[rotationslim]

Let me put some of this in perspective:

Mormons are generally known as decent, hardworking upstanding citizens. It is very out of character for the bad behaviour on the court. Some speculate it is the one outlet when we can let our "natural man" out. Maybe there is some truth to that.. I don't know.

To address some of your points:
No my officiating is not any better than the sportsmanship. More to the point it is no better than the level of play either (which I would say could beat a good HS JV team, but would lose to a decent Varsity HS team). We don't pay officials, so we use volunteers. We get what we pay for.

No one is proud of our missbehavior, many good men are ashamed of their fellow Mormons. However, as I alluded to in my post, it is just not as important as the other areas of the church that need governance, so it becomes a stepchild, and not well run. I can't say I would put my best guy on running the basketball program, I'd put him on looking after the spirtual welfare of the flock, or seeing that widows are cared for, etc.

Also, part of the problem is that Mormons typically have this ingrained notion that every soul is valued, and everyone can improve, and no one should ever be given up on. That works when you are trying to help men be better fathers, or helping teens navigate through the typical teen trauma, but it is not a good model for dealing with 45 year old fat white guys who are trying to re-live high school basketball glory. We just need to learn to send them away! And the official policy manuals now make it very clear that that is in fact what should be done.

The website is actually a publicity stunt for a movie coming out called "Church Ball". The movie is by a couple of filmmakers who make films who take good natured jabs at Mormon culture. They are funny, and I am dying to see the movie when it comes out.

And I might add in our defense, basketball, for whatever reason, is a big part of the Mormon tradition, every church built has a court, and in most cases it is used 3 or 4 nights a week. With nearly 9 million members, that is a lot of ball, and of course the good tempered games never get attention, just the few jackasses who cause serious problems are remembered.

In the end it is what it is, we are what we are, see us in all our glory, warts and all. Keep in mind, the end goal of the Mormon Church is to help members improve spiritually, and the ball is just a sideshow, a sideshow that is often poorly managed.