freedom&justice
07-27-2007, 12:37 PM
President of Referees Group: We're Angry
July 25, 2007 11:40 AM
I just got off the phone with Barry Mano. He is the founder and publisher of Referee magazine and founder and current president of the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) -- a group that counts every NBA official as a member. Mano was also a basketball referee for 23 years, the last eight in NCAA men's Division I.
I just published an article in which I call for the NBA to make public in some way their evaluations of referee calls. My idea is that right now we have to take David Stern's word for it that NBA referees are excellent at their jobs. Assuming they are, wouldn't it be nice for the public to be able to see the evidence? Does that make sense to you?
Not necessarily. Accuracy levels in NBA referees calls hover over 95%. Having everyone analyzing the puts and takes, looking for flaws ... that's going no place good. If we start there, I'm not sure where we end up.
Also, if the idea is to evaluate Tim Donaghy, to try to see evidence on video of this or that thing happening, that's tough. There are people who watch that kind of video every day, they watch a lot of game film, and they're professionals at it. To have a lot of people doing that who are not trained to do that watching and trying to determine something untoward? I don't know. But that may not be the gist of your question.
I guess I see it as, I'm a basketball guy. I don't know much about gambling or mafia -- I don't know how you catch Tim Donaghy. But if this summer is the chance to really re-open the discussion of how NBA referees are evaluated, what are some of the best ideas as to how things could be done better?
Next weekend we're having our summit in Denver. Those are the kinds of things we're going be discussing.
How do you expect the Tim Donaghy scandal will affect your meeting?
I expect a general outpouring of disgust. The size of this tragedy -- and I call it a tragedy -- makes it easily the most significant black mark in the history of professional referees. Of course, it's all just alleged at this point, as you know. But he has stepped down from the NBA, as well as from the referee's union. I don't know what that tells us, but it does make people think along certain lines.
David Stern was right when he used the word "rogue." Another one would be "aberration."
What are some of the things you think could be done to ensure maximum integrity from NBA referees?
Well this has nothing to do with the NBA specifically (our members are referees from the NFL, NBA, MLB, FIBA, NCAA, FIFA and others) over six months ago, long before any of this started, NASO started looking into something called a sports officiating integrity program. We have had discussions with a group in Washington DC, that includes a former CIA official, and they have programs that specialize in this kind of thing. It's very involved, very comprehensive. One aspect of it was to build a whistleblowing program, which makes referees able to report concerns about these kinds of things without fear that they will hurt themselves in the process.
I'm not saying that there's a major problem in sports with referees. Quite the contrary. But a program like this could make sense. We're going to be talking about it in Denver, and determining if NASO would be the right group to do it.
Will there be NBA people at your meeting who might be part of the discussion?
Yes. There will be referees and others from the NBA there. Violet Palmer is on our board, so she'll be one of 11 people in the board meeting talking about these and other issues. (oh, that makes me feel soooo much better.) :rolleyes
Are you worried about how fans view referees generally?
No. And that's a different order of things from this Tim Donaghy situation. This is why we're all so concerned about this rogue situation.
In general, we have not put a lot of time into convincing sports fans that we're honest. People come to the arena prepared to believe that calls for their team are good calls, while calls for the other team are bad calls.
But now referees are going to show up and hear all the catcalls every night. It's unfair, but there it is.
We make mistakes sometimes, sure, but by and large referee ethics, through the history of sports, have been unquestionably good. We know we're not cheaters. And I make speeches all over the country telling people all about that. But it gets harder with all this Tim Donaghy stuff staring you in the face.
Are you satisfied that the quality of the referees in the NBA right now is the best it could be?
Nothing is ever the best it could be at any level. It's like if I ask you if the people working at ESPN are all the best they could be. But are those referees very very good? Yes. Does the NBA put the right people in the right place to make the right calls? Yes. And the statistics show it. 100% accuracy -- I don't think so. Not possible. But the latest numbers I saw were in the 95-96% range.
These are astonishing numbers, but they're not surprising to me, because these men and women were born to do this job and they have trained to do this job. All they care about is getting the call right.
And now they have this massive distraction to worry about.
I don't mean to say it's a distraction like it's not a big deal. I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything. It's massively important to all NASO members and all NBA referees.
What have I not asked you about that you want to tell me?
I think it's important for people to understand that at this point these are still allegations.
And, I have to tell you that within the industry. We're angry. We're very unhappy about this.
