During two NBA games next week, NBA referees will answer questions about calls from fans over Twitter in real time. The interactions will continue over select games throughout the rest of the NBA regular season and playoffs.
Members of the National Basketball Referees Association first tried chatting with fans live over social media during last year’s NBA Finals Game 3. As part of a new agreement between the referees’ union and the NBA league office, live-tweeting officials will now have access to the NBA’s replay center in Secaucus, N.J., and will utilize the NBA’s official social media platforms to generate increased engagement. The interactions are set to begin with TNT’s broadcast of the Warriors-Lakers game on Monday followed by Wednesday’s Spurs-76ers matchup on ESPN.
“The league wanted to collaborate with us to make it even stronger,” said NBRA spokesperson Mark Denesuk. “One of the ideas was to do this out of the NBA replay center. We can now slow everything down and look at different camera angles. They decided to offer us access to that in addition to their marketing platforms and social media sites to help get more people to participate.”
Fans can tweet at the NBA referees official Twitter account (@OfficialNBARefs) or use the hashtag #RefWatchParty to solicit a response. The NBRA and NBA both saw last year’s live-tweeting experiment as a success, and are hopeful the arrangement will continue to humanize referees in the eyes of fans.
“People thought it was very informative and enhanced the viewing experience for the fans,” Denesuk said. “We want to be authentic. We don’t want to just conduct PR for the referees. This is really meant to help people better understand how the referees see this, what’s going through their head during a game, how they’re positioning themselves on the court. There might be certain plays where we can explain a missed call and why it might have been missed.”
While there were instances last year where thoughtful, transparent communication was shared between refs and fans, a lot of fans who tweeted questions about calls during the game did not receive a response. And others used the hashtag to bash officiating during the game.
“We’re gonna try to get to the questions that we think the are most relevant and broadly interesting. There’s gonna be some that are sarcastic,” Denesuk said. “People love to vent on referees and we understand that. We try and rise above that and focus on things that are practical questions that are relevant to the broader audience.”
SportTechie Takeaway
No matter what calls officials make during a game, one side is typically going to be upset over a whistle not going its way. The NBRA seems determined to try to talk to fans in spite of the negative commentary it received during last year’s experiment. But Twitter has proven to be a platform where constructive and transparent communication is often buried underneath toxic messages, and there may be no guarantee the NBRA’s initiative will be constructive.