Sportsfrog.com

If you have not already done so, and you are at all an NBA observer, do yourself a favor and go to Deadspin and peruse. A taste? Here’s some of the goodness:

From my earliest involvement with Bavetta, I learned that he likes to keep games close, and that when a team gets down by double-digit points, he helps the players save face. He accomplishes this act of mercy by quietly, and frequently, blowing the whistle on the team that’s having the better night. Team fouls suddenly become one-sided between the contestants, and the score begins to tighten up. That’s the way Dick Bavetta referees a game-and everyone in the league knew it.

Fellow referee Danny Crawford attended Michael Jordan’s Flight School Camp years ago and later told me that he had long conversations with other referees and NBA players about how Bavetta propped up weak teams. Danny told me that Jordan himself said that everyone in the league knew that Bavetta cheated in games and that the players and coaches just hoped he would be cheating for them on game night. Cheating? That’s a very strong word to use in any sentence that includes the name Dick Bavetta. Is the conscious act of helping a team crawl back into a contest “cheating”? The credo of referees from high school to the NBA is “call them like you see them.” Of course, that’s a lot different than purposely calling more fouls against one team as opposed to another. Did Bavetta have a hidden agenda? Or was he the ultimate company man, making sure the NBA and its fans got a competitive game most times he was on the court?

…

Studying under Dick Bavetta for 13 years was like pursuing a graduate degree in advanced game manipulation. He knew how to marshal the tempo and tone of a game better than any referee in the league, by far. He also knew how to take subtle-and not so subtle-cues from the NBA front office and extend a playoff series or, worse yet, change the complexion of that series.

The 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings presents a stunning example of game and series manipulation at its ugliest. As the teams prepared for Game 6 at the Staples Center, Sacramento had a 3–2 lead in the series. The referees assigned to work Game 6 were Dick Bavetta, Bob Delaney, and Ted Bernhardt. As soon as the referees for the game were chosen, the rest of us knew immediately that there would be a Game 7. A prolonged series was good for the league, good for the networks, and good for the game. Oh, and one more thing: it was great for the big-market, star-studded Los Angeles Lakers.

In the pregame meeting prior to Game 6, the league office sent down word that certain calls-calls that would have benefitted the Lakers — were being missed by the referees. This was the type of not-so-subtle information that I and other referees were left to interpret. After receiving the dispatch, Bavetta openly talked about the fact that the league wanted a Game 7.

No wonder the NBA is doing everything it can to keep that book from being published. But here is the NBA’s problem, and no amount of censorship and lawsuit threats will stop this from being a core issue:

1. We all would acknowledge that Tim Donaghy is not the most credible witness, what with the cheating and lying and what not.

2. That said, cheaters and liars also can be truthtellers. It’s just figuring out when those occasions are is where the problem comes in.

3. The kind of stuff that Donaghy has written about from the above quote and a bunch of the other stuff that Deadspin has? Well, it just kinda “feels” right to anyone who has following the NBA closely in the last decade or so. Star calls? Shaded calls? Directions from the league office to extend series? Subtle or otherwise? All believable because we have all seen it or seen the consquences of it.

4. Proppers to Mark Cuban, frankly, who has been screaming about this stuff for years as being a real danger to the league. God forbid someone in the league office have listened to him.

5. So, yeah, Donaghy is a tool, and not overly trustworthy, but, that doesn’t mean what he is saying is a lie. Could be, certainly. But perhaps not. Or perhaps parts of it are a blend. Regardless, in this case, the NBA has a problem because it sure does feed into a fairly common perception about its product. Which makes it seem pretty damn believeable. Good luck fixing that, David Stern.