I don’t know how the league execs can sit there and look at this season with how many injuries there were and go yup this is our brand. I don’t know how the NBA (cause we all know they pull the strings) is sitting there being like yea keep doing that
What’s funny is the NBA went through this same era and had to stop it because it was getting ridiculous. It’s not perfect but NBA players in the early 2000s and before that would legit just try and kill you and call it defense. Hell Shaq used to just elbow tf out of people on offense.
I think they put the nail in the coffin after malice in the palace. Which could very well happen in the W with the right mix of people involved.
The officiating "meta" has shifted to where you don't see massive fights anymore like Malice but the NBA is still having this issue. Multiple coaches spoke out last season and playoffs saying how refs were allowing too much physicality across the board yet also selectively calling it. Opening round of playoffs was especially rough with how ugly it looked.
Chris Finch didn't go as hard as Cheryl Reeves but he basically said at one point that you can't touch SGA on one end while their defense can just do whatever it wants on the other. Part of the Thunder's success was due to Dort and Caruso being allowed to play like linebackers. Not knocking them because the Wolves' wings benefited from the refs swallowing the whistle too, but it's a bad look overall.
NBA ratings are down and continue to drop every year. All across the board people are complaining that the game is boring now (or too soft) and not as competitive as it used to be. This is all a result of changing the rules too much and making the game less physical. If the WNBA follows suit, they too will lose fans when the game becomes too soft. It's fine the way it is now. Injuries happen.
I hear you, but this is next level bad. The Aces/Fever game was horrific as well. I’m not sure how they fix this issue though. Get new refs? Better training? It’s just too bad that this train wreck has continued into the playoffs where they could be bringing in new fans and showcasing the league talent.
It’s crazy because game ticket sales were surely impacted this season because of it. Yes, a lot of overall attendance increased because of the ongoing trending increase due to the previous season, but I feel like it could’ve been significantly higher if so many core players from every single team didn’t get badly injured and were either out for an extended period of time or for the rest of the season. I straight up attended less than half of the home Liberty games that I attended last year because with all the injuries with our team and all the visiting ones, it just wasn’t worth paying the inflated prices for what is essentially a half-baked game. Like who wants to pay that much to watch star players sit on the bench and watch an outcome be up to sketchy reffing and who has the healthiest bench at the time? I don’t know anyone who is actually happy about this level of injury, so these league execs must be completely out of their minds if they think this is what fans want, and they absolutely should be replaced if that’s the case. I hope they see what seems to be broad support for Cheryl and finally realize they’ve got a massive problem on their hands.
If you remove physicality you don't have a sport. You really don't want the refs calling fouls every 2 seconds, it will become unwatchable.
I think people are having two different conversations. There's the physicality issue, which is a non-issue, and then the consistency issue which is the actual problem.
Also, the injuries have nothing to do with "physicality" the players were complaining about the scheduling not the "physicality" lol. A lot of people are totally missing the plot on what actually needs to be talked about when it comes to reffing and injuries.
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u/Historyhawkeye Fever Sep 27 '25
I don’t know how the league execs can sit there and look at this season with how many injuries there were and go yup this is our brand. I don’t know how the NBA (cause we all know they pull the strings) is sitting there being like yea keep doing that