Spurs / Lakers

1st Quarter, Phil Jackson not happy with the officiating. Could it be that the "Conspiracy Theory" about Joey Crawford will actually help the Spurs. My thinking is that Mr. Crawford will not want any questionable calls to go against the Spurs so that no one will be talking about him tomorrow.

Good acting job by Bruce Bowen on the offensive foul called on Jordan Farmer midway through the 2nd quarter. I'd say he took some lessons from Ginobili or Parker, but he didn't fall over and put his thumb in his mouth.

I know nobody likes to get fouls called on them, or calls no go their way, but no one argues and looks "innocent" after every play like Tim Duncan. It doesn't matter what end of the court he's on, he's mastered them all.
"Are you kidding me, I didn't even touch him?!?"
"He was ALL over me!!"
"That was clearly NOT off me"

And then when Tony Parker drives to the lane, gets fouled, makes the shot to put the Spurs down one with a chance to tie... Parker lets out a yell, and goes to high five Tim Duncan, and Duncan face is pointed to the ground, no emotion, no passion.

A lot of "no-calls" tonight... which are good for the game.

(Ed Note: I wrote that line above in the middle of the 3rd quarter)

Spurs down 2, with the ball with 2.1 seconds to go in the game. Brent Barry with an amazing game tonight - will he get a 3 point look, or will Spurs go for the tie since they are at home...

Crowd on feet...

Horry in game too...

Barry shoots... misses! Ah... Of course... there's the conspiracy "no-call" we've been waiting on all night. Yep! Replays show Fisher fouled Barry, question is would it have been 2 or 3 free throws for Barry. Joey Crawford was the official that should have made that call.

On Sportscenter after the game, Tim Legler said:

Brent Barry needed to go through the contact to get the call, since he stopped and bounced backwards - no official would have made that call to end the game.

When asked if it was a good call because of how Barry reacted, Legler said "yes".

I will disagree with Legs though and say that it was a bad call, and Barry should have at least been put on the free throw line for 2, not 3 foul shots.

Legs did say however, that if that is Ginobili or Bryant, they get that call everytime. Since it's Brent Barry, it's no call. That's they way it goes for role players some times.

Phil Jackson response:

Fisher's ball touched the rim with 4 seconds left, and therefore we should have been given the ball with a new shot clocked and the Spurs would have been forced to foul us... but yes, he bumped him

Barry takes the high road in his interview, he says "that's not going to get called" he actually gave Fisher credit for a great play.

Popovich apparently said the no-call was the right call.

As anyone interviewed Tim Duncan yet? Someone ask him if it was a foul or not and see how many faces and reactions they can get out of him.

Bottom line, even though the Spurs made a valiant comeback in the final minute, they did not take advantage of opportunities all night long. They really did not deserve to win this game. This was a lot like game 1, except unlike the Lakers in the opener, the Spurs could not get the steal on their homecourt. Lakers lead 3-1 with game 4 on Thursday night at Staples.

This Just Keeps Getting Better

From the Boston Herald this morning comes this regarding the absolutely crazy Tim Donaghy Case:

Attorney John F. Lauro ripped into the feds for giving Donaghy’s gambling associates a slap on the wrist, while Donaghy – who ratted them out - is facing a heftier sentence.

Lauro also said Donaghy provided investigators with information about another NBA referee who secretly passed confidential information to a coach, and about other circumstances that affected the outcome of games and "prevented games from being played on a level playing field."

Oh boy... now we have to speculate on what referee that is. Did Donaghy give them a name? If so, when do find that out?

As for Donaghy - the story of how he got started in this is not a pretty one:

Lauro said Battista called Donaghy in 1994 during his first year as an NBA referee and asked whether he was going to be "up and up," which Donaghy interpreted to mean whether he would use his position to help Battista gamble. Donaghy, according to his attorney, rejected the offer and said he would contact the authorities if Battista called again.

But a few years ago, Donaghy began betting heavily on professional sports with Norwood insurance salesman Jack Concannon through local bookie Pete Ruggieri, Lauro wrote.

Eventually, they began gambling on games that Donaghy officiated. Concannon, a former Monsignor Bonner basketball star and former coach of the Friars, was interviewed by the FBI last year, but he will not be charged, his attorney, Joseph Fioravanti, said Monday.

Ruggieri’s attorney could not be reached Monday.

