If you have been listening to me for any length of time you know I am a professional sport nut -- specifically, the NBA --The National Basketball Association. Michael Jordan & the Chicago Bulls have just won a sixth championship. Here are some observations.
Larry Bird -- the most outspoken coach I have ever heard--the most honest human being I have come across in professional sports, said, when his Indiana Pacers were eliminated: "I still think the refereeing stinks." He said it a few times, and one sportswriter speculated the league would fine him--fine him heavily. They didn't fine him. They deliberately chose not to say anything, and I think that is because they want to let sleeping dogs lie. They did not want to call attention to the refereeing--because the Refereeing Stinks.
How does it stink? It favors Michael Jordan & the Bulls. The sponsors, the Networks, want an NBA Final that features Michael Jordan. They were not shy about saying so. Who wants to watch a final between Indiana & Utah. Indiana Where? Utah Who? Those are fringe markets--not prime markets.
Am I saying the fix is on? Yes I am. The fix is subtle, but deadly--and I noticed it many, many, years ago.
You cannot say for certain when a foul occurs, or who committs a foul: often bodies are so tangled that no one knows who is doing what to whom. That makes it easy for the referees to call fouls on the team they want to call fouls on.
Some of you are yelling at me -- what proof do you have? In my mind's eye are dozens & dozens of examples. The most recent involved Karl Malone & Dennis Rodman. There are less than two minutes to go in the whole game. The score is close. Rodman & Malone have arms wrapped around each other & they both topple to the floor. A foul is called on Malone. The instant replay showed how biased the call was: they were inextricably entangled.
No foul should have been called -- but calling a foul on Malone killed all possibilities for Utah. Just one such ticky tacky foul called at the right time in the game kills a team.
The first time I noticed such ridiculous foul calling was in another NBA championship involving the Detroit Pistons and the great unconscious shooter for the Detroit Pistons: Vinny Johnson. Vinny was in the zone: he couldn't miss -- he was unconscious. The Pistons would give him the ball and get out of the way. He'd run the length of the court, jump high, and I swear, without looking, he'd hit basket after basket after basket. It was unbelievable. On his fourth trip down the floor he ran the length of the floor, elevated, shot, scored -- and was called for a charging foul.
I don't think there was a player -- from either team -- who was within five feet of him. But the refs were determined to stop him. And the next time he touched the ball they again called an unbelievable foul on him. I couldn't believe my eyes -- and forever after I watched closely.
Some announcers call it "home court advantage" -- on your homecourt the refs call more fouls on the visiting team. Theoretically it evens out.
I don't care if it, theoretically, evens out. The policy stinks. The game is, ever so slightly, fixed: the ref favored Chicago over the Indiana Pacers, and the refs favored Chicago over Utah -- and even when they finally went the other way -- call a whole host of stupid fouls on Chicago -- it was too late.
Referees consciously determine the outcome of some of the games we see. It is not fair, and it is not pure basketball. Larry Bird is right: the refereeing stinks.
Copyright © 2004 Henry Morgenstein