The NBA is looking towards technology to ensure that their referees make the right calls in a time-friendly manner.
Multiple media outlets are reporting that refs in the NBA summer leagues are wearing headsets and will be able to replay reviews during games quicker. Communication via headsets, earpieces and microphones will essentially allow the three officials on the court to save time having to huddle to discuss calls. The idea is for refs to avoid delays of crowding around a monitor at the scorer's table, something that can be annoying to the fans at the arena, those watching at home and definitely the players. As a testing ground, the NBA is applying these policies in the Orlando, Utah and Las Vegas summer leagues.
If the process runs smoothly and actually helps refs make calls quicker with more accuracy, the headsets could find their way to becoming permanent fixtures during the NBA regular-season and playoff games, possibly as soon as the 2015-16 season, beginning this fall.
In March, Rod Thorn, the league's president of basketball operations, explained circumstances of how the use of headsets and eventually communicating with the league's replay centre in Seacaucus, New Jersey can speed up the game.
"Let's say there's a [call between a] three and a two that the replay centre can see definitely it's a three, right away, and they can say to a referee on the court, 'That's a three,' you wouldn't need to have a timeout. They could just tell the scorer's table at the next dead ball that it's a three. There are different ways you could go from there...It's something that's in progress," Thorn told NBA.com at the time, about the headset and replay policy which was already being used in the NBA's Development League.
Thorn added: "As to when it might come in, that's a really tough one to say. You want [headsets] as small as possible, you'd like to get something that enough of shelf life, if you will, that you wouldn't have to constantly charge it during play. But it is something that to me has some possibilities because it could help speed up the game, number one, and it could also help the referees."
The NBA's director of officials Don Vaden also told the New York Times that the headsets should help younger officials, in particular, giving them the extra confidence and support to make the right calls.
