你会认为NBA喜欢一个伟大的防守球员,好好想想吧!巨星终结者只会破坏明星球员的市场推广。球迷不会花大价钱去看一个像Bell这样的球员,他们花钱是要看Kobe拿40分。篮球的理论家们自然喜欢优秀的防守者,但是NBA需要能得分的大家伙。
If a player of Kobe's stature collides with the likes of Raja Bell, the call will almost always go for Kobe and against Bell. As part of our ongoing training and game preparation, NBA referees regularly receive game-action video tape from the league office. Over the years, I have reviewed many recorded hours of video involving Raja Bell. The footage I analyzed usually illustrated fouls being called against Bell, rarely for him. The message was subtle but clear — call fouls against the star stopper because he's hurting the game.
如果像Kobe这样的球员与Bell这样的球员有身体接触,那么吹罚几乎全部偏向Kobe。这是我们培训以及赛前准备的一部分,NBA裁判定期会收到来自联盟办公室的比赛录像。这些年来,我已经收到过很多有关Bell的录像。我分析了一下发现基本上有图例解说的吹罚都是判Bell犯规,很少是他被犯规。这个信息很微妙,但是很清晰:要吹罚巨星终结者犯规,因为他们在伤害比赛本身。
If Kobe Bryant had two fouls in the first or second quarter and went to the bench, one referee would tell the other two, "Kobe's got two fouls. Let's make sure that if we call a foul on him, it's an obvious foul, because otherwise he's gonna go back to the bench. If he is involved in a play where a foul is called, give the foul to another player."
如果Kobe在第一节或是第二节有两次犯规不得不回到板凳席时,一个裁判就会告诉另外二个裁判:“Kobe两犯了,我们确定一下,如果我们再吹罚他犯规,那一定是一个明显犯规,要不然他又要回到板凳席了。如果他出现在一次争抢犯规中,那么就把犯规放在其他球员身上。”
Similarly, when games got physically rough, we would huddle up and agree to tighten the game up. So we started calling fouls on guys who didn't really matter — "ticky-tack" or "touch" fouls where one player just touched another but didn't really impede his progress. Under regular circumstances these wouldn't be fouls, but after a skirmish we wanted to regain control. We would never call these types of fouls on superstars, just on the average players who didn't have star status. It was important to keep the stars on the floor.
类似的,当一场比赛身体接触很频繁的时候,我们几个会凑在一起讨论收紧处罚尺度。然后我们开始在一些无关紧要的球员身上吹罚不必要的犯规,如阻挡犯规或是接触犯规,其实那只是一个球员碰到了另外一个球员而已,根本没有妨碍到对方。而在正常情况下,这些犯规都不是犯规,但是在一场小纠纷过后,我们需要恢复场上控制。我们不会在明星球员身上吹罚这样的犯规,只会在那些一般打不出明星数据的球员身上吹。这对把明星球员留在场上很重要。
Allen Iverson provides a good example of a player who generated strong reaction, both positive and negative, within the corps of NBA referees. For instance, veteran referee Steve Javie hated Allen Iverson and was loathe [sic] to give him a favorable call. If Javie was on the court when Iverson was playing, I would always bet on the other team to win or at least cover the spread. No matter how many times Iverson hit the floor, he rarely saw the foul line. By contrast, referee Joe Crawford had a grandson who idolized Iverson. I once saw Crawford bring the boy out of the stands and onto the floor during warm-ups to meet the superstar. Iverson and Crawford's grandson were standing there, shaking hands, smiling, talking about all kinds of things. If Joe Crawford was on the court, I was pretty sure Iverson's team would win or at least cover the spread.