NBA unveils new initiatives to improve officiating

When NBA commissioner Adam Silver named Byron Spruell as president of league operations in June, he knew changes were forthcoming. He just didn’t know what would change.

Silver knows now. Spruell, who came from the results-oriented world of Deloitte, did what all strong executives do.

“Initially, it was about observing and assessing,” Spruell told USA TODAY Sports, “and now I’m at a point where we’ve done all of that, and I can definitely see some areas for improvement.”

Spruell’s work has led to the launch of new initiatives aimed at improving officiating, which the NBA will formally announce on Thursday.

• The league has created an Officiating Advisory Council that will include former NBA player and coach Doug Collins; retired Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of USA Basketball and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Arne Duncan, the former U.S. Education Secretary; ex-referee Steve Javie; and Kenny Smith, a TNT analyst and former NBA player. Together, they will help determine the future of NBA officiating. 
• The NBA will increase its pool of 63 referees by 25% within three years, including 10% next season, with a more global and diverse approach to sourcing and hiring – meaning the possibility of international refs calling NBA games.
• Enhanced training for referees through technology, including virtual reality.
• Introduce new scheduling system for referees aimed at reducing travel and back-to-backs and allowing crews to work consecutive games together.

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To be clear, the NBA believes it has the best officials in the world. But like many things, there is room for improvement.

“They are doing a great job at it, but they can improve and that’s their mindset,” Spruell said. “It’s the way we go about relating to them as well as what programs are we putting in place to continue to make them better. … The profession is demanding. What they do to get calls as accurate as they do is amazing.”

Spruell believes the initiatives will lead to a better product on the court but not all of the initiatives will happen overnight.

“These initiatives are going to take us to a higher level of performance,” he said. “This is about continual performance improvement and given some of the things I’ve seen in my past and at the NBA, these initiatives have a real opportunity to continually and enhance the performance on the court for our referees.”

And improve perception of referees. “As you improve, hopefully perception will improve,” he said.

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Other initiatives:

• Implement a new, comprehensive data-driven game review system that looks at hundreds of plays per game. Teams will use this but it will also “fortify objective referee measurement standards and track progress regarding call accuracy and errors per game over multiple seasons.”

Said Spruell: “We still have to train and develop and evaluate in the right way … how do we really get the best of the best and evaluate them and differentiate their performance and call out the lesser performers and really acknowledge high performers?”

This new game review system also may lead to the eventual public release of full 48-minute reports instead of the Last Two-Minute Reports that are available to anyone now. As it stands, the NBA releases an assessment of the referees' performances following games that were within five points at the two-minute mark.

• Improve and expand system in which teams inquire about specific plays and offer input, feedback following games.
• Develop guidelines and create forums to improve decorum and in-game communications between players, coaches and referees.

“Working with the NBRA (National Basketball Referees Association) and all of our officials, they do have an appreciation that I can be their toughest critic but also their biggest advocate in terms of helping them get better,” Spruell said.

Over time, the league will revise or rewrite the NBA rulebook to match evolution of the game and will continue to the use the G-League to train referees and experiment with new approaches.

Follow USA TODAY Sports' Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgitt.