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They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
It will be interesting to see if Bavetta calls Game 5 of the Finals on Sunday.
Over the last few seasons, the league assigns a combination of officials from Games 1 and 2 of the Finals to Game 5 (in 2005, though, the Game 5 crew was exactly the same as the Game 1 crew). If the league follows that precedent, the Game 5 crew would be some combination of Bavetta, Scott Foster (a first-time Finals official), Ed Rush, Dan Crawford, Bob Delaney, and Ken Mauer.
In the normal course of events, I would think that the Game 5 crew would be something like Bavetta, Rush, and Delaney. But with the recent accusations about Bavetta aand the accusations about Delaney coupled with the fact that Delaney spoke voluntarily to the media about the investigation into those allegations (very rare), I wonder if the league would actually have the juevos to assign those two officials to Game 5. I'm thinking the answer to that is no.
They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
I agree. I don't know that many people have a keen grasp on the assignment of officials during the Finals, so skipping Bavetta and Delaney wouldn't necessarily be seen as odd in a general sense. But for any dorks like me who keep track of that sort of information, the failure to assign Bavetta to another game in this series will be very curious.
Just to show my work, here are the Game 5 officiating assignments in the Finals since 1999; the games to which those officials had been assigned earlier in those series are in parenthesis:
1999: J. Crawford (Gm. 2); Javie (Gm. 1); Salvatore (Gm. 1)
2000: Salvatore (Gm. 2); Nies (Gm. 1); D. Crawford (Gm. 1)
2001: Bavetta (Gm. 1); Fryer (Gm. 2); J. Crawford (Gm. 1)
2002: no Game 5
2003: Bavetta (Gm. 1); J. Crawford (Gm. 1); Salvatore (Gm. 2)
2004: J. Crawford (Gm. 1); Fryer (Gm. 1); Salvatore (Gm. 2)
2005: Callahan (Gm. 1); Garretson (Gm. 1); Javie (Gm. 1)
2006: J. Crawford (Gm. 1); Derosa (Gm. 1); Salvatore (Gm. 1)
2007: no Game 5
Interesting observation. Bavetta will be con uous in his absence.
If Bavetta shows up, then Stern's bag man is right on cue.
If he doesn't show up, then Stern's been exposed.
Choose Your Own Adventure, NBA Conspiracy Edition.
It will look much worse for both Stern and Bavetta if Bavetta doesn't get the call, conspiracy or no conspiracy.
If they don't show up for game five they will have to show up for Game six, and there will be a storm if Bavetta is working Game 6 after the accusations about that other game 6
FWD, if this ends up being your last thread on referee analysis for this season, I just want to say good job on an interesting topic during the playoffs. Definitely enjoyed reading all of it.
Do you think the NBA is gonna "take him out" or somethin?
That would really surprise me, since the formula says Game 1 officials (Bavetta was that this year) don't work Game 6.
The basic formula is:
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5 (some combination of Games 1 and 2)
Game 6 (some combination of Games 2 and 3)
Game 7 (some combination of Games 3 and 4)
Tune in Sunday for another episode of Bavetta, Series Extender.
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