Home Court Advantage... why is it acceptable?

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Just caught a great point on 1st and 10, that I've thought about before and can never really get a good answer to....

In certain sports - basketball for instance... why is it this accepted phenomenon that the home team will always shoot more free throws than the away team? The calls shouldn't work that way, but they always seem to.

How is it that we've come to believe this is an acceptable "tradition" in sports? When you start "owing" people foul calls due tothings that have nothing to do with the players and game themselves, aren't you toeing a very slippery slope?
 
Originally Posted by Craftsy21

In certain sports - basketball for instance... why is it this accepted phenomenon that the home team will always shoot more free throws than the away team? The calls shouldn't work that way, but they always seem to.

How is it that we've come to believe this is an acceptable "tradition" in sports? When you start "owing" people foul calls due to things that have nothing to do with the players and game themselves, aren't you toeing a very slippery slope?
Great point.

I've always thought about that as well...
 
we as basketball fans have just come to accept that david stern will never allow for fair play, someone always has to have an advantage in his league.

i love when announcers say that ''you don't get those calls on the road''.

it's sad really.
 
It keeps this interesting, believe it or not. It's more dramatic. It makes games more important. You guys would HATE a L with no HCA, you just don'tknow it. Besides, it makes for a more profitable and enjoyable live experience. The stadiums are packed to see their team win at home. You don't wanna puton your team jersey, drive to the stadium, and watch yor fav. player get called for a hooking foul
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. You'd rather see him get away with the foul andjam on that lazy C down there. It's more fun that way. Also, the players have more memorable performances when the overcome the pressure as the away team.Lebron's Triple-double* in the Garden is an example.
 
It's not just basketball... there have been studies done on this and all the major sports have the homecourt advantage phenomenon regarding penalty calls.As fun as it is, this is not something you can only blame on Stern.

In any case, those studies have shown that a very big part of the "ref homecourt advantage" is because the referee is human and is psychologicallyAFRAID of calling something against the crowd (I wish I had a link to the article, but can't find it). I know we'd like to think of the ref as a 100%impartial, unbiased robot calling the game, but unfortunately they are very much human - they don't WANT to be a villain and when they make a controversialcall and an entire stadium or arena boos them it does have a psychological effect. It's unlikely that every ref goes in thinking "I'm going tomake calls for the home team so people won't hate me"... it's just something subconscious that guides your decisions when you just don'treally have time to sit and think about things. Refs are NEVER praised for calls for the home team (the crowd cheers players, not refs), but they are booed atand cursed at HEAVILY for calls against the home team. When you're dealing with crowds ranging from 10,000 to 70,000 people, that takes a psychologicaltoll on you and you find yourself playing to the crowd sometimes whether you meant to or not.

(Edit: On that note, though, "star treatment" is inexcusable, IMO. Now THAT'S something I don't find acceptable about refs.)
 
They get intimidated by home crowds.Dee Kantner used to be the worst then she finally got "demoted" to women's basketball
 
bad teams don't get home court advantage in the nba

when the refs are influenced by the booing of the fans, they're are no longer doing their job to their best capability, and the fans always cheer when afavorable call goes their way.
 
what makes things interesting, some refs LIKE being the villian. My college team has one of the greatest home courts, but its actual HCA is negotiable whencertain refs come to town. It actually works against the home team.
 
i dont think this stems from the NBA. Its more of an old basketball thing, like in college or high school. When you travel you will get refs from that region.And you know they will give their home team the calls. Like if you send a team from New York to play a team in Indiana. You think the Indiana refs will givethe New Yorkers any calls?
 
Originally Posted by RetroBaller

i dont think this stems from the NBA. Its more of an old basketball thing, like in college or high school. When you travel you will get refs from that region. And you know they will give their home team the calls. Like if you send a team from New York to play a team in Indiana. You think the Indiana refs will give the New Yorkers any calls?
Depends. If the New Yorkers are Black....**+#.... don't even get your hopes up out here
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. It'sSO much racism in the IHSA it's actually cute.
 
Originally Posted by Osh Kosh Bosh

Referees are human beings it's natural for them to be swayed by the home crowd.
you can't let the crowd get to you, they tell that to the players, i'm sure they tell to the refs.

you can not be an efficient referee and basically cheat for the home team.
 
I think it has to do with the fast pace of the game along with the close proximity of fans. In football if a bad play is called fans boo for 30 seconds and thenext play happens. In baseball fans boo and the manager comes out argues and thats that. In basketball if you don't call a blocking foul player loses theball and you hear all the boooooooo's and the play is still in action and taking place and it gets in the head. I think it's human nature more thananything
 
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