Standard Media Overreaction

i had to reply in a comment to this particular blog post by henry abbott on truehoop because… IT IS INSANE and it is the perfect example of how the Media as a whole (even effective bloggers like abbott) are completely losing their f___ing minds with this whole donaghy scandal.

in the past week or two, i’ve read articles and columns that have been based on such ridiculous premises as:

one ref bet on the nba. the nba is doomed, no one will ever watch again
the nba has a referee database that they use to evaluate referees? they should open it up so everyone can see it
we need ultimate transparency in the nba
phoenix lost the nba championship because of donaghy

there are news stories where the scale of the media coverage is equal to the public interest and outcry. this story is not one of them.

and to speak bluntly about the whole “we need transparency into the referees,” that is one of the more idiotic ideas i’ve ever heard. these are not elected officials. they are highly-trained and scrutinized private employees who are (of course!) evaluated heavily by their employers. why in the world should they disclose which refs did better or worse? doesn’t that just lead to public roasting of non-corrupt referees that perform worse than their peers?

and why the hell does it even matter? what are we going to do, assume that all bad refs are corrupt and gambling addicts?

every nba fan that i’ve talked to is fairly confident that donaghy really was a single, rogue official. i don’t think there’s anyone, besides the overreacting media, who think we need to out every referee and their performance.

i think sportswriters are blowing this out of proportion, particularly when they insinuate that david stern would trade this for baseball’s steroid crisis. that’s absurd. they need to get their heads on straight and put down the peace pipe.

in one case you’re talking about one single referee calling games to manipulate the point spread (maybe) and in the other you’re talking about the complete undermining of more than a hundred years of records and history by widespread usage of dangerous chemical products, culminating in and represented most effectively by this complete farce of a home run chase that barry bonds is finishing off this week. i’d take one illegal gambler every day of the week.

donaghy? he’s going to blow over. bonds and mark mcgwire? i’m going to be explaining that one to my grandkids.

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You’re currently reading “ Standard Media Overreaction ,” an entry on smallchou.com/blog

Published:: 7.27.07 / 1pm

Category:: baseball, basketball, sports

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Jack Chou is an acclaimed expert and author on many very important topics, not limited to:

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king 7.30.07 / 2pm

you’re famous: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-26-107/Shaking-the-Officiating-Hierarchy-by-the-Shoulders.html

rone 7.30.07 / 3pm

If you’re going to explain Bonds and McGwire to your grandkids instead of Rose and Donaghy, whose actions tainted the competitive nature of the game itself, you need to check your priorities. At least there’s no reason to doubt that Bonds and McGwire were always trying to win.

Transparency isn’t just for public officials; it helps restore faith in a process. People have been suspicious of the NBA for decades. How is that a good thing? Transparency would help blow that suspicion away.

NW Narcissist 7.30.07 / 4pm

Yeah, I got to this page via truehoop. Respect to Abbott for shouting out his critics.

“…public roasting of non-corrupt referees that perform worse than their peers” - that’s a big part of the point here (forgive me if I read you wrong here Mr. Abbott). Another way to say this is “incompetent referees.” Shouldn’t we have systematic exposure of the worst refs, in the interest of a better game? Put another way, if I consistently suck at my job, shouldn’t I lose it? Do I deserve protection from scrutiny? In the case of refs, should a bad ref be allowed to repeatedly affect the outcome of a game in such a way that the credibility of the game suffers?

Wouldn’t full transparency be better than axe-grinding youtube clips edited together to obscure a point, and wouldn’t it be better than hand-waving and denial of any possibility of a problem on the part of the league?

Maybe it’s not the exact way to go…but “insane?” Just because refs aren’t elected doesn’t necessarily mean they shouldn’t be scrutinized to ensure that they’re competent - and forgive me if I don’t trust the league all the way on that score…I’d like to take a look for myself. I plunk down good cash for Blazer tickets - I’d like to see for myself how the league refs Brandon Roy compared to how they ref, say, Dwyane Wade, night in and night out (and I mean over hundreds of whistles - I’m not thinking of particular games. Trends, rather).

For the record, bullets 1 and 4 above do fall safely in the “insane” category in my view. Sorry for the long comment - your blog, say what you will.

smallchou 7.30.07 / 4pm

My point was that Bonds and McGwire are indicative of a long-running disease in the game. Donaghy (so far) was just one random guy.

And as to the ‘incompetence’ of referees, my point is that people are using malfeasance by one rogue official as a reason to examine general perceived incompetence. I don’t think the two should be mixed. It’s a trojan horse and the two are not the same.

karl 7.30.07 / 4pm

good post, a lot of truth in there, however its the media… thats what they do, its their jobs and this isn’t any different. its the offseason, if they just unanimously concluded it was a non-factor and not present the what-ifs, people may not be so inclined to keep vising to see what may have happened…

rone 7.30.07 / 8pm

I think it’s a good point that they’re not the same, but in the end, if your customers don’t believe that the product you’re putting out is being fairly judged, it doesn’t exactly matter whether it’s because of individual or corporate malfeasance. All they’ll remember is that it can’t be trusted.

Karyn 7.31.07 / 3pm

True that corruption and incompetence are not the same. But fans have been complaining about the quality of NBA referees for years now. Your defense of refs’ privacy because they are not elected public servants doesn’t hold water: if a clerk at a store gives me bad service, I can complain to the manager, and I feel pretty confident that there will be some effect. If the refs at a game are terrible, that is a disservice to me (the customer), just as much as to the players and teams involved. How do we complain effectively? When players and/or coaches complain about the service they received, they are fined by the league. Transparency and accountability will improve this dynamic.

smallchou 7.31.07 / 4pm

I still haven’t heard a decent reason why malfeasance should be a reason to publicize incompetence. The reasoning of “but fans have been complaining for years!” seems like a huge excuse.

As to the store example given above, the manager may fire or reprimand the clerk for awful service, but there’s a clear causal relationship and you are providing information that the manager doesn’t know. That’s not the same.

Exposing stats on officials, just to ‘give transparency’ is not something companies do. Basically, if Stern is going to publicize the information, he also needs to fire the bottom third of those referees (based on your assessment). I’m not sure that he’s ready to do that or else why not just do it today?

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Standard Media Overreaction

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