By Tyler Flowers — Correspondent

Officiating an NBA Game is a very demanding job that requires coordination, excellent stamina, and the ability to control emotions. NBA refs have historically been very good, and have not affected the game in a negative way. However, over the past couple of seasons, NBA refs have been heavily criticized for their bad calls. Some fans and players have implied that they should be fined, publicly interviewed, or just not allowed to ref anymore NBA games.

Dennis Schroder of the Los Angelos Lakers and German national team says the refs of the NBA have become soft over the past years and this has caused many players to get many unnecessary technical fouls.“The refs gotta start getting fined for their mistakes! They also give technical fouls to people who are reacting to their mistakes,” he said.

In a very recent game, of the Celtics vs Lakers a ref made a bad call that ultimately led to the Lakers losing. During the game, Lakers player, Patrick Beverly, showed the ref a photograph of the foul and this led to a technical foul.  Junior Zach Connors of Sharon High School says calls like this require consequences for the ref. “The refs need to be punished for their mistakes. When the players don’t have a good game they are criticized publicly so what makes the refs different. Some of the calls they make are ruining the games and hurting the team’s record,” said Connors.

“This needs to stop. We need every win we can get in this league to reach our goals! To lose 3-5 games this season off of referees’ mistakes is really hard.” said Schroder. 

After this game, the refs were heavily criticized and the NBA refs took their voices to Twitter. “Like everyone else, referees make mistakes. We made one at the end of last night’s game and that is gut-wrenching for us. This play will weigh heavily and cause sleepless nights as we strive to be the best referees we can be,” wrote @OfficialNBARefs.

People may think that the NBA refs are not being punished for their mistakes, but they truly are. “Their assignments are affected by the quality of their calls, whether or not they progress into the playoffs and then round by round is impacted by the accuracy of their calls and their demeanor on the floor,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.

Junior Bryce Flowers says he does not believe Silver’s statement entirely. “If this was the case, the refs would be getting better every year but it seems like they are getting worse every year. This method is obviously not working so something needs to change if they are going to perform better,” he said.