Letter to the editor re: NBA officiating article and my response

[Mark Padgett]

This letter to the editor appeared in today's Oregonian newspaper:

Letter: Incompetence in sports officiating is rampant
by The Oregonian
Sunday June 07, 2009, 6:00 AM

As usual, Rachel Bachman focused on an important issue in her story on the study of NBA officiating (Study calls foul on NBA officials, June 4).

The study itself provides little beyond the obvious point that home teams get some more favorable calls. Needed are studies of concrete examples of important calls that have affected the outcome of games, series, and championships. Few TV announcers and analysts dare question the competence or honesty of officials lest they offend executives and administrators who control their jobs. An occasional columnist like Bill Simmons sometimes mentions incompetence.

I have long maintained that game officials "manipulate" the results of games in various ways -- phantom tags in MLB, ignoring fouls by star players and calling the slightest brush by a rookie or lesser light in the NBA, or by "homer" replay officials in college football.

There does not have to be a "conspiracy" with a commissioner directly telling officials to affect the outcome. Referees in the NBA know the league loves match-ups of star players. Therefore stars almost never foul out. They also can see which teams have higher TV audiences. At the college level, officials know their conference benefits from having more teams in bowl and tournament games. Lower ranked teams almost never have a chance to win late season basketball or football games. Officials who "play the game" can have long careers, many well past their point of competence -- if they ever had one.

In my opinion, at all levels of sports officiating incompetence is rampant -- corruption most likely.

Joe F. Decker
Florence

Here is the letter I sent the paper in response. We'll see if they print it:

Joe Decker, in his letter that appeared in your Sunday sports section, made some very damning accusations aimed at all sports officials. He uses an NBA study (which already has been dismissed by the international officiating community for gross errors in logic) to conclude "...at all levels of sports officiating incompetence is rampant - corruption most likely". This statement is ludicrous.

I have been a basketball official for over 20 years and one of my volunteer activities is to train high school students and other young people to referee kids recreational basketball. The first thing they learn is that there are only two people in the entire gym who don't care who wins the game - themselves and their officiating partner. Does Mr. Decker (who, I'm sure, has never officiated any sport) really think rec leagues and high school game winners are decided ahead of time by the officials? That's just plain nuts. He also states, while referencing college conference games, that "Lower ranked teams almost never have a chance to win late-season basketball or football games." Maybe - just maybe - that's because those teams are not as good as the higher ranked teams and the higher ranked teams have more motivation - the playoffs. That's why whenever the lower ranked team actually does win, it's called an "upset". DUH!

I'd like to put some stripes on Mr. Decker and have him officiate a game. He'd then realize how difficult it really is and how important it is to maintain ones objectivity. Or then again, maybe not.


Mark Padgett
Tigard