According to the account Lauro provided, Battista muscled his way into the action in late 2006 by threatening to report Donaghy to the NBA if the referee did not help him select bets.

"Battista also threatened Tim’s family, stating that Tim would not want people from New York (Mafia figures) visiting his wife and kids," Lauro wrote.

Battista and his lawyers of course refute those allagations:

Battista’s attorney, Jack McMahon Jr., Monday dismissed that as "ridiculous."

"That Battista threatened Donaghy and his family in any way is all fantasy land. He didn’t have to threaten Donaghy to gamble," McMahon said. "Donaghy was ready, willing and able to gamble. He’s a gambling addict. He said so himself. He’s been running around with this ‘Poor me’ attitude, while all it was was greed, greed, greed."

As for how the betting controlled the outcome of games. Well, the folks over at pregame.com have done some research, the results are mind-blowing:

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Goldberg said in a letter filed Friday in Brooklyn Federal Court that former NBA referee Tim Donaghy bet on about 14 games that he personally officiated during the 2006-07 season.

Compare that admission to the following fact: The first 15 games of the 2006-07 refereed by Tim Donaghy that had big enough betting to move the point spread by at least 1.5 points were UNDEFEATED against Las Vegas meaning that the big money gamblers won a 15 of 15 times on his games. The odds of that happening randomly are 32,768 to 1 said RJ Bell of Pregame.com.

Tim Donaghy officiating style statistically changed during the 2005/06 and 06/07 seasons. During the two years prior (i.e., 03/04 and 04/05) he called significantly less fouls than the average NBA referee (his games scored more than Las Vegas expected only 44% of the time). During his last two seasons he called significantly more fouls than average (his games scored more than Las Vegas expected 57% of the time). The odds of this change happening randomly are approximately 19 to 1.

Keep in mind that a single call can affect the outcome of a pro basketball game. During the 06/07 season alone, 13 games refereed by Tim Donaghy fell within A SINGLE POINT of the Las Vegas point spread. In his final two seasons as a referee, the winner of 14 NBA games refereed by Donaghy was decided by a single bucket or less.

RJ Bell of Pregame.com said: "Over 50 BILLION dollars is gambled on the NBA each season. If not a single call was affected by Donaghy's bets, then we have the whole story. But if calls were affected, the true story is one of game-fixing, and thus much bigger."

I can't imagine David Stern is too happy right about now, but at the same time, considering the Lakers/Spurs & Pistons/Celtics are playing in the conference finals, that should bid well for the NBA. But do the think there is a little pressure now on ALL NBA refs to make the right calls during the next 2 rounds? Wow, I'd hate to be one of those guys.

Donaghy Bet on at least 100 of His Own Games

According to the AP:

Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy bet on about 14 games he officiated in the 2006-07 season, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Goldberg said in a letter filed Friday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

"In the Spring of 2003, Donaghy provided picks for games he refereed on only 2-3 occasions," Goldberg wrote. "Over the next three full seasons (2003-2004, 2004-2005, and 2005-2006), however, Donaghy bet on numerous games that he worked.

"The government's investigation revealed that Donaghy provided picks for anywhere from 30 to 40 such games for each of those three seasons. During the 2006-2007 season (the time period charged in the information), Donaghy bet on approximately 30 games, including about 14 games that he refereed."

Donaghy pleaded guilty last year to charges he conspired to engage in wire fraud and transmitted betting information through interstate commerce. The referee said he made NBA bets for four years, even wagering on games he worked. He also admitted recommending bets to high-stakes gamblers and collecting $5,000 if his picks hit.

Donaghy is scheduled to be sentenced May 22. By law, he faces up to 25 years in prison, though the term could be much lower under sentencing guidelines.

It'd be nice if someone could research the games Donaghy ref'd during those seasons. Maybe later I can look into it, no time right now since I actually have to work at a real job. I'm curious to know if any of these games were playoff games / high profile games, or were they Hawks vs Clippers type games, games that no one would really notice any questionable calls.

What I would also like to know, and I realize this is really none of the "fans" business, but I'm curious if David Stern and Co. have implemented some sort of background check system to review the officials that are currently calling the basketball games. This should be more than just a one time check also - would need to be on-going. In the game of basketball there are so many judgement calls that can go either way, that it really would be very easy for an NBA official to make calls one way and get away with it. I have to believe that a system like this is already in place, it'd be reassuring to hear Stern discuss it in detail espcially in the wake of the Donaghy scandel.

