The NBA's Referees "Respect For The Game" Program Is Some Of The Most Pathetic Shit You'll Ever Read

Christian Petersen. Getty Images.

Look, I spend a lot of time trying to defend the league and the sport that I love. But I'm sorry, what the hell is this? This reads to me like NBA refs want to be able to do whatever they want, have the ability to make horrendous calls or mistakes withour reprocussions from the league, and also wants players to not react at all to these mistakes while playing a game.

Quite simply, that is outrageous. 

"Attempting to demonstrate actions, like a travel"

"Repeatedly asking questions"

"No aggressive arm motions"

"Running away from a play"

I'm sorry…but come on. What are we even doing here? Did the Players Association agree to this? Now players asking questions or running away from a play is against some sort of rule? It feels like we're being Punk'd or something.

The most obvious question I have is how is this going to be enforced consistently. As we know, different players are allowed to get away with different shit. You think these rules are going to matter to LeBron or Luka or any other blue chip superstar? No chance! The thing is, half of those rules are subjective! What if someone considers an action aggressive when another official might not? 

Basketball is an emotional game. Things can get heated, especially when the officials are making dogshit calls in huge moments. Maybe Adam Silver needs to put more effort into fixing his officiating problem as opposed to creating rules preventing players from reacting to those mistakes? Just an idea to help him save his product.

I had to double and triple check that this was the actual verified account and not someone just looking to go viral on Twitter. That's how ridiculous this is. Meanwhile, they're still trolling out guys like Scott Foster, Tony Brothers and Zach Zarba to call their games. None of it makes any sense when you just take 2 seconds and use your brain. The problem is not how players are reacting to the officials. The problem IS the officials! 

Listen, not all rule changes are bad. Removing the take foul has been awesome so far which has led to way more exciting plays. This is clearly not one of those changes. 

Again, stop worrying about the reaction to bad calls and instead work on making sure there are fewer bad calls to begin with. Granted I'm just a blogger and not in charge of that sort of thing, but something tells me that's where the NBA needs to start.