Mathis: Monitoring System is Flawed

Discussion in 'NBA General' started by Shapecity, Jul 25, 2007.

  1. Shapecity

    Shapecity S2/JBB Teamster Staff Member Administrator

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    <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">David Stern insists the safeguards were in place to ensure that his crew of 60 NBA referees is the best qualified, best trained, best prepared and best supervised group of officials in the world.

    Mike Mathis claims that is merely lip service, and he is willing to cite examples.

    The former NBA official, widely regarded as one of the league's best referees over 26 seasons until his retirement in 2002, said the Tim Donaghy fiasco results at least partly from Stern's systemic failures, and what Mathis said is the league's "policy" of putting cronyism ahead of competency.

    "The NBA has a good ol' boy system that nobody talks about," he said in an interview. "They hire friends and friends of friends. . . .particularly in the case of hiring referee supervisors.

    "This has been waiting to go off. Ask people in the league. Stern is holding the key to all hiring. The things that matter -- hiring, teaching, accountability -- if they were executed properly, this wouldn't have happened."

    The league refused comment on nearly a half-dozen specific allegations from Mathis, who admittedly had a contentious relationship with Stern when he was an officer in the referee's union. But Mathis said his attention was jolted by one remark from the commissioner yesterday during his press conference called to address the allegations surrounding Donaghy.

    "We have retained 30 observers, one at each of our team's games," Stern said. "They are in effect charting the game with respect to the calls and other observations that they make. They then review the game on tape. They then are audited -- not every game -- but selectively audited by the group supervisors that we have employed by the NBA."

    The problem, Mathis claims, is with the group, or regional supervisors.

    "They say they have qualified supervisors, but it's all bull," Mathis said. "They were once referees, and they were fired. These are guys who should be teaching and training refs, but they have no business in those positions." </div>

    Source: NJ Star Ledger
     
  2. Anton

    Anton JBB JustBBall Member

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    The hiring is the funny part. Aren't there 4 or 5 big-name refs in the NBA from the same Philadelphia High School? The same High School Donaghy attended? Sounds like one hell of a coincidence.
     

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