We've all seen superstar treatment on the basketball court (not to mention in other sports). It's almost accepted practice that a foul by a superstar will have a blind-eye turned to it by officials, whereas the same play by a rookie/journeyman will cop an immediate whistle. The question I put forward to you this weekend is: am I the only one who is bothered by this?

Do you notice the same thing happening? And more than this, do you think it's acceptable?

Perhaps some people just accept it as part of the game -- a part of David Stern's big marketing machine. For me it falls into the same category as allowing players to travel on big dunks and homer-tv-announcers. All of it makes me feel like the powers that be think we're stupid. To me it's insulting. As a viewer, you are insulting my intelligence by allowing a foul call to go unwhistled because it was committed by (for example) LeBron James on Jonas Jerebko or Kobe Bryant on Will Bynum. I can see the foul, you can see the foul. We all can see the foul -- well, those of us with both eyes open anyway.

The same applies to the television announcers who come out with homer calls EVERY SINGLE PLAY. You are insulting the intelligence of the viewers to try and proclaim that every single foul call against your team is wrong. You are treating them like simpletons to say that every 50/50 out of bounds call should go your team's way. The worst examples come when an announcer will vehemently argue his team's case, until such time as a slow motion replay comes on totally disproving his arguments, only to hear him fall silent. It's one thing to see the wrong call in full-speed motion the first time around, but if a replay is presented to you that clearly shows that you're wrong, don't sit there silently pretending that nothing has happened. Own up, man up. Tell the viewers who you are supposedly educating, that the call you made is wrong and "fair call by the referees, that was out by us."

It's all frustrating.

Do you see the same thing I do? Or am I imagining things? Here is just one small example from this week. Do you think that if Dwyane Wade had dunked on JJ Hickson in the same way that there would be no foul call? Do you see body contact here?

Tell me I'm wrong.

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Comments (19)

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written by lakers4life, February 06, 2010

This is all about hating on Kobe.

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Hands down...
written by majerle, February 06, 2010

...there is nothing that annoys me more in the NBA than superstar calls. It sh&&#xts; me.

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I'm still not sure "Superstar Calls" exist...
written by College Wolf, February 06, 2010

I've never seen anyone on the Twolves get one.

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written by mookie @ A Stern Warning, February 06, 2010

@College Wolf -- Haha... ah... should I tread lightly or just not answer that?

@lakers4life -- You are kidding, right?

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written by College Wolf, February 06, 2010

Probably best to not answer that...

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written by Scottscott, February 06, 2010

Solid example to back up a valid point.
Not only does Kobe get all the calls he complains close to every shot he takes. I find it hard to watch Laker games now after someone pointed out Kobe's "hey, HEY" every drive to the bucket.

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written by mookie @ A Stern Warning, February 06, 2010

Thanks Scott. It's good to know that I'm not the only one that is pained by this stuff. Kobe does do a really good job of "working the referees." For anyone that hasn't noticed this, watch next time there is a dead ball how much he is jawing at the officials, getting in their ear. And I should point out, he's not the only one... watch the others across the league during free throws etc.

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Star calls annoy me...
written by Don (With Malice), February 06, 2010

But as an international viewer, not as much as the homer-calls from the TV announcers. Damn... don't they know they're going to a broader audience than just their own backyard?

Anyway, star-calls.
As a Lakers-fan I acknowledge that over the years, we've gotten one or two star calls!
But even more annoying is the difference of the game-called for vets and rookies. This affects the game on a far broader basis than star calls. And the blanket acceptance by players and public that this is just the way it is.
Just call the game as played.

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Remember the good old days?
written by Darrell, February 06, 2010

I'm going to date myself on this one, but:

Remember Patrick Ewings "hook-to-the-hole" or Moses Malone's "Run-you-over-in-the-paint" move?

Star moves have always existed and always will ... kind of sucks, but that is how it is.

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I Disagree
written by FavreDollarFootlongs, February 06, 2010

I think people are failing to see two points. One, this is an ordinary part of life, and two we look much closer at the stars.

Yes, star players get calls here and there, but so be it. In all wakes of life the person with the most power or the most money gets the most privileges. The last thing I want to see is a Lakers/Cavs game where Lebron and Kobe are on the bench the whole time because of ticky tack fouls.

In the end, the best teams are still playing in the championship and the star treatment doesn't really matter, because there's usually stars on both sides of the ball.

The other point is that we are always looking at the stars so missed calls seem much more obvious. Refs aren't perfect by any means. Every call on a star or by a star or failed to be called on a star seems much more apparent, but the same all could've been missed when a scrub like DJ Mbenga is doing the same thing as Kobe. If we look for the faults then they'll be there. Watch a game and focus on the scrubs the whole time and many of the same calls will be missed. We just don't care about them though.

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Thanks for your comments...
written by mookie @ A Stern Warning, February 07, 2010

@ Don -- Yes, that's the thing! These days people all over the world are listening to the local broadcasts via NBA League Pass Broadband etc. Sure we're getting a true insight into what the local fans hear all the time (as opposed to the international Ernie Johnson / Marv Albert / Kenny Smith of this world) but they need to realise how ridiculous they sound!

@Darrell -- You're right. Those superstar moves have been around for a long time -- the way Shaq would plough people over in the post even as a rookie; and even Jordan's little push-off on Bryon Russell!

I guess I'm just hoping for some underground uprising movement against these things, rather than acceptance of them.

@FavreDollarFootlongs -- Your differing persepctive is useful to this debate. I agree that we will always notice the moves of superstars more than the scrubs. It will generally be the case that we tend to focus on them in minute detail and thus pick up on these things more -- fair enough.

