Who Killed JFK (the NBA Version)?

One of the dumbest things that I used to hear from coaches during my refereeing days was something in the realm of, "Hey Todd, look at the scoreboard - it's 7-1 in fouls!", or 6-2, or 5-0, or whatever, any time there was some significant difference in the number of fouls between the two teams. My usual retort was, "sorry coach - I just call 'em, I don't count 'em". And the truth is that over the course of a game, fouls sometimes even themselves out...and well, sometimes not.

Let's take for example this year's Minnesota Timberwolves, who committed per game an average of 5.5 more fouls (!) than their opponent, and on the other hand, Memphis, which committed on average 3.04 fouls less. Why? Maybe Minnesota was a poor defensive club; maybe they had some especially rough players; maybe they fouled a lot during the last couple of minutes when they were behind in close games (which was often)... and maybe Memphis was just plain soft?

In my own country, Maccabi Tel Aviv, the almost perennial champion, fouls a lot more than other teams. Is it because the referees in Israel don't like Maccabi? Or maybe, just maybe, because they have a deep bench and can afford to make more fouls, and because they teach players to stop the fast break and drives to the basket by fouling?

Which bring us of course to the big news of the week, which isn't of course Boston's great comeback in Game 4, or the Lakers' almost great comeback from 24 down with 7 minutes to go in Game 2, but the latest court submission by former referee and the now officially criminal Tim Donaghy who in his latest missive accused NBA executives and referees of broad misconduct and outright manipulation of game results (all as part of his quest to get a lighter sentence).

The main evidence for Donaghy's accusations (and what in fact would be a felony), revolves around Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and Sacramento, won eventually by L.A. 106-102 and in which they shot 27 foul shots in the 4th quarter alone. I was of course not at the game, and only after reading about it again do I have some vague recollection (clearly Sacramento fans remember the game very well), but let's say for a moment that there was in fact a "conspiracy": how exactly would that work?

Fortunately, after "JFK", "Nixon" and "WTC", Oliver Stone's new movie, "NBA", is already in the can and ready to be shown at a theatre near you. I have, of course, recevied an advance script of a particularly revealing conversation that took place in 2002 at the Dallas Bergin Hunt and Gefilte Fish Club, between Commissioner David Stern, and veteran referee Dick Bavetta, who until now, was best known for kissing Charles Barkley on the lips after their charity foot race during the 2007 All-star weekend.

(Stern) "Hey Paisano, vus machstu" (Yiddish for "whassup")?
(Bavetta) "I wish you wouldn't call me Paisano - you're only a Jersey guy, while I'm from Brooklyn"
(Stern) "Yeah, well, I'm still the capo di tutti capo here - hey listen, got a little job for you.
(Bavetta) "Nu?"
(Stern) "We got LA down 3-2 and going back to Sacramento. We'd love some big TV ratings for a game 7 - think you could take care of this?
(Bavetta) "Yeah sure, but we gotta talk first"
(Stern) "Sure, no problem. Why don't you pop on down here to Dallas - I got Danny Crawford taking care of the Mavs as we talk. Did you know they are 2-14 in playoff games that he's reffed since Cuban took over? I never liked those young whipper-snappers from Pittsburgh anyways."
(Bavetta) "Where do we meet?"
(Stern) "I got this office over by the Texas Book Depository, nice view, but I think Cuban's got the place bugged. There's a little grassy knoll nearby - maybe we can talk about the game there. Oh yeah, and bring along Delaney and Bernhardt. They'll be perfect for what I got in mind."

And here's more fuel for the conspiracy fire: did you know that Bavetta went to Power Memorial High School, which is where of course, Kareem Abdul Jabbar graduated (8 years apart), and we know whom he used to play for! The LAKERS!! Ladies and gentlemen, case closed!

Charlie Sheen will be playing the title role of NBA commissioner, David Stern. Sheen's qualifications became apparent after 9/11 when he stated to Alex Jones, who has an Internet radio show on Infowars.com and Prisonplanet.com: "Call me insane, but did it sort of look like those buildings came down in a controlled demolition?"

By the way, has anyone ever really looked at the box score from the famous 2002 6th game? The Lakers had 40 total free throws (Shaq 13-17; Kobe 11-11) and Sacramento 25. In other words, a 15 free throw difference doesn't exactly seem to be the kind of stuff that would get Rudy Giuliani and the Southern District frothing at the mouth.

Now we come to 2008, and of course the Grassy-knoll Gang is having a field day fueled by Donaghy's court submission, the timing of which is no doubt hardly coincidental. OK, so in Game 2 the Lakers shot 10 foul shots to the Celtics' 38 - what exactly does that prove? Maybe it proves that the Celtics did a much better job of trying to get to the basket, and that Odom and Gasol and friends were soft on defense (as they have been most of the series), and that Boston did a great job on Kobe.

