NBA Refs: Racists???

For those that haven't heard, a study was just released claiming that white referees are biased in their calls depending on the race of the player. That relatively more fouls are called on black players while white players relatively get more calls.

Ok, I'm as tired of hearing the "race card" as much as the next guy...but first I have to say I think this study does have some validity.... though this study has very little value as far as the NBA is concerned. And even then, nothing can actually be done about it.

The point of the study was not to claim that refs are racist but that while many people are not directly racist...these underlying racial biases are very prevalent in every aspect of society...including the NBA. You can dismiss it if you want but if you study any psychology at all, basically any test in this area supports this point. Without any malicious intentions, it is very easy to "favor" someone of your own race, or favor someone you identify with in general. (Or for example take even studies that show how good looking people have a societal advantage in many aspects....heck, if you disagree ask yourself how many drinks you've bought hot girls or how many speeding tickets a hot girl has gotten out of as opposed an ugly one. Then there's the aspect of why there are so few black coaches and even less black GMs. Its not that the owners are racists...but that they probably identify with white interveiwees more than one of a minority ethnicity.)

Of course in any statistical study, it is easy to come to the results you want by manipulating various factors. So until we see the ACTUAL study, we have to consider different factors as to how the data was interpreted. There seem to be certain possible problems with how they gathered their statistics right off the bat. (ie. gathering statistics based on "all white crews" vs "all black crews" rather than individual refs, using boxscores (for this study to be completely accurate, they would actually have to watch every single game played and omit fouls that are committed intentionally, like a player racking up end game fouls.)) [edit: I should add here that new articles that have discussed this issue seem to indicate that many "experts" have looked into the study now and claimed that the study done by the professor and student are actually far superior to the follow-up study done by the NBA.]
But I have to say (only) one statistic did really bother me. That was that white players DRAW more fouls than black players. (According to the study, white players draw 0.64 more fouls per 48 mins). I think this is a very stark result and odd statistic. There are a ton of factors why black players may commit more fouls. Most starters are black. The better defenders in the league are usually black and so they are guarding the best offensive players on the opposing team. These better defenders also carry more defensive responsibility in terms of help defense, and actually their better defensive range may also account for more fouls (much like BJ Upton, though a bad fielder, probably commits even more errors due to having good range.). The players that are in at the end of close games will pick up more fouls for strategic purposes. And lastly, Chris Mihm who accounts for a vast majority of the "white fouls" is always injured! But I can't think of such factors to explain how white players can draw more fouls. Let's face it, in general the black players are more athletic and penetrate and drive a lot more than the average white player, many of whom are outside shooters. Yeah, there are exceptions but this is generally the case, and so while fouls CALLED can go either way and is pretty much dismissible, I really see no reason that white players should DRAW more fouls than black players.

But while I do think there is some validity in the study....I also think this is still a huge waste of time and money. What can a ref even do to counteract what he does subconciously? Start conciously calling more fouls on white players??? I'm sure there are no refs that are actually racist. We've all seen these refs a thousand times each and you see them get mad but you also see them laughing and joking around with black players all the time.

I think the league is much better off spending its time and energy correcting much more relevant officiating issues. Such as ticky-tack fouls, refs taking over the outcome of games, cleaning up the ridiculous amount of traveling by big men (they've already done a good job cleaning up the carrying-over dribble), and kicking players out of a game because they laughed at your call. Also, I feel refs should be able to call a technical foul when they are CERTAIN they see a flop. Of course if they can't see it for SURE they have to go with their regular inclination. But sometimes a player flops so blatantly and a ref can totally see it. They do well to decide on a "no call" , but they should also be able to call a technical foul just like in soccer a ref can penalize a player that attempts to "cheat" by flopping. The "flop" in essense is cheating and further it slows down the game and makes the ref's job all the more difficult forcing them to make difficult decisions about these repeated "bluffs". A technical foul isn't that big a penalty anyways, and wouldn't drastically affect the game, but at the same time a player would have to think twice about blatantly flopping.

I've tried reffing basketball and I can say its not the easiest thing in the world. We watch a ton of games and can tell a good call from a bad call, and for the most part, the refs do a good job. So instead of wondering what racial biases exist in the subconscious of white refs....these people should focus on racial bias studies pertaining to everyday American life, while the NBA should look to fix the officiating issues that actually matter to the game.