On the flip side, I do want to give credit to Stern and Co. for tracking down Donaghy and weeding him out. That shows that there is at least some investigating going on. Question is... Are there more guys out there getting away with it?

Bottom line: May 22 is sentencing day for Donaghy, but unfortunately for fans, there will be many that scream "conspiracy" for all bad calls in the future - especially high profile, game changing, playoff calls. It's unfortunate, but at least for a while, partially justified.

Jeff Van Gundy Still Likes to Complain about the Refs...

Jeff Van Gundy is one of my favorite Basketball announcers. You can tell he is a "coach at heart", because he still complains about the refs as if he is still roaming the sidelines. Of course, this is the guy who once tossed out the idea of the NBA being involved in something known as a conspiracy theory... THE NERVE! But at the same time, being an announcer in tonights Bulls/Warriors game, there is plenty to complain about. The officiating crew of Brian Forte, Steve Javie and Derek Richardson has been absolutely brutal, blowing calls on both ends of the court. There are charges that should be called blocking, clean blocks that should be no calls, a guy who was out of bounds and didn't get both feet back in bounds was allowed to gain possesion of the ball, all in the 4th quarter alone. NBA officials have to have one of the most difficult job in the world but something tells me that Van Gundy could do a pretty good job.

Study Also Notes Female Refs Call More Fouls on Men than Women

In an unpublished study by Wharton School of UPenn assistant professor Justin Wolfers and Cornell University graduate student Joseph Price, the authors claim that white officials in the NBA call more fouls on black players than white players, and vice versa for black officials and white players.

The study was performed over thirteen seasons of box score data from the NBA, using the officials' names and race to determine whether zero, one, two or three of the three officials in a game were black or white. This was combined with the foul totals and minutes played for each player, to determine the number of fouls per forty-eight minutes assigned by an officiating crew. The study found that "black players receive around 0.12-0.20 more fouls per 48 minutes played (an increase of 2 1/2-4 1/2 percent) when the number of white referees officiating a game increases from zero to three."

While the statistic are certainly there, I cannot agree with the authors' assessment that the difference in calls "is large enough that the probability of a team winning is noticeably affected by the racial composition of the refereeing crew." Let's look at the extreme case. Team A plays five white players for forty-eight minutes. Team B plays five black players for forty-eight minutes. The game is officiated by a crew of three white referees. Ignore the fact that no one has played five white guys for forty-eight minutes in the NBA in a long time. At the end of the game, holding all else equal, we expect Team B to have somewhere between 0.60 and 1.00 more personal fouls than Team A. If Mark Cuban could get that kind of equality, he'd have to find something else to complain about.

Also of note - in the abstract of the study, the authors use the wording "opposite-race" and "own-race" to describe the two races being examined. Given that over one third of the world's population is of Asian descent, I find it quite conspicuous that they choose to place whites and blacks at opposite ends of the spectrum in a paper where they are attempting to raise an issue of equality. We're sorry you got left out Yao.


Study: White refs call more fouls on blacks [Fox Sports]
Racial Discrimination Among NBA Referees [Wharton School of UPenn]

NBA Weekend Roundup:

Over the weekend, the first round of the NBA's marathon playoff season began. Here are a few of the officiating issues being discussed:

Shaq was not happy about the officiating... via fanhouse:

"My intention was to come out and be myself, until Eddie Rush derailed me," O'Neal said after fouling out.

He accused the Bulls of flopping and said they had "a lot of help out there."
Apparently Shaq wasn't paying attention last year when the Heat seemed to be getting all the calls.

Did Tim Duncan and the Spurs get shafted by the refs sticking up for the buddy Joey Crawford?

Winning the turnover battle has the recap:

-The Spurs averaged 24.1 FTA per game during the regular season.
-In Game 1, the Spurs shot only 10 FTs, including only 6 in the first 44 minutes of the contest
-The Spurs lowest number of FTAs during the regular season: 11
-The Spurs' opponents averaged 21.2 PFs during the regular season
-In Game 1, the Nuggets were called for 13 PFs
-In the two team's three regular season games the Spurs had 21,21, and 27 FTA respectively, and the Nuggets were called for 21,19, and 24 PFs respectively.

Sure, this is only game 1... and due to the NBA's draaawn out playoff schedule, we will have to wait until Wednesday night to see if this continues for the rest of the series.

