Maybe opportunity knocks

[azirish]

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070724.wsptgrange24/GSStory/GlobeSportsBasketball/

Maybe opportunity knocks


MICHAEL GRANGE
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

July 24, 2007 at 9:42 PM EDT
This was David Stern the chastened, the embarrassed.
David Stern the frightened, even.

As he gripped the lectern during his unprecedented news conference in a New York City hotel ballroom yesterday morning, there was no hint of the arrogance and wit that have been a trademark of his public appearances during his remarkable 23-year run as the commissioner of the National Basketball Association.

He wasted no words, calling the alleged betting scandal that has snared Tim Donaghy, previously a highly regarded member of the league's refereeing staff, "the worst situation I've every experienced, either as a fan of the NBA, a lawyer for the NBA or commissioner of the NBA."

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It's hard to tell exactly what the fallout will be. Presuming the scandal remains an "isolated case" and Donaghy is what Stern called "a rogue, isolated criminal," the league may be able to recover quickly, despite plenty of rhetoric about the sky falling.

It seems to be a stretch to suggest the rapidly filling Toronto Raptors bandwagon will go off the road because Donaghy worked the sixth game of the Raptors' first-round playoff series against the New Jersey Nets last season, a 98-97 Toronto loss. Last we looked, it was Jose Calderon throwing the ball away on the Raptors' last possession, not Donaghy.

Phoenix Suns fans watched as the San Antonio Spurs' Bruce Bowen manhandled Steve Nash without Donaghy's crew apparently noticing in the pivotal third game of their second-round series. The Spurs beat the spread, beat the total and beat the Suns. Well, Suns fans may have a better case.

The point is, even nightmares pass, recede into memory and become less scary in the light of day.

If handled properly, the NBA and Stern can capitalize on a veteran referee flipping on alleged gangsters to ease his own criminal burden.

Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for venting his displeasure about the quality of NBA officiating. But his reaction as the Donaghy scandal began to leak out was telling. He titled his most recent blog entry Calamity As Catalyst: My vote Of Confidence In The NBA.

The opportunity is there, Cuban and others say, to use Donaghy's alleged transgressions as an incentive to pull back the veil that has traditionally shielded referees from public scrutiny.

Until now, it was deemed good enough for Stern to argue that NBA referees were the best in the world. Why they were the best or how they were the best were never explained. Even though officials were, we were told, constantly evaluated, graded, scrutinized and assessed, fans, media, players, coaches and sponsors merely had to take the NBA's word for it.

The three puffs of white smoke at the Vatican are, in relative terms, a forward thinking communications policy compared with how the NBA deals with questions about officials.

Some league insiders predict the Donaghy incident will be the event that changes all that. If the league is charting and cataloging every call its officials make, why keep it a secret? Why should it be left to FoxSports.com to report that Donaghy led the NBA in calling technical fouls last season, and that games he worked had the most free throws and the most players foul out?

Similarly, why does covers.com, "a one-stop shop for current and accurate sports gaming information," have in-depth statistical profiles of all 60 NBA officials, while NBA.com pretends referees don't exist?

No one's suggesting the NBA should begin providing data about which of its referees have a "better" record against the spread. But maybe it is time for the findings of the evaluation system Stern detailed yesterday to be made available to fans and other interested parties. Against the backdrop of bent refs, game fixing and "low-level mobsters," it would seem harmless to learn that Steve Javie is more likely to call a charge than Joey Crawford, or Dick Bavetta makes more three-second calls than Violet Palmer. Post video from controversial calls on the Web (it generally ends up there anyway). Make it a new category for fantasy leagues, or whatever.

But a trust has been broken, and it needs to be fixed. In the darkest hour of his basketball life, it's time for David Stern to pull back the curtain and prove there's nothing to hide.

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

Very good points. I approve.

 

[jbeecham]

I almost stopped reading the article after reading this:

It seems to be a stretch to suggest the rapidly filling Toronto Raptors bandwagon will go off the road because Donaghy worked the sixth game of the Raptors' first-round playoff series against the New Jersey Nets last season, a 98-97 Toronto loss. Last we looked, it was Jose Calderon throwing the ball away on the Raptors' last possession, not Donaghy.

