# Jess Kersey is the worst official in professional sports



## sherwin (Mar 21, 2005)

This guy is the epitome of the NBA's super-old, should-have-retired-30-years-ago, can't see, inconsistent, referee reputation. What a joke this guy is. And it spreads to his whole crew. Awful. Simply awful.


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## GNG (Aug 17, 2002)

Those two are pretty much untouchable.


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## DuMa (Dec 25, 2004)

thats it, you're ejected.


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## sherwin (Mar 21, 2005)

Dick Bavetta technically hasn't been alive since 1995, so I don't know that he counts.


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## Hibachi! (Sep 18, 2003)

Violet Palmer is the worst referee in the history of Western Civilization...


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## jazzy1 (Jul 16, 2002)

I agree kersey, Knick bavetta and Violet are he absolute worse. But Danny Crawford who some think is a good ref stinks like puppy belly hair. 

Steve Javy is good he's equally unfair to both teams.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

Are there any referees that people "DO" like? Is there not one official that people don't consider to be incompetent? 

Amazing that on the college level, fans complain about every single referee, like the referees don't crossover and do many different conferences. It still baffles my mind.


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## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

Ha, the daily complain thread from you will continue this yr too, I see.


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## Rule_By_His_Own_Hand (Jun 20, 2006)

******** Bavetta is HORRIBLE as are the others mentioned here, Violent Palmer and Jess No Kertesy Kersey


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## GNG (Aug 17, 2002)

HKF said:


> Are there any referees that people "DO" like? Is there not one official that people don't consider to be incompetent?
> 
> Amazing that on the college level, fans complain about every single referee, like the referees don't crossover and do many different conferences. It still baffles my mind.


I loathe Ted Valentine. Seriously.


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## Hibachi! (Sep 18, 2003)

HKF said:


> Are there any referees that people "DO" like? Is there not one official that people don't consider to be incompetent?
> 
> Amazing that on the college level, fans complain about every single referee, like the referees don't crossover and do many different conferences. It still baffles my mind.


I don't mind Stafford, Crawford, Javie, Tommy Nunez... I think there are alot more referees in the NBA than people realize. Alot of the popular ones are popular for a bad reason mostly. If people notice you as a referee, most likely you're not doing your job right...


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## kidd2rj (Jan 29, 2005)

HKF said:


> Are there any referees that people "DO" like? Is there not one official that people don't consider to be incompetent?
> 
> Amazing that on the college level, fans complain about every single referee, like the referees don't crossover and do many different conferences. It still baffles my mind.


The refs we like are the ones that you can show us a picture and we have no idea who they are or what their name is. That means they kept to themselves, didn't get entangled in any controversey, and just called the game. It's just funny how everytime a player gets ejected or there's a really bad game being called that there seems to always be the same refs. 

And can we just get another female ref in the league so we can finally get rid of violet palmer. nba won't fire the ONLY female ref in the league so we gotta replace her with someone. hell, a new chick can't be any worse than palmer so i'll take my chances


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## G-Force (Jan 4, 2005)

Violet Palmer should not be an NBA ref. She is consistently inconsistent and makes calls when she is out of position to make the call.


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## Amareca (Oct 21, 2002)

Bavetta is disgusting, it's like he calls fouls on the Suns just to stop the up and down play because he is too old to run with them.


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## speedythief (Jul 16, 2003)

G-Force said:


> Violet Palmer should not be an NBA ref. She is consistently inconsistent and makes calls when she is out of position to make the call.


That's the thing with her. She is highly visible so maybe she's not as bad as she seems. Or maybe you pay more attention to her and suddenly the more attention you pay to the refs the worse you realize they are.

The cross-court calls from Palmer kill me every time, though.


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## MarioChalmers (Mar 26, 2004)

Amareca said:


> Bavetta is disgusting, it's like he calls fouls on the Suns just to stop the up and down play because he is too old to run with them.


Not mentioning the Suns would've made your post 200 times more creidble you know.


