NBA's first-round playoff referees include mix of experience, first-timers
After 1,230 regular-season games, the NBA’s best referees have emerged for the playoffs.
The league announced Friday its 36 officials, plus four alternates, for first-round playoff games. The roster includes a wide range of playoff experience – from Mike Callahan’s 200-plus playoff games officiated to the first playoff games for seven officials, including fourth-year refs Tyler Ford and Gediminas Petraitis.
“We have young people in, but their work has clearly shown they are prepared for this opportunity,” NBA vice president/head of referee development and training Monty McCutchen said. “We really want this system to be a meritocracy. People who are putting in the work, putting in the performance are the ones that should serve the game at the highest level at this time of the year.
“That being said, we do have people who are putting the work in who do have years of experience and who bring that sense of calm to that game.”
The 36 officials average 15 years of NBA officiating experience, 17 refs have 10 or more seasons of playoff experience and five refs have called more than 125 playoff games (Callahan, 210; Ken Mauer, 208; Scott Foster, 176; Tom Washington, 165; and Tony Brothers, 127).
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The playoff refs are selected following season-long evaluations from the league’s referee operations staff, input from teams and play-calling accuracy.
The operations staff consists of McCutchen, senior vice president/head of referee operations Michelle D. Johnson, president of league operations Byron Spruell and referee development advisors Mark Wunderlich, Bernie Fryer, E.F. Rush, Bennett Salvatore and Joe Crawford.
“We have rating and ranking of officials based on our work we do with officials all year long,” McCutchen said.
Coaches and teams can offer input via a midseason evaluation and feedback following each game.
“That gives us an idea of how the stakeholders being impacted by our work believe who’s working well throughout the season,” McCutchen said.
The NBA’s analytics staff provides accuracy data.
“We have a very rigorous vetting process,” McCutchen said. “Those three different groups give us a process which we then can see who consistently has done the work that warrants the best games of the year at the best time of the year.”
The league narrows its referees to 28 for the conference semifinals, 20 for the conference finals and 12 for the Finals using the same three-pronged evaluation process.
“It’s vital to understand that when you have good processes good things take place,” McCutchen said. “I’m just really confident we have the people who are able to handle the work.”
Here are the 36 officials:
Brent Barnaky, ninth season, third playoffs
Curtis Blair, 11th season, first playoffs
Tony Brothers, 25th season, 19th playoffs
Tony Brown, 17th season, ninth playoffs
Nick Buchert, ninth season, first playoffs
Mike Callahan, 29th season, 23rd playoffs
James Capers, 24th season, 18th playoffs
Derrick Collins, 18th season, 12th playoffs
Kevin Cutler, ninth season, second playoffs
Marc Davis, 21st season, 14th playoffs
Kane Fitzgerald, 10th season, fifth playoffs
Tyler Ford, fourth season, first playoffs
Brian Forte, 12th season, sixth playoffs
Scott Foster, 25th season, 20th playoffs
Pat Frahar, 18th season, 11th playoffs
John Goble, 12th season, 10th playoffs
David Guthrie, 14th season, ninth playoffs
Courtney Kirkland, 19th season, ninth playoffs
Karl Lane, eighth season, second playoffs
Eric Lewis, 15th season, 11th playoffs
Mark Lindsay, 12th season, fifth playoffs
Tre Maddox, eighth season, first playoffs
Ed Malloy, 17th season, 12th playoffs
Ken Mauer, 33rd season, 26th playoffs
Rodney Mott, 21st season, 12th playoffs
Gediminas Petraitis, fourth season, first playoffs
Jason Phillips, 19th season, 11th playoffs
Kevin Scott, eighth season, second playoffs
Michael Smith, 26th season, 15th playoffs
Ben Taylor, sixth season, first playoffs
Josh Tiven, ninth season, sixth playoffs
Scott Twardoski, eighth season, first playoffs
Scott Wall, 24th season, seventh playoffs
Tom Washington, 28th season, 22nd playoffs
Sean Wright, 14th season, 10th playoffs
Zach Zarba, 16th season, 11th playoffs
Alternates: Mitchell Ervin, J.T. Orr, Dedric Taylor, Leon Wood