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?

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.

“…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.

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.