rules are consistent year after year for people playing in FIBA leagues.

Just because your players come from the NBA, doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with the FIBA setup.

It’s just different and you aren’t used to it. There are plenty of travels that go on in the NBA that just get ignored by the refs. I’m sure all the millions of FIBA league fans cringe everytime they see that. Or officiating that gives benefit of the doubt to the superstars. There are weak and strong points in any sporting league in the world.

Didn’t you raise the level of basketball in 1992? Yes, the dream team that played then were unbelievable but just look at the roster, you’ll never, ever see anything like that again.

I love your bottom line, like how in your mind that is EXACTLY the reason why FIBA sucks.

It’s a sissy league!!! Don’t make me laugh boy.
The atmosphere is wack – Look up some of the greek and spanish game highlights on youtube you ignoramus.

As John R said, get your excuses in now. You can’t blame the refs. Blame your players and coach if you don’t win or just maybe accept that just because your an NBA fanboy, doesn’t mean that the rest of the world can’t play basketball.

I think that the problem here is that you just watch things like NBA and NFL that are obviously American based and think those rules should stand for everyone. It’s a big world out there and people do things in different ways – watch Italian soccer and you get a free kick if someone touches you whilst in Argentinian soccer, you can machete someones leg off and the ref gives you the benefit of the doubt!!!!!!

Don’t be scared of the big wide world Clippa J

because we all know none of those teams could compete with NBA rules. Tyson Chandler made a great play vs Spain when he tipped the ball out of the cylinder. These guys are getting the hang of it. Adaptability is a BBall IQ trait.

I have some observations that are in no way complaints or excuses:

1. FIBA is certainly much, much more physical. Simply by the fact that hand-checking is allowed, it’s inherently more physical. I personally enjoy this because it reminds me of the way the game used to be played. I think the NBA has gone a bit soft (with superstars complaining that someone’s touching their off-hand while they do a right handed layup… really??), and so in that way FIBA is refreshing.

2. FIBA also allows for extremely different types of defense that require offenses to focus on team play and passing rather than one-on-one isolations. This is precisely why we brought in a college coach to coach Team USA, where the situation is similar. And naturally, this really levels the playing field. Our team is most likely the most talented, with no glaring weak spots anywhere on the court/bench, but we’re also most likely the team with the worst chemistry. It’s the nature of the tournament, since Team USA is only formed a few weeks before each competition.

3. The referees have a very different view of player/coach reactions to calls. It’s extremely common for European players have… how shall I describe this… “Sasha Vujacic reactions” to calls. You know what I mean. A lot of pleading, looks of disbelief, and chatting with the ref after almost every call against the team. This does you no favors in the NBA, as it just appears to annoy the refs (especially when it’s Sasha). In FIBA, it seems like the refs actually respond to this behavior and chat back with the players. Whether or not this leads to make-up calls, I’m not sure, but it’s just a different reaction and Team USA certainly doesn’t take advantage of it. Also, it didn’t appear to take much for Coach K to get a tech, and I noticed the Spanish coach was always extremely composed, so perhaps the referees are much more tolerant of player’s making comments, and less tolerant of coaches making comments; this is also the opposite of officiating in the NBA/NCAA.

4. Their continuation rules seem to be a little more relaxed than the NBA ones, and we aren’t taking advantage of that at all. Spain had 2 wide-open continuation layups that I remember, and we didn’t even attempt to come block them. Just because a foul is called at the elbow, doesn’t mean Tyson Chandler can’t destroy Navarro’s baby layup. That’s a coaching mistake, and the players need to be aware that the play ends when the ball is in the ref’s hands after the foul.

5. Travelling is very “by the book” here. I remember Durant’s fake+drive to the hoop, and the rule is that he must let go of the ball before he lifts his pivot foot, and he didn’t do that. We just need to get acclimated to the more strict rules.

I must admit, I do have one complaint though: the officiating seems extremely inconsistent. On one hand, they’ll let Tyson Chandler practically body check a guy when trying to block him or get a rebound, but when he ever so slightly grazes the guy’s forearm when swiping at a rebound or shot, it’s a foul. Then on the other end, you have Alex Mumbru clearly hooking the American player, and we get called for a block. I understand there’s no superstar treatment (and it’s much better that way), but I expect consistency. Fortunately, they are consistently inconsistent with ALL teams, so this is more of a complaint than an excuse. It shouldn’t be so random though.

If we lose, it’s because we didn’t adjust to the changed rules, not because the rules were in any way unfair to us.