NBA League Pass: Does David Stern Own ESPN? …A Look Back at the OTHER Ref Scandal
June 19, 2008
Once again, congratulations to the Boston Celtics. Now please excuse the poor etiquette while I rain on the NBA’s and Boston’s parade today by bringing back the name Tim Donaghy. I’d be inclined to display better etiquette if ESPN was on their job.
Last week D-Wil covered much of ESPN writers initial reaction to Tim Donaghy’s recently exposed allegations of referees influencing games. Although there were some dissenters many ESPN writers like Marc Stein, Stephen A. Smith, and Ric Bucher all came out to dismiss Donaghy’s claims with a quickness that rivaled Stern himself. Either a) they are professionally influenced; b) they truly believe that Donaghy’s claims are bogus; or c) the foundation of the game is being threatened, and they want to protect the game they know and love from further harm. My best guess is option C, as it is easy for them to rationalize that “the ends justifies the means” instead of stating — at minimum – ”let’s investigate this further”.
A Strange Bedfellow: Last week also brought responsible media criticism from the most unlikely of sources — Jason Whitlock. Yes, even a broken clock is right twice a day, and this is what Whitlock had to say::
“The system is broken, and the one “media” organization — ESPN — that could provide significant pressure to enact dramatic change from sports leagues is in partner$hip with the leagues in question… ESPN, the worldwide leader, has no real interest in exhaustively examining Donaghy’s allegations. Not when there is a Barry Bonds or O.J. Mayo or Miguel Tejada to embarrass and expose. Why hold a league’s billion-dollar feet to the fire and jeopardize a lucrative relationship when you can cherry-pick cheating and lying athletes to blame for sports’ ills?”
Now it is hard to decide what is more shocking, just how much Whitlock nailed this point, or just how much audacity a pot is capable of addressing a kettle. Whitlock’s very first column for the Fox website was on August 16, 2007 — exactly one day after the Tim Donaghy scandal first broke. His reaction? He called NBA All-Star weekend “a black KKK rally”; bragged how he “dissed Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Vivian Stringer” (and called her “Nelson Womandela”); chastised Rutgers player Kia Vaughn for filing a lawsuit against Don Imus; and elaborated on Michael Wilbon’s“embarrassment” of a column that depicted racial tension experienced by Ball State coach Ronny Thompson. And that’s all in one article! …Yet nothing on Tim Donaghy.
His second FOX article brought mention of a black athlete’s out-of-wedlock children; Michael Vicks dog-fighting ring; the obligatory blaming of it on hip-hop: and the verdicts of OJ Simpson and Jayson Williams are used as exhibits to support “the myth of racism”. By his third article, he was thrilling bigots everywhere by playing defense lawyer for the Jena community. Tim Donaghy? Still not a word. I’d write three more paragraphs on this, but I’ve hijacked my own column enough (Damn that Whitlock!). Frankly, there are bigger fish to fry… like the ESPN empire.
The OTHER Referee Scandal: And that empire has given David Stern and the NBA a free pass. The only question is, does it come under David Stern’s direct orders. To really understand where ESPN stands, you would have to the most buried story in 2007. The results of the NBA’s internal referee investigation which announced on a lazy Friday a week before the season started. On September 26, Chris Sheridan completed ESPN’s lone article: NBA to Revamp Gambling Rules. Sheridan writes:
“Technically, it turns out every single current NBA referee has gambled in some form, after all — although none of them are going to be punished for it. And, strange as it may seem, those very same referees will now be permitted to gamble in a multitude of ways.” …Stern said an internal review had found that all of the league’s 56 referees violated the contractual prohibition against engaging in gambling, with more than half of them admitting to placing wagers in casinos. But Stern said none of the violations was major, and no referees had admitted to wagering in a sports book or with a bookie.”
The NBA received about the worst possible outcome of its own investigation. EVERY referee violated policy. The majority of refs had visited casinos. But since none of the them openly admitted to betting on any games, they will just have to be taken at their word… by David Stern AND by ESPN. In the article Stern states:
“Our ban on gambling is absolute, and in my view it is too absolute, too harsh and was not particularly well-enforced over the years,” Stern said. “We’re going to come up with a new set of rules that make sense.” …”It’s too easy to issue rules that are on their faith violated by $5 Nassau, sitting at a poker table, buying a lottery ticket and then we can move along,” Stern said. “And by the time I got through and I determined going into a casino isn’t a capital offense … I’m the CEO of the NBA and I’ll take responsibility.”
