E-mail to David Stern

[_sturt_]

Hi guys. Long time no post, I know. You'll understand if you care to read this letter I just was motivated to send to David Stern.

To Whoever Cares:

I mourn for the NBA. Having just read a USA Today columnist citing severely declining TV ratings, I felt compelled to write and briefly share with Mr. Stern or anyone else who cares to know, why at least one lifelong NBA fan has completely lost interest in this league, though not the game itself.

1a) INCONSISTENT OFFICIATING, which leads to a suspicion, not of "fixing" games, but of "enabling" one team to have a 51% chance of winning rather than a 50% chance. I'm not one for conspiracy theories. But whether one exists or not is really not the issue... rather the *mere perception* that there *might be* some compulsion from the league office to orchestrate this "enabling" thing is the problem.

Is this just anecdotal with me? I don't think so, but as a researcher by trade, I have to admit it may be. But this is too salient a question to leave unanswered, and you would be well-advised to seek out some reputable firm to see if this is an undercurrent that you are battling unaware. And if it is proven substantive, I leave it to you to decide how you deal with that perception.

1b) Have you ever really stopped to think about how suspicious the NBA lottery appears? People don't have to be predisposed to conspiracy-minded-ness on that one... from that first Patrick Ewing derby that, oddly enough, was won by a crippled New York team, you have left yourselves wiiiiiide-open to incredulous reactions on that one, year after year. And the latest LeBron James derby, won by the Northeast Ohio Cavaliers, did nothing to help you either.

The point to both 1a and 1b is that, what is at best the appearance of slight manipulations (or, at worst, an outright WWF-style sham) causes me too much disgust to continue to care... and I haven't really cared since the Los Angeles-Portland playoff series of 3 or 4 seasons ago. (Btw, I was NOT a fan of either team.)

I remember the exact moment. Steve Smith had just mauled Shaq on a breakaway lay-up in the 4th quarter... just literally decked him, and the ref incredibly looked the other way, obviously uninterested to send Shaq to the foul line at that critical point in the game.

I turned the TV off. That was it.

Why the best college refs seem to be able to call reasonably consistent games and NBA refs cannot is beyond me.

I beg for a return to the days before the Bad Boys, when the NBA game and the NCAA game were so much more alike, and getting beat up int he lane wasn't just a given, non-chalaunt, fact of NBA life.

And if my begging doesn't work by itself, perhaps a continued nose dive in TV rathings will.

Heal your game, Mr. Stern.

Realize that no other professional sports league has left itself open to these questions as yours has.

Be proactive and perceive your responsibility to guard your league against the *smallest* perception of corruption.

Otherwise, I have no reason to care about professional basketball, in the same way I have no reason to care about professional wrestling.

[chillzatl]

[Boondocks]

officating has often bothered me to extremes. Where I'm more bothered with the inconcistent calling or not calling of fouls, get it right. Ballcarrying, elbows, 3sec violations, 3 steps instead of 2, offensive fouls, stars vs others players foul callin and much much more isn't dealt with consistently.

MJ could practically carry a gun on the court and not get the foul while he was with the Bulls.

Shaq throws his elbow in his opponent while turning towards the basket all the time.

My biggest problem with this is, this favoritism stinks of "calling" it in favor and helping the other team to win.

..

I have read however that the NBA's ref are aging, and that good replacements have been hard to find. I wonder what kind of living/paycheck they make.

[Lrenfro]

You know what I have had a question for as long as I have been an NBA Fan. How do you prevent a Ref from having a favorite team. Or a team that he likes the most if you will. How do you determine that the ref is not calling in favor of the favortie team(Notice I did not say Home team. Because that does not happen in Atlanta). Does anyone know how this is governed?

[cyman3]

and there should be allstar REFS in this league.

FANS should vote on NBA.COM for which refs they would like to officiate during the FINALS.

couple comments on ur thoughts STURT.

1a)Notice how the inconsistant officiating is always at the playoffs and not so much in the season. In the season, officiating isint that bad... maybe 1 out of 10 games, they are totally NOT-LOOKING during the season... but thats not nearly as bad as the playoffs.

Also note how the home team almost always has ""HOME COURT"" ADVANTAGE. Officiating tends to favor home court players, even the hawks are a good team at HOME.

1b)Well, this years was almost PERFECT... every team landed where they should have landed... ur Lebron arguement doesnt work. Cleveland was one of the worse (if not THE WORSE i believe) teams this year.

Ewing to NY is bogus. San Antonio gets TIM DUNCAN, what was the percentage again??? NJ

2)Superstars are protected in this league. U see McGrady with the ball, and the refs will watch him closely... while not so closely to scrubs.