Referee Betting Scandal Should Be Used To End Subjectivity

The FBI investigation of a referee who is accuses of gambling on games he has been covering is a huge story.

The League office has been in such self righteous denial about problems with the refs for so long, this is going to be huge. With all of their reviews of refs and grading, the fact that calls remain so terribly subjective is a terric opportunity for refs to cheat.

The sad part is that Commissioner Stern et al are likely to focus on "off court" policing rather than the underlying problem which is the excessive subjectivity in the way games are called. If they don't address it, the NBA will suffer irreversable harm.

My suggestions include:

1. CONSISTENCY: Set standards for what is a foul and what isn't independent of who it made by, who it is against, where the game is being played, and whether it is during the regular season or the playoffs. Fine officials who deviate from these standards.

2. CHANGE THE RULES TO DEFINE THE DEGREE OF CONTACT: One guy gets mugged without a call while a "ticky tack" call gets called at the other end. One of the reasons flopping is such a big deal is that it is a way players can draw foul calls on incidental contact.

3 BE PREPARED TO KEEP CALLING FOULS: Almost every basketball brawl has been due to players getting upset when they are clearly being fouled and it is not being called. As games get intense, it seems like the refs stop trying to control the physical contact. This is not only causing the on court problems but also give the refs a huge opportunity to cheat.

4. CONSIDER ADDING A FOURTH OFFICIAL: The pace of the game is such that officials are constantly out of position and making calls from 40 feet away or more. A fourth official would reduce the number of "blind spots" and thus the excuses for missing calls.

There is no way that anybody is going to be completely happy with the way games are called, but they will accept the calls more easily if the excessive subjectivity is reduced. The fact that the league did not catch this says a lot.