RE: Steve Beauregard come on down, and other amusements from an u gly loss

["James A. Hill" <jahill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Actually, Stu Jackson did respond to an email sent to D. Stern by a non-list
member friend/acquaintance of mine about the Pierce non-call.  I do not have
permission to post his entire email but do have permission to post a portion
of Jackson's response.  I have included enough so as to keep the response in
context.  Jackson does not seem to feel that anything needs to be done to
upgrade the officiating, IMO, based on his response.  <Jim

Cecil asked: When Pierce got his teeth smashed against Phoenix, I sent an
email to the
NBA, as did many others on this list.  Has anyone gotten a reply?  I
haven't.  I doubt that they give a rats ass about us because the league is
thriving right now.

Per Stu Jackson:

"Officiating, like the game of basketball, has changed over the past
decades.  What has remained constant is the objectives of officials each
game and that is to ensure that the games are administered fairly, safely
and that calls are made correctly.  As you know, NBA basketball is one of
the more difficult professional sports to officiate with decisions, in many
cases, needing to made in split seconds.  The players today are bigger,
stronger, quicker and faster than players of yesteryear and the game and
officiating has reflected that change.

No game has been officiated without mistakes.  The Paul Pierce non call was
a missed one.  The result of the contact, which would have resulted whether
the call was made or not, was an unfortunate one.  The injury that Paul
suffered, fortunately, was not a serious.  It has been my experience that
when an official misses a call, there is no one that feels worse,
regardless of injury being involved or not.