Even Mike Breen is getting slightly impatient.
It’s the fourth quarter of an vital, nationally televised Western Convention tilt in Golden State halfway by way of March, with the visiting Denver Nuggets main the Warriors by 9. The Warriors’ Stephen Curry has been whistled for an offensive foul after bowling over Denver’s Russell Westbrook on a drive, however a Steve Kerr problem is being deliberated.
And deliberated. And deliberated.
A full three minutes after placing their headsets on to start the assessment, crew chief Marc Davis and his crew take them off and confer – then put them again on once more. Broadcast viewers have already seen over a half-dozen replays from a number of angles. That is starting to tug. “You’ve gotta get the decision proper, however it’s gotta be faster,” Breen says.
Over 4 minutes after being initiated, the assessment continues to be ongoing.
“We speak a lot about transparency and Final 2 Minute stories and stuff,” says colour commentator Richard Jefferson. “How about transparency on why this takes so long as it does?”
The decision is lastly reversed, and Curry shoots free throws – over 5 minutes after the preliminary play came about. A usually raucous Chase Middle appears to have fallen asleep within the interim, regardless of a single-digit recreation with below 5 minutes remaining.
The NBA Replay Middle has been part of recreation operations for over a decade, and opinions have taken a bigger and bigger function within the NBA ecosystem by way of the years. Too typically, although, drawn-out opinions like these go away followers, gamers and different stakeholders within the sport questioning if replay is de facto getting used successfully. Are main delays that kill the sport’s circulation actually well worth the time they take?
What if there was a solution to curb many of those points? What if, as an alternative of goofy concepts like altering quarters to 10 minutes apiece, the NBA might accomplish Adam Silver’s long-stated aim of shortening the typical NBA recreation partly by way of tweaks to its replay system – all whereas additionally lowering bias issues, getting extra calls proper, and leveraging fashionable know-how in optimum methods?
I’ve simply such a proposal.
I’m fortunate sufficient to be one in every of a handful of journalists who has hung out within the NBA Replay Middle in Secaucus, NJ on an NBA recreation evening (two nights in my case; it was two years in the past, for a narrative at one other outlet that sadly by no means ran). The understanding doing so gave me on the middle’s primary operations helps set the desk for this proposal.
The unheralded lifeblood of the Replay Middle is its workers of Replay Operators, or ROs. ROs sit across the perimeter of the room, every assigned solely to a single recreation, with a number of displays plus quite a few digital camera angles and replay instruments at their disposal. Their job is to look at that recreation intently and name out any potential assessment issues which will come up in it, from easy rating or time opinions as much as challenges or flagrant foul opinions. They’re the eyes and ears of your entire operation.
Behind the RO slots are stations with the identical video instruments, presided over by a duo: An precise NBA referee assigned to the Replay Middle that evening, plus a Senior Replay Supervisor (SRM) – a extra skilled RO, primarily, whose job is to ship very best play angles rapidly to the referee beside them. Every ref/SRM combo can cowl as much as two video games without delay; there might be as much as 4 ref/SRM combos working within the Replay Middle without delay on busy recreation nights, and a combo will typically leap from an early recreation right into a later one on the identical evening if scheduling permits. Anytime the RO for one in every of their video games calls out a possible assessment want, the duo pulls the play up and adjudicates it as essential. Crucially, the Replay Middle referee is the one to make each precise name right here; calls are by no means made by NBA administration or another worker.
Most of those opinions are easy and may happen throughout play with no stoppage. As an illustration, anytime a nook three is made, it’s widespread follow for that recreation’s Replay Middle crew to easily affirm that the shooter was certainly behind the three-point line and in bounds; unique broadcast views might be misleading as a consequence of restricted nook house and potential followers in the way in which, so Secaucus checks different angles to make sure.
The truth is, of over a dozen reviewable issues the Replay Middle can cowl, a large majority of calls are made by the referee in Secaucus with out the on-court crew ever stepping to the monitor. Crucially, although, the on-court crew makes the ultimate name for any foul-related assessment, plus all coach’s challenges and varied flagrant/alteraction opinions. And that’s the place the difficulty lies.
Over two dozen challenges came about throughout my two nights in Secaucus. On properly over half, the crew contained in the Replay Middle already knew the proper determination earlier than the on-court officers even made it to the halfcourt monitor. The Secaucus crew had already seen a number of angles, typically in gradual movement, however as a result of guidelines require the on-court crew to make the decision, the assessment would typically take far longer than essential as they requested view angles to a single monitor, mentioned the play amongst themselves and communicated the choice.
