Hypocrite

Throwing my obvious Suns' bias aside, this is absolutely ridiculous.

Remember all that fuss after Game 4 of the Western Conference Semi-finals, when Amare and Boris got suspended for 'leaving the immediate area of the bench'? And everyone talked about whether Stern should go by the letter of the law or allow a little interpretation? These were some of the Commish's comments after announcing the suspensions:

"A precedent wasn't necessary here. The rule with respect to leaving the bench area during an altercation is very clear."

"Historically, if you break it, you will get suspended, regardless of what the circumstances are."
"It's not a matter of fairness. It's a matter of correctness."

"That's why it's a red-letter rule."

(Read article here)

I will get to more Stern quotes in just a bit, but wanted to further expound on the situation of today. The League announced today that every single current NBA Referee has violated the LEAGUE RULES against referee's gambling of any kind. Admittedly, most were minor violations, such as playing poker or craps. Nevertheless, the League has a rule, and these referee's violated.

So let's get to the penalties that every single current NBA referee will be incurring: Nothing. In fact, instead of penalizing these LEAGUE RULE - BREAKING referee's, David Stern came out and said the rule was out-dated and will be thrown out. So, what happened to sticking to the letter of the law, and not allowing any interpretation Mr. Stern? Where was the 'red-letter rule' quotes about this latest scandal? I think this rule, much as the rule about leaving the bench, was VERY CLEAR. So what was the Commish's defense, where was his reasoning?

Stern said none of the violations was major, and no referees had admitted to wagering in a sports book or with a bookie.

"Our ban on gambling is absolute, and in my view it is too absolute, too harsh and was not particularly well-enforced over the years," Stern said. "We're going to come up with a new set of rules that make sense."

"It's too easy to issue rules that are on their faith violated by $5 Nassau, sitting at a poker table, buying a lottery ticket and then we can move along"

So, just to clarify Mr. Stern, what you're saying is that these rules, while just as clear and absolute as your rules about leaving the area of the bench during an altercation, are open to interpretation and second-guessing, while the others were not. They were, as you say, too absolute, too harsh and not well-enforced. Does this sound anything like the rules about leaving the area of the bench, when Amare and Boris were clearly not going anywhere to start an altercation?

In the business world, this is called CYA. Cover Your Ass. If you don't think this is what Stern is doing in this instance, you're incredibly naive. Stern has every single one of his ref's doing something illegal, all coming after the incredibly damaging Tim Donaghy scandal. He can't very well fire every ref he has, and he knows it. He could suspend each ref for a couple of games, spread out over the course of the season, pretty easily. But that only brings more attention and more negative connotations about the refereeing in NBA games, which has come under enough scrutiny the last few years, particularly in the playoffs. So how does Stern CYA?

He takes the blame himself. He knows it isn't anything that is going to get him in trouble. He says it hasn't been well-enforced for years, indicating this is a problem with not just him, but the league and it's rules, which places some of the blame on the owners as well for not 'fixing' this rule. For him and the league's reputation, it's the best thing he can do to cause the least amount of damage.

For the fans, however, it is another shady move by a commissioner who, up until the last two or three years, was widely regarded as the best commish in NBA history, and one of the best in all of sports. But as many high-ranking officials or CEO's eventually have, one thing will be his downfall: The Refereeing.

Whether it is this latest debacle, or the Tim Donaghy scandal, or the overall quality of refereeing during games the last few years, this will eventually be Mr. Stern's downfall. Every story about referee's in the last three years has been a negative one, and it is starting to affect the integrity of the game. And as i wrote about here, when the integrity of the game comes into question, the fans start to leave. When the fans start to leave, the money leaves. And when the money leaves, someone will get blamed. That someone will be David Stern

The NBA Referee Betting Scandal.

I've held off long enough, i was bound to write about it at some point...

In what is sure to be a blow to all leagues, but the NBA in specific, it was announced last week that the FBI is investigating NBA referee Tim Donaghy for his role in a gambling ring that placed bets on NBA games, in particular games in which Donaghy himself was officiating. While there are many details yet to come, it appears Donaghy got mixed up in gambling debts, and as a result agreed to help ‘fix’ games in which he was working. The good news is that it appears he acted alone. The bad news is that this happened in the first place.

(Sigh). What a disaster. There is no other way to put it, for NBA fans, for basketball fans, for sports fans. And in particular for Suns fans, though I will get to that a bit later. The shoe has finally dropped, a scandal so big it pushes all the other ‘scandals’ off the front page (Mike Vick, Barry Bonds, Tour de France anyone?). This is worst-case scenario, defcon level 5, red-alert type news. If you need evidence of this, look no further than commissioner David Stern’s news conference about the scandal. Stern has always been able to stand up and face criticism, controversy, and scandal while still remaining the appearance of strength and control. In his news conference on Tuesday, however, Stern for the first time in his tenure looked, acted, and sounded defeated (Read the transcript and watch the video here).

You can take your Mike Vick dog-fighting ring (which admittedly is horrific, especially some of the things he allegedly did to the dogs), your Barry Bonds steroid induced run to the home run record, and your Tour de France’s on-going doping problems, which led yesterday to this year’s leader being kicked out for failing a test, and bury them on the back page. This NBA Ref scandal is bigger. It’s much, much bigger. All the other things are about individuals. And while those individuals may taint themselves, and in turn taint the game they play, in the end it is that individual that takes the fall and comes out worse for the wear. The game itself has always prevailed. Until now.

This taints the very game that, up to this point, has been almost un-taintable (I don’t think that’s a word. No matter.) It destroys the credibility of a league, one that has admitted it suffers from a somewhat lack of credibility due to its already questionable officiating. And it betrays any confidence the fans had of watching a ‘fair’ game being played out, one that is not influenced by TV ratings, a desire to see certain players do well, or the want of big market teams to be in the finals.

