Who is the best NBA referee? Who is the worst? In an attempt to answer these questions the Los Angeles Times anonymously surveyed nearly three dozen NBA players, head coaches and assistants about how they feel about NBA referees, and the results were interesting, to say the least.
What isn’t surprising is that coaches and players found it easier to come up with the bad refs than the good ones:
“Are there any out there?” one longtime assistant coach asked incredulously, when asked to list the three best.
“Oh, there are a lot of them,” said a veteran player, who was laughing after being asked to list the three worst.
Here are the results of the survey, per The Times.
The three best:
- Danny Crawford, who got 30 votes.
- Joey Crawford (no relation), with 25 votes.
- Monty McCutchen, with 13 votes.
The three worst:
- Scott Foster, with 24 votes.
- Lauren Holtkamp, with 14 votes.
- Marc Davis, with 12 votes.
Perhaps the biggest surprise on the list is Joey Crawford, who is known for his ridiculously short temper and penchant for throwing up technical fouls after what seems like little provocation. However, he has apparently softened his stance a bit in his latter years.
“Once upon a time, you couldn’t talk to Joey,” an NBA head coach said. “He’s cleaned that up — big time. He runs it when he’s on the floor now. For me, that’s big. I don’t care if it’s at home or on the road, he’s not going to get intimidated by the crowd. To me, that’s big with officials. You have guys that are homers, where the home crowd can sway them. But not Joey.”
On the other side, Lauren Holdkamp isn’t making many fans. But this isn’t a huge surprise. More often than not change isn’t exactly accepted with open arms, and she’s breaking into a world that has previously been dominated by men.
“Take the female part aside, she’s just new,” a player said. “But with her, I thought she took it a little bit personal, thinking players talk to her the wrong way. When you’re young, like an NBA player or a ref, you’ve got to come in seeking knowledge. You can’t come in blowing the whistle. She came in like, ‘I’m a female and you’re not going to talk a certain way to me.’ No one called her a bad name. No one disrespected her. It’s her terrible calls.”
As for the worst of the bunch, Scott Foster was accused of being unapproachable, thinking he “never makes a mistake” and loving to “stick it” to home teams.
Danny Crawford, on the other hand, was lauded for his communication with players, for admitting when he’s wrong and for treating everyone with respect.
Just as we find in the real world, being “good” at something oftentimes has just as much to do with attitude and communication as it has to do with competence in the work place.
Of course, for NBA refs it’s likely hard to please players and coaches, regardless of attitude, when calls are going the other way.