NBA's David Stern Has His Bud Selig Moment

David Stern admonished both players and coaches Thursday evening about what he termed “corrosive” comments about NBA referees.

Not unexpected. Lately the NBA has handed out $35,000 fines like trainers do water bottles. Wednesday, Orlando Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy and Matt Barnes both received fines for criticizing game officials.

NBA officiating receives a great deal of scrutiny, not just from players and coaches, but from the media and fans alike. In the summer of 2007 league officiating caught the attention of the FBI.

That ended with Tim Donaghy— a 13 year veteran NBA official, serving a 15 month prison sentence after admitting he bet on games he officiated. Allegedly, in some games he made calls to affect the point spread to help himself and his bookie friends.

David Stern vehemently defended the NBA officials, and publicly stated that Donaghy represented an isolated case. So the fact that Stern wants to temper criticism of NBA referees makes sense on one level.

The Donaghy situation left many fans— and most likely some players and coaches with questions. How could we be so sure this involved only one referee? Did the league or FBI investigate any other officials? How sure could we be that the outcomes of games were not intentionally affected by his calls?

The league continued to deny that the problem involved anyone but Donaghy, and received pretty much a pass from media on the issue. Fans accepted what Stern told us, in spite of misgivings in the back of everyone's minds.

The situation began to take on the look and feel of MLB's steroid issue in the early stages. As rumors and accusations began to leak, the Commissioner of MLB, Bud Selig remained relatively quiet, even as hard evidence began to surface. Selig seemingly stuck his head in the sand, and ignored what became more and more obvious.

We later discovered steroids had found wide spread use in professional baseball. The game marred by the fact that some of its best players had involvement with steroids. As the depth of the problem became known, Selig's grounds for plausible deniability began to wane.

Fans began to put the facts together. Baseball experienced a major decline in attendance and fan interest. Suddenly, what seemed to be an unbreakable record, fell consecutively for two seasons.

Home run totals shot up for the league. MLB found fans who previously had no interest in the game. As time went on, it became harder and harder to believe that the league front office had no knowledge of the growing problem of performance enhancing drugs in baseball.

In last night's statement, Stern had his Selig moment. He ignored what has become more and more obvious, there's a problem with NBA game officiating. Unlike steroids-- which occurred off the field, usually hidden with a great deal effort by users and suppliers, game officiating happens essentially every night in front of millions of fans.

We have the video that clearly shows a LeBron or Kobe getting an extra step, or a call that was missed. To ignore these consistent inconsistencies, Stern only fuels further suspicion.

Stern did himself and the league no favors last night with his statement. He took a strong stance with rhetoric intimating that he may begin suspending coaches and players for criticizing referees. He made a huge error in sounding like Tony Soprano, basically telling players and coaches to shut up and get paid.

“So our coaches should be quiet, because this is a good business that makes them good livings and supports a lot of families. And if they don’t like it, they should go get a job someplace else. I don’t mean to be too subtle. [Laughter] And I think that Phil’s a great coach. He’s a friend of many years. I just came by and said, ‘Hi.’ And he said, ‘I don’t like you today.’ I said, ‘I like you.’ But it’s corrosive. It’s corrosive.” I'm not sure how Stern and the owners he represents, actually think that statement renewed the fans' confidence in officiating.

Stern once again ignoring what we all see with our own eyes, attempted to blame the coaches and players for creating the perception of impropriety surrounding NBA officiating, “You guys know that our referees go out there and knock themselves out to do the best job they can, but we’ve got coaches who will do whatever takes to work them publicly. And what that does is erode fan confidence and then you get some of the situations that we have.”

No Mr. Stern, the coaches and players don't “erode” fan confidence, officials erode fan confidence.

The obvious inconsistencies in how officials not only call games, but different quarters in the same game erode confidence.

The fact that LeBron James and Kobe Bryant get the benefit of the doubt on close calls, or are allowed to take that extra step erodes confidence.

A referee calling a foul from 20 feet away, while the one two feet away blows no whistle, erodes confidence.

A referee found to have altered the outcome of games, because he worked with some high school bookie friends erodes confidence.

The coaches and players only voice what many fans wish they could. As problems with NBA officiating become more and more obvious, Stern becomes more and more resolute. That only causes fans to become more and more suspicious.

No, I'm not saying Stern uses NBA officials to dictate the results of games. I am saying that the longer Stern and NBA owners ignore the issues with officiating, the more complicit the league as a whole becomes in the issue in the minds of fans.