All these things have been questioned, time and time again, but fans of the NBA. Especially the last two years, when questionable officiating has become the norm in the playoffs. Take the 2006 Finals between Dallas and Miami. After dropping the first two games to the Mavericks, the Heat looked to be on their last leg heading home. Then came the Dwayne Wade Free Throw Barrage. Wade was put on the line so many times in the finals, it had conspiracy theorists all over the world screaming something wasn’t right.

Follow that up with this years Suns-Spurs series (here it comes Suns fans), in which the officiating throughout was patently low-grade, Y-league level. Most Suns fans have been pointing out two instances in which the officiating of that game hurt the Suns. One, the end of game 1 when Nash missed the last two minutes of the game because he had his nose split open and a foul called on him. The second was at the end of game four when Cheap Shot Rob Horry hip checked Steve Nash into the scorer’s table, eventually resulting in Boris Diaw and Amare Stoudemire being suspended for game 5. Well Suns fans, now we have another instance to gripe about, and this one appears legit.

Tim Donaghy was working game 3 of this series, in which Suns fans may remember there were plenty of, *ahem*, questionable calls. The worst ones can be seen here – pay special attention to the quote used from Bill Simmons, the announcers of the game, and the fact that on the first ‘highlight’ shown Donaghy called the foul, late, from 40 feet away, while the ref 5 feet away did not call anything. Suns fans may also remember this game as the one in which Amare played only 21 minutes because of foul trouble. Donaghy called Amare’s first two fouls, as well as the Tech on D’Antoni late in the game. I’m not saying, I’m just, uh, saying. That’s not to say Donaghy was the only one botching calls in that game (or the series for that matter), because the entire crew looked completely incompetent most of the game.

Regardless, the NBA is in trouble, worse trouble than it was following the Pistons-Pacers brawl from a few years ago. How can the league, and David Stern, and in particular the referees, regain the confidence and trust of sports fans? And more importantly, doesn’t this call into question other sports referees as well? I would imagine it would be hard to fix a baseball game as an ump, but then again one could shrink or expand the strike zone. Close calls at the plate can easily go one way or the other.

Football is all about judgment calls. Holding calls go uncalled all the time. How do you judge if a ball was catchable or not for interference? What about simple plays such as late hits on the quarterback? How many times have you seen that called and not agreed with it?

What about soccer? A renegade ref could easily card a player for a perceived rough tackle, or even for taking a dive. You don’t think kicking a player out of the game, forcing a team to play with 10 players vs. a team with 11 could be unfair?

I can go on and on. The point isn’t that it’s happening, or even that it could be happening. The point isn’t that we now need even more scrutiny on our officials and referees. The point is that now, whenever a questionable call comes up in any sport, there will be sports fans wondering if the fix is in. And that is the bigger issue this referee scandal will ultimately unveil. Fans no longer trust the integrity of the game.

Is it enough to cause people to stop watching and stop caring? No. Sports are too ingrained in our culture to give it up entirely. But some of the innocence of sports has been lost forever, and that will never be gained back. There will always be people wondering if the game is fixed. Which, ultimately and unfortunately, will kill a bit of the competitive and entertainment value of sports. That is where sports fans will lose.

Quick Hits

I am still back home in Iowa until tomorrow, but wanted to put up a few things about sports this weekend, because a lot has happened while i've been on vacation.

The Dbacks took two of three from the Cubs in Wrigley. While i was only able to see the last four innings of Saturday's game, it's good to see the Dbacks take a couple from the Cubs. Chicago has been the hottest team in baseball the last month, and to go into Wrigley and win the series is impressive. Granted Chicago was without their best player, D. Lee, but still a good showing. Let's hope this propels them onto a strong 2nd half of the season, since it got off to a bit of a rocky start.

The British Open today was fantastic. Golfers were falling all over themselves to give this Championship away, whether it be A. Romero's double bogey-bogey finish, P. Harrington putting not one, but two shots in the drink on the 18 with a one-shot lead, or S. Garcia needing only a par on 18 to win and promptly putting it into a bunker and bogeying the hole, sending it to a playoff. Harrington eventually won in the playoff, carding a birdie on the first hole to Garcia's bogey. That was all he would need, playing the last three playoff holes at even par and winning by a stroke.

The NBA Referee Scandal. (Sigh). I have so much to say about this, i don't even know where to begin. I wish i had been home so i could take the time and do a proper write-up on it, but since i'm not i'll link to the best post i found about the situation. Bill Simmons, ESPN's Sport's Guy, wrote a good article here, though it will be a bit gut-wrenching to Suns fans (hint: The ref in question was working Game 3 of the Suns-Spurs series. Let's just say he made some 'curious' calls).

And finally, David Beckham's (less than) glorious arrival on the US soccer scene. Playing just 13 minutes due to an injured ankle, Beckham was largely un-spectacular, save for one perfect long ball to the feet of Quavas Kirk. He did take a rather scary looking tumble after a somewhat violent collision, causing all of the LA Galaxy, US soccer fans, and MLS officials to hold their breath. He seemed to be okay, however, and finished the match. While the game did draw many celebrities and even some paparazzi (!), it was mostly uneventful as far as Beckham was concerned. It will be interesting to see what happens as he becomes a starter and as the Galaxy return to MLS play. I for one will be watching with great interest.

That's all for now. I will be back tomorrow (hopefully), having returned from my vacation in the evening. Look for a report on new Sun's draft pick Alando Tucker. Until then, check out some of the blogs listed under 'Blogs We Like' to the right, and leave some comments!