New officiating czar has work cut out

by Mike Kahn

Updated: July 29, 2008, 11:40 AM EST 60 comments

Nobody plays any defense? Well, OK, at least that tells everybody you're watching.

Then everybody started playing defense and it got boring.

That was OK too, because Chuck Daly, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson were superstar coaches that drew fans anyway.

On and on people would drone about everything from tattoos to the players dressing like sixth-graders.

But that was before referee Tim Donaghy was indicted for gambling and now faces up to 33 months in prison. This week, two of his high school buddies from Springfield, Pa. —James Battista and Thomas Marino — were sentenced to prison for their involvement.

And we still don't know what to make of the incessant phone calls Donaghy made to fellow official Scott Foster. If Foster had knowledge of what was happening that very well could eliminate Stern's theory that Donaghy was merely a rogue ref.

And that is the root of the problem.

They didn't know. That's why over the past couple of weeks the entire NBA officiating department has been restructured, with Ron Johnson, a retired two-star general who supervised the U.S. Army's corps of engineers, now the senior vice president of referee operations.

His staff of vice presidents is made up of Ronnie Nunn, Bernie Fryer and Joe Borgia.

It's a nice start, but let's be serious here. A military man with no experience in the NBA game has been brought in to direct the officials. Nunn, Fryer and Borgia are each good guys who have been around for decades and love the game. They were also mediocre officials at best. Nunn and Borgia have already been involved in the management of officiating and it's never been worse.

If officiating of games remains in question — or the quality remains just plain terrible — then the credibility of the NBA game will continue to fade. The consequences are obvious — there won't be masses falling in love with the game, the marginal fans won't stay onboard and the diehards will continue to grow disgruntled.

Stern and president of operations Joel Litvin deserve credit for putting change in motion. But just setting up a structure doesn't mean things will change, and you have to wonder if those put in place are even capable of implementing a positive transition.

Will the new guy keep LeBron James from bulling down the lane at will? (Jim Rogash / Getty Images)

We all know what the issues are, the thought of gambling notwithstanding. The double standards for superstars and super teams continue to ruin the game for the purists, let alone the fans of not so good teams and trivial players that never get a break because nobody cares.

Is it right to allow LeBron James to take four steps down the lane while initiating contact just to see him get to the rim with an ooh and an aah?

Was it right for the officials of the 2006 Finals to blow the whistle every time Dwyane Wade got breathed on, allowing the Miami Heat to rise from the ashes of a near 3-0 deficit to overwhelm the stunned Dallas Mavericks?

This year, the eventual champion Boston Celtics rekindled memories of yore much to the delight of the NBA. But can anybody really grasp how it came to pass that Leon Powe would shoot more free throws in a game than all of the Los Angeles Lakers put together?

It didn't require an aficionado to conclude the officiating continues to be deplorable in the biggest of games.

Just how was it that Brent Barry's pump fake that drew Derek Fisher into him in the final seconds of the San Antonio Spurs loss to the Los Angeles Lakers wasn't a foul? A lot of analysts blamed Barry for not going straight into him and "selling" the foul. It shouldn't require a player to put on a show like Reggie Miller or Manu Ginobili to draw a foul. Fisher made a poor decision, but had no consequences because it was the end of the game and conventional wisdom says the officials shouldn't decide the game. That's all well and good, except it was a foul! And it could have changed the veneer of the entire series that the Lakers ultimately won in five games.

At what point of a game is a foul no longer a foul? The final second? Final minute? Final two minutes? Perhaps it is time to reinstitute the old axiom "No blood, no foul,' and then everybody would understand the rules.

Will the officials continue to watch James plow through the lane like a fullback with however many steps he needs while calling palming on the likes of Carlos Arroyo?

If the calls proceed in this manner, then there really is no point in any of this restructuring and it will prove to be nothing more than a non-stick band-aid in a hopeless charade.

As we've said before, the best way to assure consistency in the playoffs would be to take the top-graded 24 officials during the regular season and assign a trio to each of the eight series ... and leave them in that series. That allows for the officials to become comfortable with each other, accustomed to the players. The players understand the officials and the coaches are in tune with both.

In the next round, take the top 12 officials from the first round, make four crews, and they will stick with their series through the conference semifinals. It's then paired down to the top six for the conference finals and the top three for the Finals.

That way, there is much stronger sense of continuity and the best crew is destined for the Finals — just as the best teams are.

At the moment, we have no idea what ideas, if any, Johnson and his lieutenants are discussing. Although they deserve the opportunity to prove they can implement change, the history of that office has not been good.

Meanwhile, we are left to follow the bad news of Donaghy, his friends, possibly Foster and more. Just for point of emphasis guys, that would be a Flagrant Foul II.