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Communication and consistency don't add up to conspiracy: David Stern, you doth protesteth too much. Don't you know that wacky six-digit fines will only encourage more wacky conspiracy theorists?

Sporting News, The, May 20, 2005 by Sean Deveney

By pursuing Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy the way Charles Bronson used to go after punks who messed with his family, commissioner David Stern has done the NBA a great disservice. He delivered a league-record (for a coach) $100,000 fine to Van Gundy last week because Van Gundy said a referee friend told him that officials have been advised by the league to watch closely for certain things Rockets center Yao Ming does.

Stern simply should have given Van Gundy a cursory fine and said: "Of course referees talk to each other about the way players are officiated. They want to be consistent, and the only way to do that is to communicate."

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If Stern hadn't whacked Van Gundy so hard, and if he had not promised further action, this story would have died quickly because what Van Gundy said wasn't so bad. It's hardly a news event when coaches complain about refs. But Stern sniffed a conspiracy theory, the hint of an accusation that the refs were banding together to pick on a player or team. Such accusations are a Stern pet peeve. Van Gundy did say he felt there was a bias against Yao, but the thrust of his comments was that officials were advised to make the correct calls on Yao.

And there is nothing wrong with that. Officials should get advice from the league about players. Refs should share information. That does not mean they are conspiring; they're just doing their jobs. The league should be proud of that, not hiding behind stiff fines and harsh rhetoric.

Earlier this season, league director of officials Ronnie Nunn, who is in his second year on the job, said one of his goals was to get rid of inconsistent officiating. "I don't think it's fair if a player gets called one way during one game and a different way the next game," Nunn said. "But to change that, we have got to communicate better. We have to make clear what the right calls are."

When it comes to refereeing big men, making the right calls never has been easy. That's the real issue here--league refs never have been able to handle truly big men. Van Gundy has complained about inconsistency when it comes to Yao all season, and he's right. Farther east, Heat center Shaquille O'Neal doesn't get a fair shake because the way opponents are allowed to guard him changes from game to game, sometimes from quarter to quarter.

This is not a new phenomenon. Ask Hall of Fame center Nate Thurmond, who defended such players as Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain. "With most centers, when they tried to get position, you could push back with a certain amount of force," Thurmond says. "But Wilt, for example, you had to push him with everything you had. If I had used that same amount of force on some centers, I'd push them all the way to halfcourt. The referees let you get away with pushing Wilt harder because if you didn't, he'd score 100 every night."

The situation with Yao is similar. If he hits a defender with his shoulder, is it a foul, or was there contact simply because Yao is 10 inches taller than the other guy? O'Neal is somewhere around 350 pounds--how much force can a defender use on him?

Officials engage in a charade when it comes to big guys. They attempt to treat them like everyone else. But what happens in the paint is different. "If you're a big man, it's the only position where you constantly have a body on you," Thurmond says. "As soon as a team comes down, that big man is trying to get position, and the other big man is trying to push him out. There is constant contact. Guards don't have to deal with contact like that. What's a foul when you have that much contact?"

Excellent question, and the only way for referees to answer it with any consistency is communication.

Someone remind Stern of that.

Image problem

The past week left David Stern with a public relations predicament. With his punishment of Jeff Van Gundy, Stern has exposed refereeing to further scrutiny and has come across as a man with something to hide. He also has made a minor folk hero out of Van Gundy. A coast-to-coast sampling of headlines shows the commissioner has been a P.R. loser.

* "Van on the money with fans," New York Daily News. Rockets fans are sending contributions to help Van Gundy pay his fine.

* "Stern's game can be called misdirection," The New York times. The story questions the integrity of referees who fraternize with coaches and players.

* "Van Gundy shines light on league's blight," The Vancouver Province. "Finally somebody is ... saying what so many have thought for years, that the league may be manipulating things for whatever reason." Ouch.

* "NBA's official stance is a bad call," Rocky Mountain News. Enough said.

* "Stern knows slick-and-roll," San Jose Mercury News. Brief items that portray Stern as an Oz-like "man behind the curtain."

speed reads

The league rumor mill has the Timberwolves putting star Kevin Garnett on the trading block. No chance. Minnesota a long time a franchise player before Garnett arrived, and it will rebuild around him, not move him.

Communication and consistency don't add up to conspiracy: David Stern, you doth protesteth too much. Don't you know that wacky six-digit fines will only encourage more wacky conspiracy theorists?

Sporting News, The, May 20, 2005 by Sean Deveney

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