The Official NBA Refs Twitter Account Can Go Right To Hell
You may remember a few weeks ago I wrote this blog
It's mostly about how things have gotten extremely out of hand when it comes to one of the main issues with the NBA product right now. This jumping into defenders bullshit. We all know it's not a basketball play. Players do it to get bailed out because they know the officials are going to call it. It's a problem and everyone knows it.
So @OfficialNBARefs can shut the hell up trying to justify this nonsense. It's OK to say you know what, we messed up, things are getting out of hand, we'll adjust. You don't even have to say it on Twitter, just do it. Well let's see how they go about spinning this
OK, I already have a question. How do you expect someone to challenge a jump shot if they can't jump towards a shooter? That's….illegal?? You see right off the bat I want to stuff your head in a locker. Things are hard enough for defenders in today's NBA. Now you can't even challenge jumpers? How does that seem like a good idea. I get not being able to land in the shooter's space. No problem with that rule. But holy shit.
Hey dickheads. Maybe it should be. This is confusing because this was also you
Whoops! That sort of throws a bit of a curveball into your reasoning I would say.
The onus is on the defender to move out of the way when he's already airborne? Again I ask what the fuck you are even talking about. This is the whole point. What Luka did here should NOT be legal. He's 1000000000% jumping forward and into the defender. Something that used to be an offensive foul.
I'm willing to concede that I am mostly a moron, but I am once again confused. No shit his movement is taking him towards Luka…he's challenging a shot! He didn't land in his airspace or anything like that. Luka leaned into his, so I am having a hard time connecting the dots here as to why this would be illegal positioning by the defender.
Here's another thing this thread doesn't address that we see happen all the time. What about when guys side step/lean into a jumper and get this call? They aren't jumping towards the rim. I don't even buy that explanation in the first place but it seems like they aren't being very consistent. Not only that, but if a shooter kicks out his leg, that's an offensive foul, but completely jumping forward into a defender isn't? Make that make sense.
Defenders have to be able to contest jumpers and land in open space without this being deemed "illegal positioning". If that's the case, how can anyone play defense? The offensive player is initiating the contact on a legal contest by making a move that has been called an offensive foul for years. Now it's not and that's the problem. It's a bail out attempt for when a defender actually has them defended well.
So no, @OfficialNBARefs, I reject this explanation. If anything, you are just exposing WHY this is such a problem. Use your brain for me one time and fix this. If not, you're going to have a big playoff moment come down to a play like this and everyone will just stop watching your product. Because with an explanation like that, it seems like there's a whole lot that needs fixing.