And what about Game 3? L.A. took the first 20 of 24 free throws and Kobe got to the line 18 times. The only noticeable item from this statistic is that the Celtics didn't whine about it after the game like Kobe and Phil did.

After reading so much of the crap - and that's exactly what it is - written by otherwise intelligent people, I realize (once again) that sportswriters and commentators have almost no idea as to what basketball referees do, or how they do it. You have to feel for a guy like Dick Bavetta and the rest of his colleagues in the NBA, who while they make mistakes (and generally not many), are the best at what they do in the hardest sport of them all to referee.

FIBA Makes the Giant Leap - Adopts NBA Rules for International Basketball

It's been slow, sometimes almost imperceptible, but over the past 20 years, basketball has become nearly the same game the world over - but yet there were still some slight differences.

But no more. The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) took the giant leap yesterday at its meetings in Beijing, when its highest executive body - the FIBA Central Board - announced a number of rule changes, which in effect, will make the international and NBA game virtually the same.

Even FIBA's press release referred to "historical changes", and indeed in one fell swoop, FIBA did a "copy and paste" from the NBA rule book to its own:

• Beginning October 1, 2010, you can forget about the "funny-looking" international court with the trapezoid 3-second area: it will be a rectangle just like the NBA's


• 3-point line will go from 6.25 m (20'6") to 6.75 m (22'2"); the NBA line is 6.71 m (22'0") from the baseline to the foul line, and 7.24 m (23'7") on the arc connecting the 2 lines


• Time-outs in the last 2 minutes of the game and in overtime: the ball will be taken out in the frontcourt at a point opposite the top of the 3-point arc (sound familiar?)


• Ball knocked out of bounds by the defensive team in backcourt: the offensive team will get a new 24-second clock; if in frontcourt and there is more than 14 seconds, the 24-second clock will stay as is; if 13 seconds or less, the 24-second clock will be reset to 14 seconds (sound familiar?)


• There will be a restricted circle underneath the basket where in most circumstances an offsenive foul cannot be called (also sound familiar?)

A number of other changes will go into effect beginning October, 2008 including:

1. No t-shirts under uniforms in any circumstances
2. A player who falls on the floor and slides while holding the ball will no longer be called for travelling
3. A player won't be deemed to be in frontcourt until two feet and the ball are in contact with the frontcourt (another direct steal from US rules - NBA and NCAA)
4. A technical foul can be called on a player for excessively swinging his elbows, even if no contact was made (another NBA rule)

The ONLY major difference that remains, as far as I can tell from the FIBA release, is that there is still no concept of a "cylinder" in international basketball, i.e. once the ball hits the rim, it's a free ball.

Given the innumerable Americans playing on teams in every league in almost every country around the world, this will certainly smooth the transition for everyone, and will also hasten the day coming soon when the NBA begins expanding globally.

For those who want to take a look at the FIBA press release: http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/p/newsid/24352/arti.html

Sometimes One Call Can Ruin an Evening...

Sometimes, it doesn't matter. You can have a great evening, making all the right decisions - and then one call ruins everything.

Such was the situation this evening at the Nokia Stadium in Tel Aviv in the quarter-final best-of-three third game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Barcelona, eventually won by Maccabi 88-75.

Situation: third quarter, Vontego Cummings (ex-Pitt) is guarding Barcelona's hot-shooting Italian guard, Gianluca Basile. Cummings wraps him up under the basket and drags him to the floor- no call! Basile understandably reacts emotionally and kicks back somewhat at Cummings - the two of them engage in some silly slapping at each other while players from both teams separate them, including Maccabi's Derrick Sharp and Esteban Batista, who have come off the bench to intervene. There were no closed fists, and no one even tried to throw a punch.

The referees snap into action and overrreact: Cummings and Basile are ejected, as well as Sharp and Batista. Barcelona is of course the big loser in all of this as Basile, their top scorer (25 ppg in the first two games of the series) heads to the locker room.

Oh, and one other problem: the referees forget to make sure that Batista knows that he's ejected and they leave him on the bench until the begnning of the 4th quarter, when they discover their mistake and send him, too, to the showers. No one understands quite why he has been ejected - very embarassing.

The whole thing was unnecessary. Cummings should have been called for the initial foul, and if anything, he and Basile could have been assessed unsportsmanlike fouls. Sharp and Batista were rightly tossed from the game - but their ejections were administered poorly, to say the least.

