I think this is partly a problem within officiating crews where you have different officials at different places depending on the side. If your partner is making calls a certain way for hand checks high out front, you should ideally be trying to maintain consistency on the other side when you are watching for it.
Unfortunately, it appears officials don't have the ability to see what their partner is calling and watch their own area and there evidently isn't much communication around what is/isn't a foul on any particular night between officials. This drives home the point that officiating crews are wildly inconsistent in what does/doesn't get called within crews and there is a great amount of inconsistency between crews. This is a whole-sports issue and until the game/rules are changed to make it easier to officiate, it's not going away.
This is why I think we need to go to technology based team officiating.
To some extent, set up a ton of high res cameras, have some number of people calling certain areas of the rulebook they as specialists in and have them call at both ends. I REALLY think that people who are stationary and looking at one of the 4 best camera views for any given play can see more than 1 person who may or may not be looking at the right place, in the right position, etc.
With this kind of technology you could go as far as having three people watching for, let's say ballhandling infractions (traveling, carrying, double dribble, etc.) and it takes 2 to make a call. Same with position fouls, cylinder, charge/block, etc., etc. Seems to me like it would also get rid of some of the influence that some coaches have over the officials and furthermore, maybe it would kill some of the influence the crowd has over them. If the officials are not known, what gratification do they get out of hopping 3 three times sideways to accentuate the charge call. Crazy grandstanders.
Consistency isn't necessarily one person calling in favor of one team and not the other, it can be 3 different people calling the same situation differently and as their positions and responsibilities change throughout the game (as Wanderer so astutely points out) so does the call that gets made.
Let's change the game entirely and have more eyes, with better positioning that can consistently call the game from end to end without having to "keep up" with the kids that are 1/2 to 1/3 their age. We're living in an age where you can do almost EVERYTHING remotely. Why not officiating?