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## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

gian said:


> Not mentioning the Suns would've made your post 200 times more creidble you know.



Not mentioning the Suns in a post about refs would be against his religion. It's just not gonna happen. Ever.


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## bballlife (Oct 5, 2003)

HKF said:


> Are there any referees that people "DO" like? Is there not one official that people don't consider to be incompetent?
> 
> Amazing that on the college level, fans complain about every single referee, like the referees don't crossover and do many different conferences. It still baffles my mind.


I am fine with Steve Javie, and rate him as the best official in the NBA.

As for the worst, you have a large pool to select from. Tony Brothers, Dick Bavetta, Sean Corbin, Bennett Salvatore, Bill Kennedy, Jess Kersey, Olandis Poole, Jack Nies, Ron Garretson, Danny Crawford, and Scott Wall. 

Tough choice, all are absolutely horrible at their job, but I am leaning towards Tony Brothers.


Edit- Totally forgot about Derrick Stafford. He is up there as well.


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## bballlife (Oct 5, 2003)

Amareca said:


> Bavetta is disgusting, it's like he calls fouls on the Suns just to stop the up and down play because he is too old to run with them.




Funny you say this. Did you catch Mavs/Suns last Thursday? It was clearly Dick Bavetta and the Phoenix Suns VS Derrick Stafford and the Dallas Mavericks.


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## bballlife (Oct 5, 2003)

Does anyone notice the difference with some officials when they make a call for the home team vs the away team?


Like if Tony Brothers is officiating a Mavs game in Dallas and calls a charge against the MAVS. It's usually just a regular signal, arm/fist out. BUT, say he makes the call against some team playing the Clippers in LA, it's a flying superman punch. 

Anyone else notice how much they get into some of the calls? Especially the block/charge call. Hilarious.


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## IbizaXL (Sep 21, 2005)

::Narrator voice::

"Meanwhile, in the NBA Ref Headquarters..."










::Evil Laugh::

"MUUAHHAHHHAHAHAHHAAA"


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

Not gonna lie, Dick Bavetta is older than dirt. Maybe I look at the officials like Keystone cops. Here is what I don't get. Fans have been harping on the referees in sports for so long, so explain to me how the media guys who don't directly cover the league (but who will do op-ed pieces for newspapers, magazines, websites, etc...) don't talk about this more. 

Don't tell me Stern has a gag order on the media as well. Do you think it's just diehard fans who care about ref incompetence? I can tell you, I have reffed before and I think that even though I understand the rules, you all would be calling me the worst official in the game (because I don't like rough and tumble basketball), I like free-flowing, minimal contact type of basketball (George Gervin type).


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## bballlife (Oct 5, 2003)

HKF said:


> Not gonna lie, Dick Bavetta is older than dirt. Maybe I look at the officials like Keystone cops. Here is what I don't get. Fans have been harping on the referees in sports for so long, so explain to me how the media guys who don't directly cover the league (but who will do op-ed pieces for newspapers, magazines, websites, etc...) don't talk about this more.
> 
> Don't tell me Stern has a gag order on the media as well. Do you think it's just diehard fans who care about ref incompetence? I can tell you, I have reffed before and I think that even though I understand the rules, you all would be calling me the worst official in the game (because I don't like rough and tumble basketball), I like free-flowing, minimal contact type of basketball (George Gervin type).



Most of the media guys are causal fans and/or idiots that don't really understand what is going on. Most people see an official make a call and go "must be right, he's an official" without understanding all the way. People who really have a passion for the game should see what is going on here. One guy in the media who is giving this problem attention is Bill Simmons. 