The NBA's Zero Tolerance Policy

Found in SI's truth and rumors section was this little tidbit:

The league, privately, has told a few folks that referee Joey Crawford was working under a zero-tolerance policy. Referees have been feeling they've been working under similar conditions for years, with Crawford being the latest example. What they intend to do about it remains to be seen. -- Philadelphia Inquirer

Listen, if this is true - and David Stern wants to create the impression that his ref's are being held to strict guidelines and must call the game by the rules and will be held responsible for any bad calls they make, then this is good. So what if their credibility is taken away. One of their top dogs just ruined it for the rest of the refs by trying to be a showboater and be bigger than the game. It's like the old saying - one bad apple can ruin it for the whole bunch. Thanks Joseph - the rest of your referee fraternity graciously thanks you.

Congrats Mendy

Although the familiar names of the 2007 Basketball Hall of Fame inductees are Phil Jackson and Roy Williams, here at AO we'd like to focus our congratulations in the direction of Mendy Rudolph. I am much to young to remember Rudolph or even recognize his name. So I decided to do a little research. What I found was very interesting...

Mendy (1926-1979), a Philadelphia native and known to many as the pioneer of officiating in the NBA, is best known for officiating over 2,100 NBA games in his career. Just to put that in perspective, the ancient one Dick Bavetta just recently eclipsed the 2,100 game mark (2,134 as of Feb 8, 2007). Officiating was in Mendy's blood as his father Harry was also a basketball referee and a baseball umpire in nearby Wilkes Barre. Mendy positioned the number 5 on the back of his jersey and to this day no NBA official has ever worn that number during an NBA game. Back in 1975, he became the first referee to hit the 2,000 game plateau. He worked in 8 NBA All-Star games, and for 22 seasons in a row, he appeared in at least 1 game during the NBA finals. He first began officiating along side his father in the Eastern League back in the 1940's. According to cbahoopsonline.com Mendy helped keep the peace in the Eastern League where fistfights between opponents was not uncommon. I'm sure Ron Artest, Latrell Spreewell and Carmello Anthony wish they could have somehow been apart of that league. That would have surely resulted in fewer suspensions for them.

Mendy was known as a heavy gambler. According to his wife, he was once in debt to a Las Vegas gambler who made him an offer. Shave points during games and I'll erase your debt. Mendy said the following, "It goes against all my principles. I love the game too much, respect it too much. I couldn't do it to you. I couldn't do it to the memory of my father, and I couldn't do it to myself. If I have to go into bankruptcy, something I'd hate to do, I'd do it." Hmmm, if only Pete Rose would have had the same philosophy.

Long time friend and colleague Earl Strom has been trying to get Mendy nominated and elected into the Hall of Fame for sometime now - and thankfully his work has finally paid off. On April 2, 2007 Mendy Rudolph became the 12th official to be elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

During the 1979-1980 basketball season, all NBA officials wore a number 5 patch on their sleeve to honor Mendy.

Congralutions Mendy, this achievement is well deserved and long overdue.

See more at:

Wikipedia.com/Mendy_Rudolph

cbahoopsonline.com

Problems with the NBA

There is no denying, The NBA has an image problem. There have been many things recently that have played into the demise of the NBA's ratings. While the ratings in the NFL continue to soar, the NBA's ratings have slowly declined over the past couple of years.

Take a look at this list compiled by Forbes of the top 10 money making sporting events of 2006:

• 1. Super Bowl

• 2. Summer Olympics

• 3. FIFA World Cup

• 4. Daytona 500

• 5. Rose Bowl

• 6. NCAA Men's Final Four

• 7. Winter Olympics Games

• 8. Kentucky Derby

• 9. World Series

• 10. NBA Finals


I guarentee you that David Stern and his boys up at headquarters do not like to see that. So what could be the problem? Well, here's a few obvious and also a few possible reasons.

1) "Thugary" of the NBA (2 recent brawls, Blazers/Pacers off-court issues, Ron Artest/Rasheed Wallace/Allen Iverson type personalities)

2) Still living in the shadow of the Michael/Magic/Bird Era.

3) Kobe/Shaq fued - took attention from what was really a great team

4) NBA on ABC is absolute horrible coverage. (Right now...!)

5) Big Market team (Knicks/Bulls) aren't really competitive

6) Undeveloped players due to so many coming straight from High School

7) The recent John Amaechi/Tim Hardaway debacle

And there are others as well.

