In 2014, during a mid-November regular-season game against Sacramento, Mike Conley heard something unfamiliar barked in his direction: “Technical foul.” The then Grizzlies guard, seven-plus years into his pro career, had never been whistled for a tech and he was convinced that whatever he said in the direction of referee Monty McCutchen—“It wasn’t anything more than, ‘What?’ ” Conley says—didn’t warrant the response. The NBA agreed, rescinding the technical the next day. “You could kind of tell in the moment that we both knew it probably shouldn’t have happened,” says Conley. McCutchen, who retired in 2017 and is now the NBA’s head of development and training for referee operations, agrees. “It was,” says McCutchen, smiling at the memory, “one of those nights.”
It goes without saying—or at least it should—that NBA officials are elite. For all the bellyaching about the block/charge or the occasional out-of-bounds play, referees regularly get calls right. The NBA doesn’t release all of its accuracy numbers, but McCutchen says that errors are down year over year and that the 2024–25 season was “a successful year.” Unsportsmanlike technicals—defined seven ways in Section V of the Fouls and Penalties portion of the NBA rule book, including “disrespectfully addressing an official”—have declined. During the ’21–22 season, referees handed out 1,136 techs. Last season, that number was 889.