League-Wide Issues, Tim Donaghy
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-26-89/President-of-Referees-Group--We-re-Angry.html
July 25, 2007 11:40 AM
I just got off the phone with Barry Mano. He is the founder and publisher of Referee magazine and founder and current president of the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) -- a group that counts every NBA official as a member. Mano was also a basketball referee for 23 years, the last eight in NCAA men's Division I.
I just published an article in which I call for the NBA to make public in some way their evaluations of referee calls. My idea is that right now we have to take David Stern's word for it that NBA referees are excellent at their jobs. Assuming they are, wouldn't it be nice for the public to be able to see the evidence? Does that make sense to you?
Not necessarily. Accuracy levels in NBA referees calls hover over 95%. Having everyone analyzing the puts and takes, looking for flaws ... that's going no place good. If we start there, I'm not sure where we end up.
Also, if the idea is to evaluate Tim Donaghy, to try to see evidence on video of this or that thing happening, that's tough. There are people who watch that kind of video every day, they watch a lot of game film, and they're professionals at it. To have a lot of people doing that who are not trained to do that watching and trying to determine something untoward? I don't know. But that may not be the gist of your question.
I guess I see it as, I'm a basketball guy. I don't know much about gambling or mafia -- I don't know how you catch Tim Donaghy. But if this summer is the chance to really re-open the discussion of how NBA referees are evaluated, what are some of the best ideas as to how things could be done better?
Next weekend we're having our summit in Denver. Those are the kinds of things we're going be discussing.
How do you expect the Tim Donaghy scandal will affect your meeting?
I expect a general outpouring of disgust. The size of this tragedy -- and I call it a tragedy -- makes it easily the most significant black mark in the history of professional referees. Of course, it's all just alleged at this point, as you know. But he has stepped down from the NBA, as well as from the referee's union. I don't know what that tells us, but it does make people think along certain lines.
David Stern was right when he used the word "rogue." Another one would be "aberration."
What are some of the things you think could be done to ensure maximum integrity from NBA referees?
Well this has nothing to do with the NBA specifically (our members are referees from the NFL, NBA, MLB, FIBA, NCAA, FIFA and others) over six months ago, long before any of this started, NASO started looking into something called a sports officiating integrity program. We have had discussions with a group in Washington DC, that includes a former CIA official, and they have programs that specialize in this kind of thing. It's very involved, very comprehensive. One aspect of it was to build a whistleblowing program, which makes referees able to report concerns about these kinds of things without fear that they will hurt themselves in the process.
I'm not saying that there's a major problem in sports with referees. Quite the contrary. But a program like this could make sense. We're going to be talking about it in Denver, and determining if NASO would be the right group to do it.
Will there be NBA people at your meeting who might be part of the discussion?
Yes. There will be referees and others from the NBA there. Violet Palmer is on our board, so she'll be one of 11 people in the board meeting talking about these and other issues. (oh, that makes me feel soooo much better.) :rolleyes
Are you worried about how fans view referees generally?
No. And that's a different order of things from this Tim Donaghy situation. This is why we're all so concerned about this rogue situation.
In general, we have not put a lot of time into convincing sports fans that we're honest. People come to the arena prepared to believe that calls for their team are good calls, while calls for the other team are bad calls.
But now referees are going to show up and hear all the catcalls every night. It's unfair, but there it is.
We make mistakes sometimes, sure, but by and large referee ethics, through the history of sports, have been unquestionably good. We know we're not cheaters. And I make speeches all over the country telling people all about that. But it gets harder with all this Tim Donaghy stuff staring you in the face.
Are you satisfied that the quality of the referees in the NBA right now is the best it could be?
Nothing is ever the best it could be at any level. It's like if I ask you if the people working at ESPN are all the best they could be. But are those referees very very good? Yes. Does the NBA put the right people in the right place to make the right calls? Yes. And the statistics show it. 100% accuracy -- I don't think so. Not possible. But the latest numbers I saw were in the 95-96% range.
These are astonishing numbers, but they're not surprising to me, because these men and women were born to do this job and they have trained to do this job. All they care about is getting the call right.
And now they have this massive distraction to worry about.
I don't mean to say it's a distraction like it's not a big deal. I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything. It's massively important to all NASO members and all NBA referees.
What have I not asked you about that you want to tell me?
I think it's important for people to understand that at this point these are still allegations.
And, I have to tell you that within the industry. We're angry. We're very unhappy about this.
League-Wide Issues, Tim Donaghy
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-26-89/President-of-Referees-Group--We-re-Angry.html