If he doesn't get that calls made (or not made) all game long affect the outcome more than one play then he's a moron. The rest of his article was decent though.

 

[azirish]

Referee madness

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/extras/green_room/2007/07/referee_madness.html

July 26, 2007
Referee madness

By Jesse Nunes
It's been an interesting week in the NBA, to say the least. And these are supposed to be the slow ones, where you wait patiently for any morsel of trade rumor or low-level free agent signing.

What happened with accused NBA referee Tim Donaghy has the whole sports world appropriately buzzing, and many already preparing the epitaph for a league that some think can never be trusted again.

And it is a big deal ... a big blow to the integrity of the sport that has already had it questioned by conspiracy theorists on issues ranging from weighted ping pong balls to questionable calls and suspensions in the playoffs. But many of those questions have never been addressed, or even acknowledged, by the league -- after all, if you respond to conspiracy theories, you validate them in some way.

But now that those conspiracy theories have been validated, the NBA is now forced to react.

And because of that, and the universal panning of the league's integrity that has ensued, David Stern and the other NBA decision makers have no other choice but to do whatever it takes to erase every single doubt about the honesty of the sport going forward.

Can you imagine, after all this, another official getting roped into fixing games? Or a player under the hand of a bookie? Do you think any of them now think they could get away with such a thing? If anything, this mess has become a huge deterrent to anybody within the sports world even thinking about tarnishing the integrity of competition in such a way. The public spectacle, the impending charges, the talk of the death of the league ... these are high stakes.

One thing everyone agrees on is that in the upcoming NBA season, the officials with be scrutinized like never before. Whether fair nor not, every dubious foul call, ejection, three-second whistle, and every other judgment call will be put under the microscope by the fans and media alike.

People will post YouTube compilations of an official's bad calls (check out Donaghy’s), hoping to find a pattern of bias. Referees' names will become almost as well known as those in the starting five, and undoubtedly be given mob-like nicknames by the fans, such as Joey "the Henchman" Crawford or Violet "Knuckles" Palmer. There will be nonstop jokes about how Tony Soprano didn't die, he's got three grand on the Nets. The Bucks will be involved in headline wordplay at least 50 times. Tommy Heinsohn, who has had his ref-bashing slowly reined in over the last couple of years, may not be able to contain himself any longer, and if he tries, there's a good chance his head will explode.

With all that attention, all the intense scrutiny of people looking for any little excuse to find that the league is fixed, neither a single referee nor league office honcho will be able to easily get away with anything dubious.

And although their jobs will undoubtedly be insanely difficult this upcoming season, all of this is a good thing.
Because now, the refs will be forced to be better. They have to be better.

The NBA will need to show the fans that their referees are not only unbiased, but also competent. Those deemed not to be should not have the free ride they once had. They will have more pressure than ever to make the correct call, every time.

Not that most of them haven't already been trying to do that (although some will disagree), but the stakes are higher now, and a ref has to be surer than ever when they blow the whistle. Not doing so will only exacerbate the negative perception of them in the eyes of many observers.

How will this realistically affect games? For one thing, hopefully the "star system" of calls will be reined in, and no longer do veterans get the benefit of the doubt simply because they've been in the league longer. And the wild fluctuations in what the refs deem either fouls or "play-ons" in the last five minutes a game can should become more universally consistent. I have a feeling the "no tolerance" rule on arguing that was in full force at the beginning of last year will be relaxed a little. Technicals won't be handed out like candy on Halloween like they were this past season.

And most of all, I suspect, the aura of undeterred authority that individual officials like Donaghy conduct themselves with will be reined in. They will have to work harder than ever at becoming a team on the court, with members that are willing to correct one another. Like in baseball over the past five or so years, I expect the officials to huddle together a lot more than they have been doing, in an effort to get every call right and erase any doubts in anyone's mind that a lone "rogue" ref isn't taking control of a game.

And hopefully, once the season starts and the catcalls from the rafters are in full force, they can let their actions on the court erase any doubts about the integrity of the league.

Because if they don't, they'll have bigger problems than FBI probes. They'll have fan and media apathy, and a one-way ticket to the Versus network.