[Henderson] “Even as I sit in the stands at games, players may be falling down, players may be reacting to a call,” (Adam) Silver said. “But to me, if they’re not fooling the referees, it’s OK. Players are taught to sell calls these days.”
Silver was also asked about concerns surrounding flopping and officiating, specifically regarding the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals. Many believe that Gilgeous-Alexander, who just won his second consecutive regular-season MVP award, has a habit of exaggerating contact for foul calls.
To that, Silver felt it was important to make the distinction between embellishing contact to draw a foul, a genuine part of the game, and actually deceiving the officials.
“Even as I sit in the stands at games, players may be falling down, players may be reacting to a call,” Silver said. “But to me, if they’re not fooling the referees, it’s OK. Players are taught to sell calls these days.”
Silver agreed the league is “always working on that,” in reference to officiating improving, but he doesn’t see it as a pressing issue and called the league’s officiating “incredible.”
He does, however, see a future where, in terms of out-of-bounds calls, the league moves to a system like tennis’ Hawk-Eye system, in which objective calls can be quickly replayed and decided by an automated AI system powered by cameras around the court. So-called objective calls, Silver said, currently handled by referees, will eventually become instantaneous.
Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton appeared on the show after the commissioner. He explained that the art of embellishing contact to draw fouls is taught at the player development level. It stems from a desire by the game’s best scorers to understand methods of generating as many free-throw opportunities as possible.