What NBA referees need is a little more silence
MARK HEISLER / ON THE NBA
When coaches, players and team executives are constantly crying foul, it's no wonder the league must deal with a perception that something is amiss.
The NBA had conspiracy theories before the infamous Tim Donaghy refereeing scandal and it will have them after Donaghy. Somehow, it comes with the turf in professional basketball, if not that of football, baseball, hockey, et al.
The report delivered today by former federal prosecutor Lawrence Pedowitz, NBA Commissioner David Stern's independent investigator, blamed only Donaghy and found no substance to his allegations of fixes, like Game 6 of the 2002 West Finals in which the Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings.
Donaghy is now serving a 15-month jail sentence for betting on NBA games.
Unfortunately, the people who keep conspiracy theories close to their hearts won't be giving them up. That includes many or most NBA players and executives whose mewing keeps a black cloud over the game that enriches them, which they purport to love.
Pedowitz's recommendations to tighten up rules against legal gambling are fine. For the privilege of officiating games with the attractive salaries that go with it, NBA refs can live without going to casinos.
The recommendations about "transparency," which Stern had already promised his teams, are something else.
The NBA now says it has a "prototype, proprietary system for screening games in an effort to detect data patterns that warrant further investigation."
Oh, happy day!
Actually, that sounds like some nerd's computer model or HAL 9000 from "2001, A Space Odyssey."
In the wake of all the disbelief, starting within the league, the more proactive the NBA tries to be, the more it backfires.
In the name of the dread transparency, Stern's aides arose last spring to second-guess their officials after Game 4 of the Laker-Spurs series when Derek Fisher got away with crashing into Brent Barry as he tried to get off a game-tying shot.
The league said, "With benefit of instant replay, it appears a foul call should have been made."
Of course, the referees couldn't use instant replay; only the NBA administrators second-guessing them had access to the technology.
Worse, the blame went to crew chief Joey Crawford, who'd had several run-ins with the Spurs, although he was behind the play and it was another official, Joe Forte, who blew the call.
The distinction is lost in San Antonio, where a local talk show host had compared Crawford to Charles Manson before that game.