BUT, from the perspective that these things happen in life all the time and we should accept them? I think this is what I'm truly against here. It IS a broader societal thing and I've always been all for backing the little guy. I hate someone getting advantage purely because they're more well known, richer or better dressed. Sometimes it should be the case, where someone has worked to get to where they are and deserve a privilege. But should a guy on the basketball court who potentially works harder than a talented, but possibly lazy, superstar get less of a chance with the referees? No... equality in treatment should be the case. The results will never be equal, but the treatment and opportunities offered to people should be as equal as possible.

I know, it's a pipe dream that I'm dreaming here... one that will never arise. But I have to dream it! Or at least get my gripe out there in the air.

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written by Scott scott, February 07, 2010

Why should any player get an unfair advantage over another. It's the rich gettin richer theory. What if a superstar fouls out! A superstar should be good enough to know how to stay in the game. If they foul out then we are witnessing a superstar getting beaten - bring it on.

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written by FavreDollarFootlongs, February 07, 2010

I wasn't going to bring the social aspect up because most people disagree with it, but that's how things are. Everyone wants this perfect society of sports with the perfect rules and perfect fairness and thats not how things work. I love the debate though. My whole site is about basically taking sports aspects, relating them to society, and giving people the realistic point of view. People can say the rich get richer, but guess what there's a reason they're there and you aren't. Maybe it's luck, maybe it's inheritance, but for players it's all based on hard work. If a player works that hard to become the superstar that they are then let them showcase their skills. It's basically an unwritten rule just like baseball has.

Do you like to see players retailiate on their own with a bean ball and then thats the end of it or should they automatically be suspended for retaliation?

Would you be happier if the NBA came out and said they have a superstar rule? Would that change your mind because then it would be fair?

Come on people, enough of this fairness bullshit. Let's setup rules so every player gets equal shots. It's not fair Kobe gets more shots then Derek Fisher does. ITS NOT FAIR!!!!

Fact of the matter it's all there to make the game better. I'd love to see all you bitching when your favorite star player is sitting for 30 minutes and you're team is out of the game because of it. That would be fair though. That's what you want.

I think if society turned into realists more then trying to become equalists we'd be much better off. That why people would stop complaining about life and just deal with life how it is.

Changes can be made in sports and society if they truly will benefit society or the game, but before we start jumping on what's fair and what's not, lets look at what would happen if it was fair. End of BCS would better the game. End of superstar treatment would take away from the game.

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written by mookie @ A Stern Warning, February 07, 2010

@FavreDollarFootlongs I might not agree with you entirely, but I love that you're bringing a strong point of view to the debate!

I love the concept of your site. The cross-over between sociology and sports is a HUGE one -- one that we often try to ignore, though they transcend each other.

I do have this one for you: what if being able to play at such a level that you avoided fouls became part of being a superstar? There was a really good article on Empty The Bench recently analysing the amazing ability of LeBron to average near the bottom of the league in fouls. It's an interesting question to ask whether he gets unfair treatment, he's great at avoiding fouling, or a combo of both (most likely).

What if that was part of being a superstar, another aspect to the game -- being able to score points, rebound, pass and play D without getting a stack of fouls to your name? A guy avoids turnovers on the court or he gets benched. Why should foul calls be any different? Why should a referee assist him in avoiding a high foul count?

I won't go into the societal debate of equal treatment. Partly because it's too big a debate to go into here on a sports site and partly because I do agree with you that people need to get down to getting on with life more and not use excuses for blaming unfair treatment all the time. It's a card that does get played too often. Though I still believe there is merit to it in various situations -- even if it will never change and we need to accept that.

I'm loving the different point of views on this.

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written by FavreDollarFootlongs, February 07, 2010

Just a little tad bit. I like to be controversial so I'm automatically going to go the other way, especially since no one else did. I had to try and get people riled up. That's what I do. Just try to make people think differently and not always take the norm, even if the norm is right. I want people to really look at it from all perspectives, and usually perspectives they never even thought existed.

Truthfully we need a happy medium. We can't have a game that blatantly favors the stars, but we can't have a game with the stars on the bench either.

You're correct. If you're a superstar you should be skilled enough not foul.

I'd really like to see a study though on fouls committed on superstars and fouls committed by superstars to see if they were correct calls or not. Also, tally up the calls that should have or should'nt have been made.

Then we would need to look at the rest of the players in the league and take the same stats to find out if there is a superstar treatment trend. This would also have to be based on minutes played to get a common factor.

I bet it's much closer then most people want to believe, but like I said originally, we automatically follow the superstars and we automatically analyze each non-call that a superstar commits or call that the superstar acquires. We don't however look at calls that a superstar actually should've got or shouldnt'tve got called for.

You get my drift. Great stuff mookie. I liked your column greatly and glad I could make people think a little or at least make some people a tad bit angry

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written by mookie @ A Stern Warning, February 07, 2010

Playing the Devil's Advocate can be a great thing at times. We all need to look at things from a different perspective sometimes. We need to see things from someone else's point of view.

The study of calls would be a great one. It'd require someone like a retired referee or two to sit in front of a large enough sample size of video to get a clear indication of the tendencies. Of course, it'd also require someone to fund that study. Someone like Mark Cuban

I'd love to think that we'd find out that the discrepancy is not that large. I can deal with a small amount of favouritism if that is the case!

Thanks for getting people angry!

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written by mookie @ A Stern Warning, February 07, 2010

@Scott -- I think we're on the same wavelength!

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I would have no problem with Star Treatment...
written by College Wolf, February 07, 2010

if anyone on the TWolves ever got it.

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written by mookie @ A Stern Warning, February 07, 2010

Surely Ryan Gomes gets star treatment... in practice?

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