The Basketball Scandals Blow the Whistle on George Bush’s Fouls

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When the NBA scandal hit the front pages I have to say I wasn’t surprised. Any hoops junkie who has followed the pros for some time has to admit they have had their doubts about the officiating. I even heard someone say it was getting like the WWF. I say this as a hoops junkie whose creds include coaching plus having a son who was co-captain of his college team and is now directing hoops camps in the DC area.
The bigger picture is how this scandal fits like a puzzle piece with other sports scandals and what is being revealed as one of the more scandal-ridden administrations in quite awhile. George Bush, the Republican Party and David Stern share something in common, something that reveals much about why our country’s international standing has plummeted in everything from Olympic basketball to world diplomacy.
Let’s start with the NBA. In it interesting that the scandal of one referee’s problems has eclipsed an earlier, more serious scandal. In May of this year, Joseph Price of the Department of Economics at Cornell University and Justin Wolfers of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania issued a study that found racial bias in NBA referees:
We find that—even conditioning on player and referee fixed effects (and specific game fixed effects)—that more personal fouls are awarded against players when they are officiated by an opposite-race officiating crew
than when officiated by an own-race refereeing crew. These biases are sufficiently large that we find appreciable differences in whether predominantly black teams are more likely to win or lose, according to the racial composition of the refereeing crew.
The two noted:
Fouls are less likely to be awarded against white players officiated by predominantly white than with predominantly black refereeing crews.
The study was quickly reputed by NBA officials who said their own data showed otherwise. Three experts hired by the New York Times agreed the Wolfers and Price paper was “more sound.”
It has been an open secret for years that the refereeing of professional games leaves something to be desired. There have been a few attempts to demonstrate an actual policy condoning some of these questionable practices but nothing has been proven.
Yet you don’t have to be a coach or scout to see there are some serious issues. For example, there is what some coaches I know refer to as the “NBA extra step,” meaning the additional step beyond what the rules allow routinely given to pro players driving towards the basket. In high school or college games the “NBA extra step” would draw a whistle, but in the “Showtime” atmosphere Stern has cultivated in the NBA not allowing the extra step means cutting down on those spectacular dunks by the likes of LeBron James, Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant that make the ESPN highlights and enthrall even the most casual fan.
The there is the “NBA carry.” For the uninitiated a carry is literally what it says: instead of bouncing the ball the player cups it in his hands. This can provide a great advantage when making cuts or executing a cross-over. Pro players get away with this as much as they do with the extra step. In a Sports Illustrated story on the sports scandals an NBA assistant remarked:
Every player in this league carries, [Officials] just choose not to call it.
Again in the world that is “Showtime” penalizing carrying cuts down on the moves players like Allen Iverson, Dwyane Wade or Tony Parker can make to get them open to make those gravity-defying dunks. Sometimes you have two violations on the same play.
Finally there is the widely recognized “Superstar dividend.” Basketball is the only major sport where a player can foul out of a game. When “Showtime” rules you do not want your star attractions on the bench. The 2006 NBA finals generated much talk about this when it appeared all you had to do was breathe on Dwyane Wade and the whistle would blow. What to do with Shaquille O’Neal has been a subject of conversation ever since he entered the league.
Unfortunately “Showtime” has not fared well in international competition, managing to eke out a bronze medal in the last Olympics where they lost three games–more than in the previous 68 years. For the forthcoming Peking Olympics what was once known as the “Dream Team” has been forced to qualify. Various explanations and excuses have been offered for our poor performance, so let me add one more–the NBA’s refereeing.
A great case study is the performance of superstar Tim Duncan in the last Olympics. Few would argue that Duncan is one of the greatest players to ever put on a uniform, but he struggled badly without friendly league officials. He ended up spending an undue amount of time on the bench because of foul trouble. Ditto for players called for the extra step and carrying. Showtime became Notime. As for Duncan he had enough. After the Olympics he said:
I am about 95 percent sure my FIBA [acronym for international basketball association] career is over. I’ll try not to share my experiences with anyone.
The leap from professional basketball to the Capitol dome does not require a forty-inch vertical. All you have to do is say the magic word, “Abramoff.” This convicted lobbyist and former buddy of anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist and former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed, was given the equivalent of the “NBA extra step.” Then like the NBA referee scandal his life began to unravel along with the lives of Congressional pals he had wined and dined and flown on various junkets.
Now the biggest scandal of all is unraveling–the Iraq War. We now know the evidence presented to justify the War was as flimsy as the extra step in a rim-rattling dunk. The NBA carry became Cash’N'Carry as contractors operating in Iraq took the ball and ran with it. As for the “Siperstar dividend,” George Bush, Dick Cheney and company still feel they have some executive privilege which allows them to get away with illegal moves.
Like our basketball team in international competition, the Bush Administration has not fared well in the international diplomatic arena. The latest to express doubts about the administration are none other than George I Bush’s favorite clients–the Saudis.
Lastly there is the elephant in the room, race. The study of NBA official’s racial bias curiously echoes the attempts that have been made to suppress and challenge the votes of people of color in the last two presidential elections. The crowning moment came last summer when Republicans tried to block the renewal of the Voting Rights Act.
Greg Palast has probably done the most investigative work in the area of minority voter suppression. In a recent report “Masscre of the Buffalo Soldiers” he charges:
A confidential campaign directed by GOP party chiefs in October 2004 sought to challenge the ballots of tens of thousands of voters in the last presidential election, virtually all of them cast by residents of Black-majority precincts.
Both the NBA and the Bush Administration symbolize the larger ethos of the last eight years, an ethos I term the Counterrevolution. The Counterrevolution’s central aim is to roll back the programs and regulations of the New Deal, programs and regulations designed to keep the playing field level. In the view of the Counterrevolution the referees–in this case the government–are the problem because they inhibit the domestic and international equivalents of Showtime.
With the ascendancy of Ronald Reagan, Republican control of the White House and Congress, the feeling grew that the equivalents of the extra step, the carry, and the superstar dividend were good for the country just as they were good for the NBA. Those who had seats in Congress or on Wall Street began behaving like sports superstars. America began behaving internationally as it was domestically.
Now people have begun to see how far the Counterrevolution has tilted the playing field. It will now be up to us to insure it tilts no further. Then comes the difficult task of restoring integrity to the game. One of the experts hired by the New York Times to study the referee bias study had the best final words:
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