My proposal is straightforward: Transfer the ultimate choices on all non-flagrant/altercation calls to the Replay Middle referee fairly than the on-court crew, and eradicate the on-court crew’s use of the monitor outdoors these flagrant and altercation opinions (for which on-court officers possess vital context, akin to what could have been mentioned throughout a given altercation).
Time financial savings and improved watchability for followers are the first impetus right here, however not the one ones. This modification would additionally restrict the potential for affirmation bias, or the thoughts’s tendency to default to its preliminary place even when challenged. I respect the psychological work NBA officers put into their jobs as a lot as anybody, however even the neatest and most fair-minded amongst us can fall sufferer to easy psychological biases like these. As a substitute of refs reviewing their very own calls, a further layer of objectivity would profit perceptions of equity.
This proposal is not any fast repair, and would require some logistical tweaks. It’s been mentioned within the NBA’s Competitors Committee, sources say, and opposition to it stays – some factors affordable, others much less so. Let’s dive into the particulars.
A lot of the NBA’s reasoning for on-court crews retaining these explicit choices boils right down to expertise.
“We expect it’s actually vital that essentially the most skilled particular person makes these choices,” Monty McCutchen, NBA VP of referee growth and coaching, informed SB Nation not too long ago. “If we now have somebody of their first 12 months assigned to that recreation because the Replay Middle official, we don’t assume it’s in one of the best curiosity of service to the sport that an individual with one 12 months of expertise make vital teaching problem choices up towards somebody with 32 years of expertise, which is likely to be our crew chief.”
It’s logical on its face. A couple of points, although.
For starters, these calls make up an extremely small share of whole choices inside a given recreation – the overwhelming majority of which nonetheless reside with the on-court crew. Any problems with expertise are additionally mitigated in the course of the league’s most vital video games within the postseason, the place the officiating pool is smaller and extra senior officers are assigned to Secaucus.
However even excluding these, the concept of “expertise” because the deciding issue doesn’t cross the odor check in right now’s NBA. The league has a rulebook, a casebook and an official’s handbook; these spell out the foundations and interpretations of the sport in excruciating element. Any official who makes it to this stage – by way of the G League and varied different developmental applications, by way of years of devoted coaching and guidelines schooling – ought to be capable to apply these, particularly with the help of a dozen replay angles and slow-motion instruments. McCutchen primarily concedes as a lot.
“It’s one factor to overlook a name with one of the best athletes on this planet which can be huge and quick, in actual time,” he says. “It’s unacceptable to not be capable to get the decision proper with a number of angles, and to then get the decision flawed a second time even with the advantageous nature of all of the angles we get.”
Whereas he’d go on to make clear that he believes repetition and confidence that come from expertise additionally play a job, these qualities don’t actually matter when adjudicating the rulebook by way of replay (they’re much extra related for varied on-court duties the in-game crew performs). A foul is a foul, and anybody paid six figures to adjudicate NBA guidelines ought to be capable to name it with a collection of replay instruments.
Sure people vulnerable to the usage of tinfoil hats may marvel about transparency right here. If vital calls are being made by a nebulous official nobody can see, might the NBA be thumbing the scales and exerting affect over video games? Actually, although, it’s onerous to think about elevated use of the replay middle growing such discourse a lot, just because these trying to cry “rigged” over NBA video games will discover their reasoning someplace regardless. Any actual exploration of those sorts of conspiracies rapidly reveals their silliness.
Different types of opposition exist, however solutions to those points are additionally obtainable. One lively NBA official, who requested anonymity to discuss this subject, voiced issues about attempting to elucidate a problem determination to a coach or participant when the choice itself was made in Secaucus; it’s a good level, however why can’t the Replay Middle official merely talk the decision’s reasoning to the on-court crew? (Extra on how this communication might be facilitated effectively in only a bit.) Some could even view it the alternative manner: A little bit of a buffer for the decision-maker on sure calls may truly assist relieve the in-game stress.
A distinct supply with Replay Middle expertise raised the problem of staffing: If the Replay Middle official might be making all problem choices, shouldn’t every referee in Secaucus solely cowl a single recreation without delay fairly than presumably two? That manner their full focus can be on that recreation and any related context wanted throughout a problem assessment. The NBA’s officiating workers is 75 sturdy, although, with dozens of different elite refs within the G League and WNBA – some tweaks is likely to be essential to scheduling logistics, certain, however growing referee staffing within the Replay Middle is way from not possible and sure not even particularly costly.
Frankly, essentially the most cogent opposition to the proposal revolves round a primary query: Would it not truly save that a lot time?
