NBA continues God-like status, secrecy for refs--NY Times

Why Stern's apparent fog that this crime has surfaced? No one was judging the judges in a verifiable way:

• "What’s not to fathom, though? Stern’s league has been rendered vulnerable by its longtime system of ref protectionism and false empowerment.

This goes beyond the unconditional defenses Stern has offered on behalf of referees who muss Pat Riley’s hair gel or rattle Phil Jackson’s Zen with a dubious call.

• This is about ethical compromises the league has made over the years that have cultivated the God complexes of referees and provided a petri dish perfect to develop a rogue official.

Donaghy isn’t known to be among the nearly 20 N.B.A. referees in the late ’90s who caught the attention of I.R.S. investigators by exchanging first-class tickets for coach and pocketing a tax-free difference.

• He was a witness to Stern’s response, though. In a sign of how deficient the N.B.A. officiating pool is, the league reinstated about a half-dozen of the tax cheats.

Why wouldn’t referees feel above the law if the league offered them loopholes in integrity?

• Stern has never conceded a human element in officiating. To him, the referees are always above reproach and suspicion....

The league’s officiating monitors are numbers freaks — how many calls are made, rate of technical fouls, etc. — but they do not measure each referee’s conscience."

• (The last 2 statements could also be said about the self-deified, Selig protected voters of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America. Especially its secret selection of voters for multi-million dollar league awards, no accountability, all done in secret). sm

• "But here, in his worst hour as commissioner yesterday, with his face pale from stress, Stern was still extolling the virtues of his officials with few qualifiers...."
• (Exactly as Selig and all so-called officers of the BBWAA would do about the integrity of its multi million dollar judgments). sm

“Sometimes they perhaps carry themselves in a way that is not as modest as we would prefer, but they do their darnedest to get the result right,” Stern said. “And frankly, I’m more concerned, rather than chastising them, with reassuring them that I am committed to protecting them while at the same time making sure that we keep our covenant with our fans.”

• (YOU HAVE A LOST CAUSE HERE WITH THE COMMISSIONER). sm

"The promise of purity was clouded long ago, when the league put referees above the law, when Stern continued to deify them without regard to their human faults, when Donaghy was cutting his teeth.

• Protectionism isn’t what referees need. Protectionism is how the league got into this fix)."

From NY Times article by Selena Roberts, "NBA Put Referees Above the Law." 7/25/07. Times Select

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