MIAMI — Dick Bavetta and Joey Crawford are among the biggest names in the NBA playoffs.

But they are officiating the games, not playing in them.
Something is terribly wrong when the guys with the whistles are as prominent and influential as the guys with the tattoos — and the ball.
A sports official ought to be anonymous, no more than an invisible hand enforcing the rules. We shouldn’t notice the chair umpire when Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer play for the Wimbledon title. Nor do we want to know the referee overseeing the Super Bowl.
But during an otherwise thrilling NBA postseason, the officials have become a sideshow unto themselves. There has been an abundance of controversial calls. Lots of inconsistency. Debate over flagrant fouls. Claims of favoritism. Fines of angry coaches. Whining from players. Outrage from fans. The fact that Dwight Howard, one of the superstars of the league, is on the verge of being suspended because of his accumulation of technical fouls shows that there is too much interference from officials.
The sauce shouldn’t detract from the steak.
The NBA hears these complaints more than any other pro sport in the United States. Maybe that’s because the definition of a foul in basketball has become so elastic. Calling a foul has become as subjective as reviewing a movie. Officials wield too much power.
Along with the complaints comes the conspiracy theory — that the NBA is rigged, certain players get preferential treatment and marquee matchups are preordained by commissioner David Stern to boost TV ratings.
When none other than Ron “Hitman” Artest defends his aggressive mode of defense and Kobe Bryant agrees with him, the officials need to back off and let them play.
Howard, he of the banquet table-sized shoulders, said he would like to rebuff LeBron James more forcefully in Game 6 on Saturday in Orlando. But he’s worried about fouling out, as he did Thursday in Cleveland, when the Cavaliers pulled away in the closing minutes.
On Tuesday night, Howard scored on a driving layup with a Cleveland player clinging to his back. Howard reacted with growling glee and was socked with a T by ref Scott Foster. Orlando assistant coach Patrick Ewing was given a T for objecting. It was a ridiculous call at a crucial juncture. The next day, the NBA rescinded the foul, but couldn’t restore the momentum Orlando lost or subtract the point Cleveland scored on a free throw. What if it had been the deciding free throw?
The NBA also has assessed fouls after the act. In Game 3 of the Lakers-Nuggets series, Bryant was tripped by Dahntay Jones, but there was no call until Wednesday, when the league announced Jones would be assigned a flagrant foul.
When officials’ decisions are being changed at NBA headquarters in New York, it’s more proof of invasiveness.
NBA games drag on too long as it is. With all the interruptions from unnecessary foul calls — such as the one on Zydrunas Ilgauskas for digging his knuckles into Howard’s back Thursday — the games lose their flow and become interminable.
There are wide variations in game style depending on the lenience of refs. But in general the NBA has come to resemble a classroom presided over by a dictatorial teacher quick to punish any student who makes a peep. Imagine if there was this much regulation in football or hockey.
The current state of officiating in the NBA grew out of an overreaction to the Pacers-Pistons brawl at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Stern, anxious to reverse the erosion of the league’s image — that of spoiled thugs — told refs to clamp down. He also instituted a dress code for players.
(They in turn seem to have retaliated by inking every square inch of skin with tattoos. My favorite — the luscious red lips on Kenyon Martin’s neck.)
Now it’s time to find a reasonable medium and enforce consistency. We’ve all played pickup basketball, backyard football and recreational tennis and called our own fouls and lines without being fined or ejected. We don’t watch the NBA playoffs to see the exploits of the guys wearing pants.