Mark Cuban is right when it comes to the lack of accountability for
referees. They are never publicly reprimanded when their bad calls cost
teams games. We have no idea from one year to the next who is improving as
an official, or why, because their ratings and rankings are protected like a
prosecution witness in a mob trial. But I've yet to hear him say what he'd
come up with as a replacement for the current system. Who else would judge
what the refs do?
I've been in rooms with referees, watching them grade themselves and
others. I can tell you, it's a totally different environment than anything
you'd believe. It's all business, and they are hard on their brethren. There
is no talk of a star system or anything else. They really do try to get it
right. But there are so many young officials in the league now that their
experience doesn't yet give them the feel for a game that veteran refs have.
There is no question in a Joey Crawford game who is in charge. (Although
Crawford was wrong to throw Steve Francis out of last week's game against
the Jazz, in my view.)
There's nothing wrong with a little healthy debate on the issue. Cuban
got fined not because of what he said to the Dallas papers, but because of
the scathing e-mail he sent to Stu Jackson and Russ Granik and several
general managers around the league. (As a journalist, people, no one is more
of a defender of the First Amendment than I. But this isn't a freedom of
speech issue. Cuban joined an exclusive club when he ponied up to buy the
Mavs -- a club with its own rules of operation. If he didn't like the rules,
he didn't have to join. But the league has every right to fine or suspend
anyone, be it owner, coach or player, who violates the league's rules.)
The bigger question to me is how do the refs deal with the kind of
contact that led to last week's Shaq-Brad Miller fight. Anyone who says Shaq
should just take it because he's bigger than everyone else is hopelessly
naive. Or hasn't taken a 'bow from a 6-9, 250-pound power forward. There's
only so much of that anybody is going to take. And make no mistake, people
foul Shaq hard. It's the only way to keep him from cramming
everything through the tin.
(By the way, why isn't Charles Oakley, the owner of 42 career flagrant
fouls, penalized on a sliding scale? If you did it this way, the next
flagrant foul would cost him seven or eight games instead of just two.)
You can't call every foul. If you did, the game would take four hours
and there'd be three guys left on each team to finish. Anyone, including
refs, who's seen more than one NBA game knows that there are fouls, and
there are fouls. You know when contact inside is escalating. If Shaq comes
elbows up when he turns into the paint, or sticks his butt into the defender
to initiate contact, it's an offensive foul and we're going the other way.
But if an overmatched center plays Shaq's head instead of the ball, comes
down full force on his back, then call the flagrant foul and put Shaq on the
line.
People seem to be saying that there should be one set of rules for
Shaq, and one for everybody else.
That's bull. Shaq is 7-1, 350, and unstoppable. And you know what?
Tough.
| |
|
