CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NBA executive Monty McCutchen has a less-than-surprising confession.
Travels get missed.
McCutchen, the former referee who moved to the league office last season and now helps oversee the officiating program, said Friday that about two traveling violations get called per game on average. He says the league believes that the real number of travels that should be called is closer to five per game.
The NBA is no different than any other basketball league - if every letter-of-the-law travel was called, games could last for days. But McCutchen says the league is continuing to work with its referees on making that (and every) call consistently, and remains in constant contact with teams about concerns and interpretations.
But don’t expect a change to a four-ref system anytime soon. The NBA has tinkered with it at the G League level, and McCutchen says “when we looked into it, accuracy did not go up.”
