NEW YORK – The National Basketball Association today announced a new transparency initiative relating to its officiating program.  Beginning March 2 and continuing throughout the 2015 playoffs, the league will provide play-by-play reports regarding all calls and material non-calls that occur in the last two minutes of close games and during entire overtime periods.  This new initiative creates a more specific protocol for commenting on the most scrutinized calls in NBA games.

The “Last Two Minutes” officiating report is the latest step in the league’s effort toward more transparency in its officiating program.   Previous actions include this season’s launch of the NBA Replay Center, real-time postings on NBA.com and @NBAOfficial of the replays used by officials to make calls during replay reviews, and bi-weekly rule “points of emphasis” memos that are sent to teams, referees and the media.

“Our fans are passionate and have an intense interest in understanding how the rules are applied,” said Mike Bantom, Executive Vice President of Referee Operations.  “NBA referees have the most difficult officiating job in sports, with so many split-second decisions in real time.  We trust this consistent disclosure will give fans a greater appreciation of the difficulty of the job and a deeper sense of the correct interpretations of the rules of our game.”

The league will release assessments of officiated events in the last two minutes of games decided in regulation that were within five points at the two-minute mark.  Also, the reports will include plays from the last two minutes and overtime of OT games.  Each play will be reviewed by a senior referee manager or basketball operations manager who will provide the assessments.  Every play on the report will include a video link to that specific play.  The reports will be posted on NBA.com/official and Media Central, the NBA’s media website (mediacentral.nba.com), by 5 p.m. ET the day after each game.