POLL: Do the Raptors get a fair shake from the refs?
For the entirety of the Dwane Casey era and into Nick Nurse’s tenure as the head coach of the Toronto Raptors, officiating has been a hot topic. On-court blowups, post-game comments and even ejections have littered the Raptors run as Eastern Conference contenders. Are the Raptors just unlucky when it comes to officiating, or is there something more sinister afoot? Get your tinfoil hats on and let’s investigate.
There is no shortage of reasons why the NBA would like for the Raptors to be back in the basement of the Eastern Conference. For starters, their style of play flies right in the face of where the league seems to be headed. It’s not flashy or extremely marketable outside of the GTA. It’s defensive, hard-nosed and packed to the brim with role-players. While this alone isn’t likely to irk the league enough to employ a vendetta against the team, it makes the Raptors the black sheep of the league and isolates them from their peers’ brand of basketball.
Another key facet of the perceived officiating issue is the fact that Kawhi Leonard does not complain. If other superstars of Kawhi’s ilk feel any contact whatsoever as they attack the paint, they’ll flail their arms or kick their head back to draw the official’s attention. If the call is given, as it so often is, great. If not, such a stink is created by the afflicted that next time, that official won’t dare to swallow his/her whistle. To his credit, that’s not how Kawhi rolls. Unfortunately, his refusal to practice this form of gamesmanship is currently working to his detriment, as he isn’t getting close to as many calls as other superstars in this league.
While Kawhi’s number of attempted free throws doesn’t come close to his superstar peers, he has been to the charity stripe 195 times this season, good for 12th in the league. The shock comes when looking for the second Raptor on the free throw attempts list. To find him, you have to scroll to the 61st spot, where Pascal Siakam sits with 104 free throws attempted. By contrast, 21 other teams have 2 or more players on this list before Siakam pops up. For the first place team in the Eastern Conference and owners of the best record in the league to have shot this few free throws thus far is out of the ordinary, to say the least.
The other motive for the refs to be a little harder on the Raptors on the 50/50 call comes from, you guessed it, our location. Being the only team north of the 49th parallel has its benefits and its drawbacks, and lack of interest from the nation where the league offices are situated certainly falls into the latter category. For whatever reason, the perception in Canada is that NBA fans in the states are markedly less interested in watching a Raptors game, whether they are contending or not, over any other American team, regardless of its positioning in the standings. While I’m quite sure there are people who would favour a Raptors game over some of the American teams lower down in the standings, I believe there is a degree of truth to this, and it could feasibly motivate the league into suppressing the Raptors’ potential success. However, the most compelling case for why the league might want to not have the Raptors contending for a title is the taxation laws in Canada surrounding foreign film production.
Simply put, it costs an American company like ESPN, TNT or ABC more money to produce and broadcast a game in Canada than it does in the states. This acts as an obvious deterrent to coming to Toronto frequently to broadcast games. Why they can’t take the TSN or Sportsnet feed and broadcast it in the US, similar to how most of the programming on the two Canadian sports giants is presented, is beyond me. You can see how this would eat into ESPN’s bottom line if they had to enter, leave and then re-enter the country as a playoff series goes on, especially if the Raptors, say, went to the NBA Finals. In the modern NBA, TV deals are what makes super-max deals like the one Steph Curry signed at the beginning of the season possible. The networks have an incredible amount of power in determining the inner working of the league, just due to the fact that they have so much monetary backing. Do they have enough say to actually affect the outcomes of games just to sweeten their bottom line? Probably not, but crazier things have happened.
From the frozen envelope incident to Tim Donaghy to Game 6 of the 2002 Kings vs Lakers playoff series, the NBA has proven itself to be capable of corruption of the highest degree. While I am not suggesting that there is a league-wide conspiracy against the Raptors, the league would have plenty of reasons to **ahem** usher the Raptors out earlier than is justified by their play. However, Nick Nurse and Dwane Casey before him have had genuine gripes with officials over blown calls. What do you think? Are the Raptors just unlucky when it comes to officiating, do they get a fair shake, or is there something else going on behind the scenes that is afflicting the Raptors? Let me know your thoughts down below!
PS
I can only attach one poll, so I kept it simple, but I would love to know why or why not you believe the Raptors are officiated differently than the other 29 teams in the league!