Some or all of these reasons are commonly brought up when discussing reasons why the NBA is falling farther and farther from the top of the ratings list. The NBA is even taking action to fix some of the problems. The age limit rule was put into place to help prevent guys who were not ready to make the jump from getting drafted. Heck, the NBA even created the NBDL (minor leagues) because there was so many guys that were getting cut that actually had undeveloped talent. Last weekend's All-Star game in Las Vegas was a decision to help bring some excitement back into the league. Take the games biggest party to the party city of them all, putting them together was expected to be a good move for David Stern, but even that party set the record for lowest ever ratings for an NBA All-Star Game.

I have an interesting theory that doesn't seem to get a whole lot of talk, but this could possibly be a reason that could be added to the list of reasons. I'm not even sure this has a solution, but I feel it is at least worth discussing. I believe that the NBA's officiating is so awful at times, that it may actually be helping to cause the ratings to continue tumbling. You could use the argument that the officiating has always been a judgement call for the referee to make and therefore what makes today different than 5,10,25 years ago. In the past, the fans could boo or complain when they thought there was a bad call, but now we have 100 different angles on any given night to see when the refs are making a bad call. What does it say when you can expect at least one coach or player to complain about the officials usually a couple times per week. Mark Cuban routinely uses his blog to blast the officials, and while he may be using it to simply get in the heads of the official, either way - it seems to me that is very bad for the NBA's image. And the fact they know this is the case, makes it even worse. Part of a coach's responsibility is to "butter-up" the officials during the game so they are able to get more calls to go their way. A blog called Dorf on Law had a few comments about this that I found very interesting:

"What is extraordinary about the NBA is that these player-specific violations of blind justice are not only acknowledged but even celebrated. Hubie Brown, a former coach and broadcaster, would laugh and say things on official NBA broadcasts like "He hasn't been in the league long enough to get that call against Kobe," and "The refs aren't gonna make that call in Chicago." Such comments never, to my knowledge, evoked denials or discipline from the league. (The league does crack down on some things, though, such as unacceptable clothing choices and fighting with fans.) Contrast this with the NFL and MLB. Even though there is a lot of complaining in football about the rule called "roughing the passer," I have never heard anyone claim that certain quarterbacks get special treatment, only that all quarterbacks are either too exposed or too coddled. In baseball, you'll occasionally hear muttering that certain pitchers and batters receive the benefit of the doubt on balls and strikes; but this is denied by the leaders of the sport and is officially prohibited."

There are so many rules in basketball that are questionable judgement calls at the time of incident. If your a veteran you can get away with things that rookies can't. Traveling, charging, even flopping! (Apparently, the NBA is even considering now calling a foul against floppers.) Even if the NBA decides to enforce that rule, there are so many calls that theoretically the ref could call either way, and there could be an argument for either call. I think it's this lack of definitive officiating that turns a lot of people off from the game of basketball.

Now a days, players are looking for fouls and that's considered to be a talented style of play. 2 games that I have watched this year on National TV stick out in my mind as being over officiated. The first game was on Jan 4 when the Kings played the Lakers (the game Barkley first made the Bavetta comments). In that game, there were 80 total fouls called, and 102 total foul shots taken. The second game was last thursday when Lebron James played in LA against the Lakers. In that game there was 97 total free throws taken. I don't know about you, but to me, free throws are boring, and slow down the pace of the game. For a game to have that many free throws takes away from the excitment of the game. Going back to the Jordan/Bird/Johnson shadow, I think everybody knows that the game is not played as well these days as it was a few years ago. If you were to compare Michael Jordan's and Dwayne Wade's foul shots per game average, you'd find that in Jordan's last 6 years, he averaged 6.1 free throws a game, in Wade's first 3 seasons, he has averaged 8.8 free throws per game. The fact that the players these days are not as talented as they were 10-15 years ago, is causing the officiating to find itself in difficult positions each and every night. That inconsistency, I feel, is hurting the integrity of the game.

So, to wrap this up: Is there a solution? Is this just something that we have to accept and chalk it up as being "part of the game"? I just feel like the officials have too much control of the outcome of the game. Do bad calls even out? Not always. I have to figure Stu Jackson and David Stern have discussed these problems, and in many cases, probably do nothing but beat their head against a brick wall. In the end, it's probably a no-win situation and it's just something we, and the NBA, has to accept.