NBA refs will live-tweet Game 3, engage with fans

This should end well.

If there’s one thing that all sports definitely need, it’s fans being able to yell at referees directly. If you somehow missed it: that was sarcasm. But it’s something that’s definitely going to happen when NBA referees are “live-tweeting Game 3, reacting and responding in real-time” to fans on Wednesday night.

The announcement that (unnamed) referees will be engaging with fans, addressing calls and interpreting the rules came via the official National Basketball Referees Association Twitter account, @OfficalNBARefs, on Tuesday.

At first glance, this seems like an astoundingly bad idea given the fact that the Internet is terrible and also that sports fans are terrible. These referees will be responding to queries made using the #RefWatchParty hashtag, which will undoubtedly be impossible to sift through and will cause whoever has that task no small amount of pain.

But the final product SHOULD wind up being the successful sifting through the trash, followed by what will hopefully be meaningful discourse about the calls being made in the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers.

For what it’s worth, the NBA league office is not part of the event, according to ESPN. During the All-Star break, the NBRA met with the players’ union to better facilitate communication between the two, as noted by ESPN.

This is another form of outreach and should be positive, in theory. But, again ... this is the Internet.