Per proprietary NBA officiating knowledge obtained by way of a supply (for video games as much as March 18), common extra stoppage time on challenges past the usual timeout size this 12 months is 44.8 seconds for fouls, 44 seconds even for out-of-bound challenges, and 34.7 seconds for goaltending.
These numbers are deceiving, although: The league solely defines this era as starting when the crew chief places on the headset till the time they take away it. This excludes vital time in lots of instances, together with full-crew deliberations each earlier than and after the headset is used. It feels protected to imagine the precise common is greater than these numbers, maybe markedly so.
And simply as vital as per-challenge timing is problem quantity, which has doubled leaguewide for the reason that NBA added a second problem per crew if the primary is appropriate for the 23-24 season. There’s even been a close to 33% improve in challenges per recreation from final season to this one (1.04 to 1.34), doubtless due largely to the league’s addition of “proximate” foul language that permits for extra purview inside sure sorts of challenges.
The G League, in the meantime, is testing an excellent broader system this 12 months: Two assured challenges for every crew whether or not they’re proper or flawed, plus extensively expanded pointers that enable for a a lot wider vary of reviewable issues throughout challenges. The G League is the NBA’s incubator for concepts like these; this testing is a transparent signal that the league is contemplating increasing challenges even additional on the NBA stage. The change has been a part of a modest improve in common G League recreation time this season, per a supply; all indicators level to challenges taking longer on a per-game foundation sooner or later, a minimum of below the present system.
Additionally, vitally: We’re not simply speaking about challenges right here. There are different assessment sorts that contain the on-court crew spending time on the monitor, together with sure wildly inefficient conditions that rear their heads every now and then.
On the identical day as that five-minute assessment within the Golden State-Denver recreation, the crew for the Portland-Washington recreation spent over three minutes reviewing whether or not any time remained within the first quarter for a leap ball as a consequence of a tie-up that occurred proper because the interval ended. How might it take that lengthy to make such a easy, black-and-white name?
They only had a video assessment to find out whether or not there was time left on the clock for a leap ball they known as on the finish of the primary quarter. They ultimately dominated there was 0.1 seconds left within the quarter. Then one other video assessment decided there have been truly 0.9 seconds left. Took about 5 min
— Sean Highkin (@highkin.bsky.social) 2025-03-18T02:40:59.704Z
The reply is a confounding course of that entails each the on-court crew and the Replay Middle. In these conditions, Secaucus will run a video of the play, and the on-court crew is tasked with figuring out the second the tie-up (or a unique related occasion, in different instances) came about. The Replay Middle official marks that second, then checks whether or not the clock had expired. The mechanisms listed here are rudimentary: The on-court crew chief simply says “now” when the occasion takes place. On this case, the convoluted system led to an error on the preliminary assessment that primarily doubled the time it took.
That’s not remotely environment friendly! Why can’t the Replay Middle official merely deal with each parts of this name? Why create a recreation of damaged phone for such a easy assessment?
Streamlining processes like these is a simple repair for the NBA. And earlier than lengthy, fashionable know-how might play a key function.
The NBA has examined each earpieces and related wearable gadgets for referees at current Summer season League occasions, sources say.
This tech isn’t able to go straight away, I’m informed. One referee who was a part of final summer time’s testing informed me there have been logistical points to work by way of, akin to minimizing distractions from the earpiece that may intrude with correct calls throughout gameplay. Earpiece wiring configurations had been additionally a problem, the official mentioned.
However the eventual mannequin right here is straightforward to see: A soccer-like setup the place an earpiece or related system replaces a lot of the inefficient monitor-based communication with the Replay Middle. Does the on-court crew have to know why a given name was overturned to supply an evidence to a coach? Simply ask by way of the earpiece. The potential for streamlining varied areas we’ve mentioned right here is immense.
Automation is on the way in which, too. The Replay Middle is already using an automatic goaltending detection software by way of Hawk-Eye optical monitoring knowledge this season, which makes use of cameras and machine studying algorithms to pinpoint the ball’s trajectory, and sources say the NBA is investigating additional such makes use of which will embody different black-and-white calls like out-of-bounds, basket interference and clock timing. If these techniques show dependable, they’d do extra than simply enhance effectivity and timing; they’d additionally release referees to allot extra of their consideration to nuanced calls like fouls, realizing the yes-or-no stuff was already dealt with.
So there you may have it. Each to hurry up video games and enhance the decision assessment course of, a transfer towards better accountability inside the Replay Middle is the way in which to go. Any questions, Mr. Silver?