Van Gundy fined 100 Gs

[SuBZer0]

As if $100K was not enough, Stern actually threatened Van Gundy's job security...what the is that? Seriously...the NBA has to become a bit more consistent than Kobe's shot-selection

[Obstructed_View]

I asked the same question on the NBA forum, and I guess I'm just impatient. David Aldridge reported that the officials were instructed to watch Yao's moving screens on the telecast BEFORE GAME 3. If this is common knowledge, why is JVG's mentioning it later such a huge sin? I'm puzzled. I also see absolutely no impropriety in the system.

As much as I defend the officials, the officiating has been terrible this season, and especially for these playoffs. I have a su ion that due to the fight in Detroit there are a lot of NBA suits in there ing around with the process and issuing decrees which causes the whole thing to crumble.

[Kori Ellis]

Mike Monroe: Van Gundy's relationship with referee troubling
Web Posted: 05/04/2005 12:00 AM CDT

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b...23ce37212.html

In the film "Conspiracy Theory," Mel Gibson plays a paranoid New York City cab driver convinced the government is out to get him, and everyone else, for that matter. He comes off as such a loon, nobody will take seriously anything he says.

Of course, the government really is out to get him, and it takes the intervention of Julia Roberts, playing a Justice Department employee, to ultimately help Gibson foil the plotters.

Roberts also falls for Gibson before the credits roll.

There doesn't seem to be a happy ending in the offing in the NBA's version of "Conspiracy Theory." Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy has pretty much accused the league of conspiring to have its referees watch Yao Ming, his 7-foot-6 center, more closely than other centers in response to demands from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

Van Gundy claims a friend who is a veteran referee — one who is not working the playoffs — phoned to alert him about an Internet memo "point of emphasis" about Yao that was sent by supervisor of officials Ronnie Nunn to all the refs.

This allegation so infuriated commissioner David Stern that he fined Van Gundy $100,000 and has virtually threatened to throw Van Gundy out of the league unless he stops shooting off his mouth and cooperates with an investigation of his allegations.

"If he's going to say things like that, he's not going to continue in this league," Stern said after Van Gundy was quoted in the Houston Chronicle with his assertion. "If the at ude reflected in those comments continues to be public, he's going to have a big problem with me as long as I'm commissioner."

Stern is acutely sensitive about any suggestion the league engages in any sort of conspiracy to affect the outcome of games. His sensitivity is heightened during the playoffs.

There used to be a widely held belief that the league somehow rigged playoff games to make certain the most popular teams — sorry San Antonians, that means the Lakers, and before them, the Bulls and Knicks — advanced to the Finals. Better for the TV ratings, don't you know.

Stern gets downright apoplectic when asked about such theories, pointing out all such assertions amount to accusations of criminal wrongdoing by the league and its officials.

Of course, it would help if Stern would cease making jokes about hoping the Finals could produce a matchup of Lakers vs. Lakers, as he once did during a telephone news conference.

It was a joke, based solely on the size of L.A.'s TV market and the marketability of Kobe Bryant and then-Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal, but it didn't help Stern convince anyone the conspiracy theorists were as goofy as Gibson's cab driver character.

What is really troubling about Van Gundy's claim isn't the fact he comes off as just another whiner looking for a scapegoat after his team ceded a 2-0 lead in its series with the Mavericks. The shocker is the fact he claims one NBA referee is a good enough friend that he or she would pick up a phone to tip him off.

NBA refs and NBA coaches aren't supposed to be friends, for obvious reasons. Refs aren't even allowed to stay in the same hotels visiting teams occupy, and the iden ies of the officiating crews are kept secret until they arrive at the arena.

If Van Gundy truly has such a close relationship with a referee, that is troubling, and it is no wonder Stern wants to know which referee leaped across such an ethical divide.

It would be easy to dismiss Van Gundy's allegation as fabricated if not for something once told to me by a high-ranking official from another team. This official's team was concerned because one veteran referee seemed to "stick it" to them whenever he worked their games. The referee was a good friend of a head coach who had been fired by the team.

Stern's outrage would be easier to accept had not Game 4 of the Spurs-Nuggets series been such an officiating mess that there was no flow and a two-time MVP was disqualified with his sixth foul on a phantom violation.

The real solution to stopping the conspiracy theorists in their tracks would be refereeing that raises fewer questions.

[Obstructed_View]

So again I ask: Why is it a $100k fine for Jeff Van Gundy when he mentions something that the NBA leaked to David Aldridge three days earlier? There has to be a detail in here that I'm missing.

