I've always thought Bavetta was the worst ref in the game (Salvatore is a close second because of his incompetence). The home crowd loves him because he gets so emotionally wrapped up in the games and favors the hometown way too much.

He and others like Crawford love to give exaggerated officiating motions like ferocious hip thrusts for blocking foul calls and long-windup signal calls for offensive fouls.

Too many of these guys love to be part of the production. Bavetta's race with Barkley and man kiss at the end was a travesty. Maybe Stern and league officials are "directly" giving orders but they no which ref to assign a particular game to. The league needs to fire every single ref and start with refs who have sack and will not be influenced by a crowd, superstars and star coaches.

But that will never happen.