> The big question: Is it a good idea to give complete and total autonomy to a group of people who, in some cases, are astonishingly inept at their jobs? For instance, at the Suns-Clips game, a new referee named Robbie Robinson (No. 53, if you're scoring at home) made more bad calls in one night than Jeff Zucker made for NBC in the past five years. He wasn't a train wreck as much as a forest fire wiping over everything in his path. And sure, this led to Mike D'Antoni pulling the Ron Burgundy foot-stomping routine on the sidelines a few times (always fun for an arena full of people). But what happens when a referee is killing a game and nobody can argue with him? How is that fun? Why are we protecting people that suck at their jobs?


http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/061108



Basketball is a really complex game, and the officials have a lot of things to look out for, that's why I think things should be simplified a bit. Officials are not consistent with their calls, and they are not on the same page. Basketball is best when the whistles are silent, that is a fact. 


Twice in the last year I have seen players called for 3 seconds when further review showed that they were not in the paint for even 2 seconds. The last case of this was last Thursday when Ron Olesiak called Dampier for 3 seconds in the 4th quarter. My point? Officials are now assuming calls. 

I have lost count of the number of incorrect travel calls this season. League wants to clamp down on it, so they tell officials this summer and what happens? More unnecessary whistles.


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## The Mad Viking (Jun 12, 2003)

I'm with rawse. Bavetta and Vi Palmer are ASTONISHINGLY incompetent. 

I think Stern keeps them around just because its one more way to make the players crazy.


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## eddymac (Jun 23, 2005)

I hate Violet Palmer i got nervous last year in the playoffs when she officiated one of the Nets/Pacer games.

For some reason I dont like Joey Crawford


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## ballocks (May 15, 2003)

one thing i don't understand is why anyone would _want_ to be an official. for me, it's not easy to imagine many worse jobs. i'm sure the pay is good, but that's probably the only argument i could understand- and even that, after a certain point, wouldn't be able to justify the job for me anymore.

i mean, you can't enjoy the game, you can't pick a side- you have to break it down into the smallest segments and make decisions you perceive to be 'objective' like a machine. you can't dive into the energy in the building without jeopardizing your performance, and the glory doesn't exist (as evidenced by this thread). nobody 'likes' you.

even if you weren't a basketball fan, it would still have to be difficult. maybe more so. if you're not a basketball fan, fine, you're not grading your enjoyment on the job versus your enjoyment on the couch, that's true, but you're still doing work that you simply don't care about. it doesn't matter where you are in life, that can't be easy.

anyway, i just don't know how they do it. plus, i have yet to meet a single person in my life who enjoys officiating games- not a single one- so that brings up another question: where do they come from? it's gotta be one of this world's greatest mysteries.

peace


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

Now that was an interesting post ballocks. Kudos.

Who the hell would want to be a referee?


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## Dez24 (Feb 28, 2005)

If fans actually understood the rules of the game, game management and tried officiating a basketball game, they'd have a compeltely different opinion on "bad referees". A lot just go with nick names given, i.e. Knick Bavetta (for which the player that gave him that nickname apologized). 
Most officials mentioned in this aren't anywhere near being considered bad by even a unbiased casual fan. There are some that aren't up to the same level. And by the way, Dick Bavetta can and does keep up with the players...the mane runs 8 miles a day.


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## Dez24 (Feb 28, 2005)

bballlife said:


> Does anyone notice the difference with some officials when they make a call for the home team vs the away team?
> 
> 
> Like if Tony Brothers is officiating a Mavs game in Dallas and calls a charge against the MAVS. It's usually just a regular signal, arm/fist out. BUT, say he makes the call against some team playing the Clippers in LA, it's a flying superman punch.
> ...


Not sure if this will help clarify. But the situation sometimes will dictate how animated the NBA officials' call is. They don't have mechanics a college or high school official has. My only guess is they do this to alleviate player's complaining or questioning by demonstrating the foul. You have to "sell" the call. If you are weak with the call, there is going to be confusion as to what the whistle is for. Love it or hate it, it's as much a part of officiating as a player yelling "and one" thinking they've got fouled on their shot attempt. Is that good or bad? All depends on who you ask.


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## theflyballa (Aug 8, 2006)

*No need to generalize*


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