The NBA’s integrity problem

Recent revelations that veteran NBA referee Tim Donaghy is under federal investigation for gambling on games, shaving points and associating with mobsters have been greeted with righteous indignation from league commissioner David Stern, who railed against this “individual who has betrayed the most sacred trust in professional sports.”

Sacred trust? Who are we kidding?

There’s nothing sacred about NBA officiating, which is the worst of any major sport and subject to a laundry list of well-known biases. Stern may believe that the Donaghy scandal is an enormous blow to the NBA’s credibility, but for many fans there really wasn’t much credibility left by the time the story broke. In truth, the charges against Donaghy may turn out to be good for the game if it prompts the commissioner to finally address the league’s longstanding officiating problems.

The Donaghy case has made it very clear that the NBA has serious issues with its much-vaunted system of overseeing officials. Despite league rules prohibiting referees from any form of wagering, Donaghy was a serious gambler, enough so that he ran up huge debts to bookies associated with the Gambino crime family. The league knew he was betting, having hired a private investigator more than a year ago to check into rumors surrounding Donaghy, and despite a supposedly strict system of overseeing officials, it did nothing.

That’s because the NBA always has been more interested in protecting its public image than in solving the real problems that plague its officiating. It’s an open secret that NBA officials display a wide variety of biases, the most well-known being the obvious favoritism shown to superstar players. Fans, players, coaches and media alike also complain about biases that favor home teams over visitors, veterans over rookies, and even large-market teams capable of generating big TV ratings over their small-market competitors. (Remember the 2002 playoffs, when the Kings lost to the Lakers amid officiating so egregious that it prompted calls for an investigation from consumer advocate Ralph Nader?)

The NBA has never bothered to take these issues seriously, but now, in the wake of FBI allegations that Donaghy was letting debts to mafia bookies influence his calls on the court, that’s going to have to change. The NBA needs to show, in a very public way, that it is working to improve the credibility of its competition.

A first step would be to drop discussion of moving any NBA team—let alone the Kings—to Las Vegas. As the Donaghy case has shown, there are good reasons that the league needs to stay far away from gambling.

Beyond that, the league needs to open its oversight process to the public. Stern should rescind the policy that prohibits players and coaches from criticizing officials and officials from speaking with the media. He should also allow public review of referee ratings. Taken together, these steps would promote an open dialogue that would improve the quality of NBA officiating—and the public’s confidence in its integrity.