Stern Says All the Right Things

Facing a potentially catastrophic scandal, NBA Commissioner David Stern did and said all the right things. And what he said is that:

a) The NBA did all it could to prevent something like this from happening. Through the training, screens, and checks the NBA has a thorough system to educate referees on rules and monitor their behavior.

b) This was isolated to one referee who had developed a bad gambling habit and became trapped. He knowingly disobeyed the rules and before resigning on July 9th, he was planning to pursue a plea agreement in the impending case.

c) The NBA will review its procedure and rules to ensure the integrity of the game.

There is more to be interpreted from David Stern's message. First of all, he described a lot of the league's policies and procedures regarding officials. The referees are subjected to an observer system to monitor the calls that they make or don't make. Like the players, they are subjected to training camp, preseason, and regular season training sessions. Furthermore, there are different levels of referees that indicate what level of the playoffs they are allowed to ref. This is based on experience and performance. All things considered, Tim Donaghy was a mid-level NBA ref with a moderate amount of experience.

What I understood from David Stern illuminating the public on the NBA's procedures is that handing out pamphlets with gambling rules may not be the most efficient way of making rules clear. Stern insisted that the NBA's gambling policy for referees is clear, but how many of us have started a job, or opened a bank account, or signed up for something online and haven't read all of the conditions pertaining to that contract. The NBA is not completely innocent in this situation. Also, as part of the collective bargaining agreement, referees are not allowed to gamble in any form, except horse racing during the summer after the season is over. They must obtain a permit from the NBA to do this. This is a stupid rule. Either they are allowed to gamble or they are not allowed to. Horse racing is no different than slots or blackjack. If the referees' union wanted to give them some leeway, a more reasonable point to agree upon would be to disallow gambling on sports.

Tim Donaghy worked 139 regular season games and 8 playoff games over the past two seasons. The allegations of what games he placed bets on are still unclear. He is accused of betting on some games that he worked and possibly other games. The worry around the sports world is that the results of some games could have been changed due to Donaghy's bias. However, I don't believe he really influenced the outcome of games unfairly. If the NBA system is as thorough as David Stern claims, then presumably any irregular behavior would have been noticed and Donaghy would have been suspended in a similar fashion to Joey Crawford last season. Tim Donaghy wasn't the reason the Spurs beat the Suns. Tim Duncan had a much bigger role in that outcome. Believe that because it's true.

Still this will force the NBA to answer to a lot of critics and luckily they have David Stern to do so. Let the young stars in the league speak for the quality of basketball. In the mean time, this is a nice break to the boredom of summer sports.