I have overheard more than a few Alicia Silverstone wannabes proclaim the NBA dead since the Tim Donaghy scandal broke.

In case you missed it, the league officially wiped its collective hands of the disgraced referee on Oct. 2 by releasing the results of a review of the league's embattled officiating program.

Donaghy, of course, received a 15-month prison sentence for his role in betting on NBA games.

Lawrence B. Pedowitz, a former chief of the Criminal Division in the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, was appointed by the NBA to review the officiating program and make recommendations.

Following a 14-month investigation, Pedowitz recommended significant changes, but found no evidence of illegal activity by any referees other than Donaghy.

The 116-page report recommended strengthening the NBA's anti-gambling rules, improving the enforcement of these rules and creating a "culture of compliance" among all league and team employees.

The report also recommended the league increase monitoring of games for suspicious activity, and should increase efforts to eliminate the perception of referee bias by making more information available about the referee program and increasing access to the referees by fans and media.

Pedowitz' last point is the one NBA commish David Stern should take to heart.

Even before Donaghy alleged that the NBA routinely encouraged refs to call bogus fouls in order to manipulate results, that's how most fans felt about the league's officials. Heck, even Mark Cuban thought that way.

Despite the fact that four or five NFL games a week are decided by men in striped shirts, and any Major League Baseball game can hinge on whether the home plate umpire decides to give some junkballer the outside corner, the perception has always been that NBA officials are the corrupt ones.

Donaghy only exacerbated things but at the end of the day, the crux of his story is a desperate man trying to save himself.

One of the great fallacies among your average do-gooder is that "people are basically good."

Gimme a break...

At the root of it all, survival at all costs is in the basic code of all of our DNA. When you grow up in a society that glorifies wealth, part of that survival instinct turns into selfishness. And that's how people morph into gluttonous, intemperate, narcissistic, self-aggrandizing monsters like Donaghy.

So I believe Stern when he calls Donaghy a rogue official. That doesn't mean I'm claiming other NBA games not related to him haven't been fixed over the years.

Scandal in sport has been around forever but the ever-increasing media scrutiny has made things better than ever. Boxers will always take dives and tennis players will always tank matches but you will never see a wide-ranging conspiracy in the four majors unless you're Oliver Stone.

However, while perception is often far greater than reality, common sense is the most underutilized tool in the American lexicon.

If David Stern ordered Joey Crawford, Steve Javie, Bob Delaney and Company to fix games, why in the world was 2007-08 the first time since 1987 that the league's two marquee franchises faced off in the finals?

Even Mel Gibson as Jerry Fletcher in Conspiracy Theory couldn't answer that one.

Stern needs to emphasize the obvious by heeding Pedowitz' advice and instituting absolute transparency in his officiating program.

This week the league is setting up its various "Off the Record" media availability for team beat writers and broadcasters where a crew chief is available to discuss this season's "points of emphasis."

That might be a good place to start.

Whether deserved or not, the NBA's reputation has been tarnished and Stern needs to do more to fix it.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@