The NBA has very clear directives regarding these situations and would have taken care of this very simply: regular foul against Cummings, likely technicals against Cummings and Basile, and they would have stayed in the game. Sharp and Batista would have been tossed for coming off the bench. The key to throwing a player out is whether or not the hand becomes closed in a fist and a punch is thrown (whether it connects or not thereafter is irrelevant). I know Europeans are always wary of American "imperialism", but on matters of basketball officiating, the Euroleague could sometimes try to learn a few things from their American cousins.

Homage to Oscar Peterson

Another one of an era, Oscar Peterson, died today at age 82. He was the finest jazz painist of the age (you might argue that the pianist who influenced him most, Art Tatum, was better, but that's a matter of taste). I saw him once in concert (with my friend Jeff) playing solo at the Seattle Bumpershoot festival. Must have been about 30 years ago exactly. I love his recordings with Count Basie, and of course his trio recordings, always with Ray Brown on the bass, and Barney Kessel or Herb Ellis on the guitar. Most of the jazz greats of that era have now left us.

Here is the Wikipedia link for more information on Oscar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Peterson, as well as today's initial obit in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Obit-Oscar-Peterson.html?hp

There's still a lot of great jazz out there. Took my son Gil for his 16th birthday to the Tel Aviv Museum the other night to see Eric Alexander, truly one of the great tenor sax players around today. Doesn't matter how fast he plays - you can actually here EVERY note. Anyone interested should catch him some time at Smoke up on 106th in NYC, gernerally together with David Hazletine on the paino and John Farnsworth on the drums.

I'm back refereeing...(American football)

Some of you might be wondering where I've been since I wrote my first blog (on the other hand, of course, some of you may not have been wondering at all!). Truth is that I've had a bunch of posts in Hebrew but haven't taken the time to update my English blog.

Since my last post on Oct. 12, a lot of water has gone under the bridge. The basketball season is in full swing, some of the Euroleague (EL) referees continue to do whatever they want on the court mechanics-wise and the EL isn't looking too hot. CSKA Moscow and Panathinaikos of Athens are clearly head and shoulders above everyone.

Maccabi Tel Aviv is a weak 4-2 in the Euroleague - not only do they not look particularly good (they were shellacked 87-67 last night in the Israeli league by B'nei Hasharon - and it wasn't even that close), but they are a very gray team with little or no athleticism. OK, you can't have Anthony Parker (now starting with Toronto) all the time, but at least get a player who can create some excitement, make a big play, climb above the rim. Hapoel Jerusalem - playing without a 5 and clearly outclassed by Maccabi at this stage - has Timmy Bowers, ex Mississippi State, who while they don't always win, he gets his 6'4"-self way above the rim and gets the crowd going. The best Maccabi can do in terms of athleticism is Will Bynum, the Chicago high school legend out of Georgia Tech, who can also make more turnovers than Pillsbury.

But, I'm coming back to refereeing! Before you all get too excited, let me make it clear that I'm coming back to referee (drum roll please)..........American football! Yes, Israel has a regular tackle league, with four teams playing 8 on 8. I went to a game the other night in Tel Aviv to see the locals play Jerusalem's "Big Blue", and I have to say I was pretty impressed. Except for the Jerusalem team, which is made up mostly of Americans, the other teams are made up of young Israelis, who for the most part learned their football watching NFL all these years on Middle East TV or now on Fox Sports International.

Their fundamentals were rather exceptional - there was one false start the entire game (a lot less than most NFL teams) and a couple of encroachment penalties, and that was it. There were also some great open field tackles. A new immigrant to Israel, Eric Amkraut, who was formerly at Rutgers, has coached the teams and they've done the whole thing right. Even before they donned pads, Eric had them working on fundamentals - stances, cadences, lining-up, rules, blocking, tackling, etc. Doesn't matter that Jerusalem won 48-6 (Tel Aviv had the ball close on 3 occasions and didn't score). Steve Leibovitz, a long-time Jerusalemite from Queens, who in his other life heads up the Israel Broadcasting Authority's English News department, deserves all the credit for putting this together. Originally, Steve set up the flag football league and then spearheaded an effort to establish "Kraft Field" (yes, as in Bob Kraft, owner of the NE Patriots), which with its new synthetic grass, hosts 50 baseball and football games every week. I think this Jerusalem Post article covers the subject better than I ever could.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1195546698384&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Of course, I couldn't resist and this Saturday night I'm refereeing in the "Chanukah Bowl" between Jerusalem and Haifa. I haven't refereed football for about 30 years, since doing varsity high school games in Seattle, but it should be a lot of fun. They are actually expecting about 500 people to show up at the "Kraft".

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