the CBW editorial on the officiating

[Snoopy the Celtics Beagle <snoopy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was asked to repost this here for those who have trouble accessing websites.

Celtics Beagle Editorial December 2002

In the aftermath of the incomparably poor "officiating" by the refs in the 
Dec. 11 Celtics game vs. the Phoenix Suns, I urge everyone to contact the 
NBA League offices in New York to voice their opposition to the 
demonstrated incompetence that led to possible serious injury to Paul 
Pierce and essentially handed the game to the Suns.

Here is the information to express your concerns:

Commissioner David Stern
National Basketball Association
Olympic Tower, 656 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10022
tel (212) 407-8000 / fax (212) 754-6414
email: dstern@xxxxxxx

The following is a copy of the e-mail I have sent.  I will be following up 
with a telephone call on Thursday - their offices are open from 
8:30am-7:00pm Eastern Time:

TO: dstern@xxxxxxx

Mr. Stern:

I'm writing to formally complain about the actions instigated by the 
referees Sean Corbin, Ken Maurer, and Scott Wall in the December 11, 2002 
game that took place at the Fleet Center in Boston, where the Celtics 
played the Phoenix Suns.

Throughout the game, it became clear that the Phoenix players were allowed 
to commit fouls against Boston players without penalty, whereas the reverse 
did not hold true.  Then, in the third quarter, the injury that the fans 
who were watching were afraid of occurred with 9:14 remaining.  Paul Pierce 
was fouled hard and ended up hitting the floor face first.  It is still not 
certain he didn't suffer a concussion.

Yet, no foul was called against the Phoenix defender.

I grant you, every fan--myself included--has a certain amount of hometown 
bias.  But this display by the officials was the most glaring example of 
either incompetence or bias that I've seen in over three decades of 
watching the game.  This goes far beyond any rational chance of it being a 
biased perspective, when a player hits the ground bleeding and the only 
foul called is against the Celtics Coach Jim O'Brien for being rightly 
furious at the display of poor officiating culminating in the injury to Pierce.

The cumulative effect of the "work" done by the officials was to 
essentially ensure that the Phoenix Suns won a game they didn't earn at the 
expense of the integrity of the game.  I do not blame the Suns.  I blame 
the officials, and firmly believe that the matter should be investigated, 
and the result of the game nullified due to the interference by the officials.

I have, via the membership of several NBA-related lists and my own website, 
encouraged my fellow fans to contact the NBA League offices to register 
their objections to the events in that game.

The NBA has tacitly allowed much greater physical contact--as exampled by 
the last time Shaquille O'Neal of the Lakers managed to get a slap on the 
wrist after committing aggravated assault and battery.  This has gone to 
ridiculous extremes, and it has to stop.  Does someone have to get crippled 
or killed to call the games properly? And what of the negative effect on 
the League standings?  The Suns now have a "win" they didn't earn, while 
the Celtics have a "Loss" they didn't deserve.

In addition to the problem of overly physical play, stands the ethical 
question of just how badly the League will fare if the results are not 
perceived as honest ones.  To my mind, regardless of the "official" record, 
I do--at the very least--consider this game to be either A) an unresolved 
tie to be completed at a future date; or B) a Celtics victory and a Suns loss.

And that's unfortunate, when the players aren't permitted to decide the 
matter for themselves because the officials are obviously not doing their 
jobs properly.

I await a specific response when you have reviewed this matter.


I never did receive any reply to my e-mail reprinted above, or to my 
complaint by telephone the following day.  There was never any statement on 
whether the officials in question were disciplined in any way.  In the 
weeks following that game, several more incidents directly attributable to 
poor officiating have happened around the NBA.

The most recent incident was in the Celtics vs. Cleveland Cavaliers game on 
December 21, where Pierce once more was hammered in the face, and a 
flagrant foul wasn't called.  Pierce took exception to the abuse and shoved 
the opposing player back, and both players were ejected.

While Pierce himself admitted his reaction to the attack was "emotional" 
and "selfish", his Coach, Jim O'Brien stated that he was surprised that a 
flagrant wasn't called and understood completely that Pierce took the 
actions he did, adding that he would have been surprised if Pierce hadn't 
done something.

Tom Heinsohn, who was the color broadcaster on Fox Sports New England 
during the Celtics/Suns game, went ballistic on the air, loudly berating 
the officials for "terrible" work.  When someone questioned an NBA 
representative on whether Heinsohn could be fined, the response came so 
fast, it was obvious someone had already looked into doing just that.

Pat Riley, coach of the Miami Heat publicly berated the officials following 
a loss when he maintained that his team "got screwed", following comments 
he alleges one of the officials made last yea that they were enjoying 
watching Riley and his team die.  The only response of the NBA was to fine 
Riley $50,000.  There was no word on anyone actually checking to see if his 
claim had merit.

That's the way of the NBA these days.  No one in the league--be it owner, 
coach, or player, is allowed to make any public criticism of any official, 
or of officials in general.  There is no realistic oversight into how--or 
if--the officials are regulated, monitored, or disciplined.  They have a 
level of secrecy in their operations that the Catholic Church must 
envy.  No one is allowed to gainsay them, as Mark Cuban found out last 
season, racking up unheard of fines for his critiques of officials.

There are those who look at recent events and try to dismiss them as 
hometown bias.  That's not going to work anymore.  There have been too many 
incidents involving the same officials in too many games.  Sooner or later, 
there's going to have to be a radical change in the process, including a 
reasonable tolerance of the freedom of expression.

If this doesn't happen soon, and the worst of the officials kept from doing 
any more harm, somebody's going to be seriously hurt--or killed.  The 
players are too big, too strong and too fast not to be kept firmly under 
control within the bounds of the game.  We expect the officials to let 
players know how much is too much and to use their judgement fairly and 
equally across the league.  That's not happening far too often, and it 
needs to stop.

Please, before it happens again.

Snoopy the Celtics Beagle
Please visit the <http://www.celticsbeagle.net/>Celtics Beagle Website