Stern Pushing Refs to Make Improper Calls?

Does David Stern Push Refs to Make Improper Calls?

  • Yes, he fixes games outright

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Yes, he gives them rough guidelines on how to keep the ratings higher

    Votes: 3 100.0%
  • Not exactly, but it's understood that certain calls have to be made

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No, he tells the refs to ignore ratings and make good basketball calls

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    3

GordonGecko

Benchwarmer
So here's the deal, David Stern came out and admitted that television ratings are more important that a coach making judgment calls on how to play his players. With a $250,000 fine against the Spurs and Popovich, he has effectively disclosed that it is acceptable to mess with the basketball product in order to "entertain" the fans. This should have some very serious implications for NBA fans.

If he's willing to force coaches to manage in a way to improve ratings, it is only logical to assume that he would have the same attitude towards referees in the league. There have long been questions about the impartiality of NBA refs and if they were fixing games. But what cannot be disputed is how stars like Carmelo Anthony routinely get no calls on the same type of fouls that a Lebron or a Kobe would get.

So I'll put it out there, do you guys think Stern is pushing the refs to make improper calls to improve ratings?
 

Sage

Rotation player
After all the Tim Donaghy stuff, if there's any intentional refereeing bias in the league, I seriously doubt it's coming from Stern. You could probably make a case that Stern still favours the larger market teams to stock up on stars though.

But some things never seem to change in the way the referees call a game. Melo for example doesn't get the star calls because he has the perception of a whinger. Sheed got ejected yesterday because he has history and the refs know that.

What I'm getting at is I think the referee bias is more from perception of some players rather than any mandate that certain teams should be more successful. Otherwise New York wouldn't have just suffered through the last 10 years.

Stern cares about his product now, he doesn't care that Pop is resting his players for a playoff run, he cares that Pop sat his 4 best players in a nationally televised game (incidently, one of the most watchable games of the season so far).

If the idiot had just waited til the next day to make a statement, he could have commented on globalisation of the game and how he has shaped that product, but because he rushed in and said there'd be fines, he didn't have a choice but to fine the Spurs.
 
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