The Silliness of Foul Calling in Modern Basketball Era

Throughout the course of its history, the NBA has wowed its viewers with specular

games, highlights, and occurrences that usually take over the sports world by storm. In the world

of basketball, there are a lot of variables that may exist a certain time that can change the

outcome of a game. From injuries to fouls, anything may happen within the grueling 48 minutes

of action on the court. Fouls are given out by referees to players, coaches, or staff whenever they

perform actions that are deemed illegal which either disrupts the flow of play or inflicts harm on

the other team. Although, at certain instances, the officials can tend to misuse their power by

giving a player an overkill foul call or an overwhelming, unfair advantage to a team. At the end

of the day, it is mainly based on what the referee saw and how he/she conveys the reason for the

foul. Leagues all over the world should start disciplining the officials and players for them not to

ruin the purpose of “fouling” because it ruins some exciting aspects of the sport.

According to an examination text written by Kyle Anderson and David Pierce, in their

analysis of the NCAA, they found out that the referees were calling out more fouls to the team

with the lesser number of violations (Anderson & Pierce). In a certain scenario, it puts the

affected team at a disadvantage especially in clutch situations in the last few minutes of the

games. Foul calling leads to free throws which applies a big advantage opposing team.

Additionally, they also found out that visiting teams were more likely to suffer from heavy

numbers of foul calls than the home team, and the teams that were leading towards the end of the

game were at a higher risk of receiving foul calls (Anderson & Pierce), so the trailing team

would have a chance to catch up with them resulting to more interesting and thrilling games.

Another study agrees with the given argument as more fouls were given to the winning team at

the closing period (Kendall M. Thu, Kelly Hattman, Vance Hutchinson, Scott Lueken, Nathan
Davis, Elmer Linboom). Fans do not want to see their favorite team get blown out, so officials

try to keep it competitively close to keep up the entertainment factor of the games, especially in

the play-offs. It may seem good for viewers, but it severely affects the competitive integrity of

the game.

In the NBA, some fans have stated that foul calling has become worse for the past few

decades. In an analysis related to the NBA foul calling, it was found out that game officiating is

different in terms of the height of the crew of referees in the game (Gift and Rodenberg). More

personal falls were called when the referees were shorter than the average recommended height.

It may be due to numerous factors such as vision and view. A tall person would be able to easily

spot an action from a slightly better height while the shorter official may have a higher chance of

not seeing the action due to the reduced view limiting their perception of the plays happening in

game. It would be wiser if taller referees were to officiate the future games of the league because

they would not only be able to see more action on the court, but players would be more

discouraged to pick a fight with them.

The referees were not the only ones who were called out for misusing their power but

also the players themselves. Flopping has become very prevalent in the modern age of basketball

wherein a player intentionally falls to the floor trying to get the offensive foul on the charging

opposing player. A study conducted in the Israeli Basketball League observed that the teams

were really abusing the foul call since it had a 66% chance of being a successful charge on the

attacking player (Morgulev, E., Bar-Eli, M., Sabag, E., Lidor, R., & Azar, O.). Although foul

catching may seem like a technique viable for all teams, for casual viewers of the sport, the

sequences may be tough to watch. Larger sum of monetary penalty (either equating to a specific
percentage of their salary) must be fined to the players who do it frequently to limit its

occurrence in the leagues.

Too much foul calls makes the game duller because were scoring the “easier way”.

Audiences have missed the “grit and grind” aspect of the game that have reached its peak in the

80s going into the early 2000s. Currently, superstars like James Harden, Joel Embiid, and Trae

Young have depended on foul calls to earn more points; there were games that they were

rewarded 15 plus free throws which is more than half of the league’s average today, 19.9

(Trister). Players have gotten used to expecting calls from the referees each time they get

touched by their defender, The world-renowned league has already started to limit the number of

fouls given to the players by reconsidering some actions whose only purpose was to catch fouls.

Whenver in doubt, the officials should not always trust their eyes and should start reviewing

plays using replay cameras installed in the whole court. Some games in the past have been

toughly decided according to the calls of the referees in the late game which were then

considered a miscall after reviews of fans on the replay after the game. Fines should be given to

the officials who are seemingly abusing their power by disrupting the competitive integrity of the

game. Even though this variable adds to the drama and pressure in the league which in turn

excites its fans, there should still be a way to limit the foul calls in the basketball world.
Cited Works:

Kendall M. Thu, Kelly Hattman, Vance Hutchinson, Scott Lueken, Nathan Davis, Elmer

Linboom; Keeping the Game Close: "Fair Play" Among Men's College Basketball

Referees. Human Organization 1 March 2002; 61 (1): 1–8.

doi: https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.61.1.3hn68af24wahbvr3

Kyle J. Anderson & David A. Pierce. “Officiating bias: The effect of foul differential on foul

calls in NCAA basketball.” Journal of Sports Sciences, 27:7, Jan. 2009, pp. 687-694, DOI:

10.1080/02640410902729733

Morgulev, Elia, et al. Deception and Decision Making in Professional Basketball: Is It

Beneficial to Flop?, vol. 102, June 2014, pp. 108–118., https://doi.org/ISSN 0167-2681.

Paul Gift and Ryan M. Rodenberg. “Napoleon Complex: Height Bias Among National

Basketball Association Referees.” Journal of Sports Economics, vol. 15, no. 5, Oct. 2014,

pp. 541–558, doi:10.1177/1527002514535168.

Trister, Noah. “Amid Officiating Changes, Free Throws down for Some Stars.” NBA, 3 Nov.

2021, https://www.nba.com/news/amid-officiating-changes-free-throws-down-for-some-

stars.