[gospursgojas]

So again I ask: Why is it a $100k fine for Jeff Van Gundy when he mentions something that the NBA leaked to David Aldridge three days earlier? There has to be a detail in here that I'm missing.

Bc he said that an official called him and told him that they were...Im guessing that makes it worse

[Kori Ellis]

Van Gundy says that an official (who is a friend) called and told him they would be calling Yao more tightly because Cuban told them to do so. This is bad for a variety of reasons. Number 1 probably being that the refs would be persuaded by a team's owner to rule against an opponent.

[gospursgojas]

You cant blame David Stern .... JVG is not just complaing about the refs hes questioning the integrety of the game

[TwoHandJam]

Stern. He's a clueless idiot who's either too stupid or too lazy to ins ute changes that would make officiating in the NBA better than mediocre. And that's being generous.

If you're a Rockets fan that had to endure the complete up of a call where Barry had a ball swatted away in the closing seconds by Finley with both feet out of bounds. I strongly doubt you wouldn't be questioning the quality of today's officiating.

Couple that with last game's ejection of Duncan and you have two plays that can easily change the outcome of a series. These aren't petty mistakes. This is a real problem.

[Obstructed_View]

Van Gundy says that an official (who is a friend) called and told him they would be calling Yao more tightly because Cuban told them to do so. This is bad for a variety of reasons. Number 1 probably being that the refs would be persuaded by a team's owner to rule against an opponent.

If Van Gundy said that Cuban "told them to do it", he's playing to the media to report it so the conspiracy idiots will run with it, but other than that it's his take on the way it actually is done. Mark Cuban complained about Yao's moving screens, and the NBA said they were going to be watching Yao's moving screens. Personally I think George Karl making up outright lies about the way a game is officiated is a bigger travesty than JVG complaining about the way things are.

By the way, if the officials issue a directive to watch something specific, especially in the middle of a playoff series, why wouldn't they tell the team that they were making a change? I'd think that's why they leaked it to David Aldridge in the first place.

[Kori Ellis]

Today he apologized, sort of.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playof...ory?id=2055294

Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy, who received a six-figure fine Monday for accusing officials of targeting center Yao Ming this postseason, admits he made a mistake but doesn't plan to call commissioner David Stern's office to discuss the issue.

Van Gundy told ESPN's Greg Anthony in an interview Saturday that he hasn't spoken to Stern, and won't unless he has to, since being disciplined. Van Gundy was fined $100,000 -- the largest ever for a coach -- for making the comments Sunday.

"It's up to them if they want to speak with me further," Van Gundy said. "They obviously have a difficult job ... The fine was stiff but I have to accept it."

Van Gundy got himself into trouble by telling three reporters at the team hotel in Dallas on Sunday night that a referee not working the playoffs called him after the Rockets went up 2-0 and warned that Yao was mentioned in an online evaluation from supervisor of officials Ronnie Nunn.

Van Gundy added that because Mavericks owner Mark Cuban "has been hard on" the league and officials, "he's gotten the benefit."

Earlier this week, Stern called Van Gundy's fine "an intermediary step," adding that an investigation will continue once the Rockets finish their playoff run. He said further punishment is possible, even implying that Van Gundy might face a lifetime ban.

Van Gundy, who joked about the fine the night it was issued, told ESPN he should have stopped at expressing his frustration with how the game was called.

"When you make a mistake -- and I think since I had to take a couple of days to review what I said and think about it more -- the only thing you can do is apologize," he said. "First, for using the word bias. I never thought about the implications that the word bias could have on the league.

"That was not my intent. ... I've been frustrated with how the game [had] been officiated. I should have just left it at that. I made a mistake by bringing someone else into it. When you make a mistake -- you can't run from it, you have to accept the discipline."

Stern said the league was furious about what Van Gundy said and about his refusal to divulge the official he claims told him that referees "were looking at Yao harder because of Mark's complaints" to the league office.

Cuban said the Mavs sent the league a list of plays they thought could've been called moving screens on Yao and backup Dikembe Mutombo. He said the league responded that "nine were actually moving screens and should have been called but were not."

[Obstructed_View]

Van Gundy added that because Mavericks owner Mark Cuban "has been hard on" the league and officials, "he's gotten the benefit."

After watching the calls the Mavericks get this year, and some of the rotten calls in the series against the Rockettes, I'm having a hard time refuting the above statement. Van Gundy might have found himself at the bottom of a river if he hadn't attempted to soften his position.