NBA referees ask league to stop releasing public reviews of their calls

The National Basketball Referees Association is calling on the NBA to put an end to its public “Last Two Minute” report, the group said in a statement released on Tuesday.

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The National Basketball Referees Association is calling on the NBA to put an end to its public “Last Two Minute” report, the group said in a statement released on Tuesday.

Since February 2015, the league has released a public review of all calls and non-calls made by officials in the last two minutes of close games.

“The NBRA believes the league’s actions to promote so-called transparency will cause more harm than good for the officials and the game,” the association said in the statement. “We call for an end to L2M reporting and other transparency measures and a return to private, league-managed evaluations, reviews, education, training, and discipline for NBA officials.”

The NBRA argues that the public release of the reports “encourages anger and hostility towards NBA officials,” because the evaluation doesn’t do anything to impact the actual outcome of the games. The referees also say that “while the goal of transparency was to promote understanding and credibility, there is no evidence that progress against these goals is being made.”

In April, Heat guard Dwyane Wade argued that the NBA should scrap its L2M report after a controversial no-call at the end of a playoff game against the Hornets. Warriors coach Steve Kerr said in May that the reports “don’t serve a purpose” following a missed travel call on Russell Westbrook.

If the league decides to keep the L2M report, the NBRA says they’d like to see an increase in transparency, consistency and a forum implemented to allow for the challenging of a decision. 

– Kenny Ducey