How Will Lack of Crowds Affect Referees

Steven Adams says there will be more technical fouls called because players like to talk behind officials' backs.

Referees take more abuse than anyone on a basketball court. From fans to coaches to players, you're going to hear something about your job performance. 

But what happens when one of those elements is taken away? The crowd that can sometimes drown out what is said during play is now gone. 

Players and coaches must be on their best behavior, or else they could cost their team. The Thunder's Steven Adams believes that technical fouls will increase because players don't like to keep their mouths shut. 

"You might see an uptick in more technical fouls because [the referees] can hear what players are saying,"..."Because you see, we like to talk behind their backs."

"But they can actually hear us now. So there's going to be a lot more T's."..."Should be the only difference."

Oklahoma City head coach Billy Donovan isn't sure how the refs are going to react to their new environment. 

"They're total focus is getting plays right, getting calls right." ..."I don't know if this lack of fans in the buildings is gonna change any of that."

"They're always evaluated themselves and the league has evaluated them on calls."..."With the two minute report that comes out at the end of games, there's a level of transparency of different things that have happened at the end of games that maybe should have been different calls."

"I don't see them being impacted by the fact there's not gonna be any fans in the stands, I think that there gonna look to still make the right calls."

Former Thunder head coach Scott Brooks tells Sports Illustrated:

“That will be interesting for everybody. They’re going to hear everything—and you don’t want that.”

The Thunder will get their first chance to see how referees are reacting to only hearing what players and coaches have to say this Friday at 4 when they scrimmage the Boston Celtics.

Have you signed up for the Inside the Thunder Community Board? We are trying to create a place to share posts and have intriguing and fun conversations about all things related to the Oklahoma City Thunder! Once you sign up, feel free to post as you'd like.

With more than 20 years of experience hosting local and national radio shows, Erik Gee is a fixture of Oklahoma sports media. He has covered the Oklahoma City Thunder for the past six seasons. He is also the co-host of the Pat Jones show on 97.1 The Sports Animal in Tulsa.