Reader reminder: These are King David’s words. The Czar. Mr. Letter of the Law. The man who once said about the Detroit brawl suspensions: “It’s a unanimous decision: 1 - 0″ (okay, power-tripping aside: it’s a great line!). When players takes two steps off of a bench in a playoff game, they are suspended, castigated by media for their inability to follow simple rules, and pleas for this very type of “spirit of the law” discretion are dismissed. Just ask Patrick Ewing and the Knicks about this rule in 1997? Or Amare Stoudemire and the Suns in 2007? This time around it was EVERY referee who stepped off the bench.
Now let’s not waste time on minor offenses such as lottery tickets (yes, that rule is absurd), and get right to the charge that the majority have frequented casinos. Now it may not be a “capital offense”, but can’t exactly be written off as jaywalking. Peoplewho go to casinos like to bet in casinos. And some people who like to bet in casinos often accumalate large debt in casinos. When regular folks get into serious debt, they don’t pay their bills, foreclose on their homes, or pawn off their wedding rings right outside the casino. When an NBA referee gets themselves into debt, they have options. Just ask Tim Donaghy. If an alcoholic wants to stay clean, it is wise not to hang out in bars. If you want to keep the NBA clean, you don’t want refs in casinos. Period.
Stern had the rule right the first time. And while he probably knows this, punishing or suspending the majority of referees one week before the season started was simply not a viable option. Not from a logistical or a public relations standpoint. Focus on this story would destroy the Donaghy as lone gunman narrative, and potentially destroy much more… So in an absolutely brilliant stroke of damage control, Stern flipped the script on EVERYBODY: hy changed the rules – effective RETROACTIVELY. The best commish in the business protected his investment because that is what businessmen do. And that is the reason we have this watchdog called “the media”. ESPN should have been all over this story — but they weren’t. Because as the NBA’s corporate partners — that is what businessmen do.
The lack of ESPN coverage to the story was amazing. Besides Sheridan and the original AP story, not one single ESPN website or mag columnists weighed in (note: I’m uncertain about ESPN’s semi-independent True Hoop). Not Chad Ford. Not John Hollinger. Not Stein. Not Bucher. Not Chris Broussard, and not any of ESPN’s “Page 2″ columnists. Outside of a couple of brief TV mentions that same day [1], the story disappeared. There would be no tailor-made-for-sports-TV-debates ongoing debates of: “is it right for Stern to have separate standards for players and refs” or “should referees be allowed to frequent casinos?” Not this time. And since ESPN often sets the tone for national sports discourse, rumblings were quiet outside of ESPN. One of the very few exceptions was SI’s Jack McCallum who tried to make sense of it all.
Proof of a Buried Story: With such an ESPN non-reaction on that Friday and Saturday, it could probably be deduced that ESPN staffers were given company orders not to write about the story. But before jumping to such conclusions, the case should be taken to the court of appeals: Sunday morning’s ESPN’s Sports Reporters (TSR) two days later. For those unfamiliar with TSR, it is a place where frequent pundits Mitch Albom and Mike Lupica can exude disgust, high-handed outrage and moral indignation no matter how minor the athlete transgression. TSR on gambling? When baseball player Paul Lo Duca’s hefty gambling debts came to light, it was the LEAD story (8/13/06). “Law and order” in the NBA?, Albom had this to say on the show (12/17/2006) about what kind of suspension Carmelo Anthony should receive for throwing a punch during a fight at Madison Square Garden:
“In the bigger picture – 10 games, 15 games, who cares in the regular season. I don’t think that sends any message to anybody. I think automatically with stuff like this, if your team makes the playoffs you miss the first round. You really want to send a message, you’re out for the first round. Carmelo Anthony can’t play in the first round of the playoffs. How do ya like that. All of a sudden somebody might think twice about it.”
Wow! The whole first round. If baseball and hockey has such a rule, there would be no playoffs at all! How do ya like that. And Albom stated his point three times just in case (with his typical tone of disgust and condescension). But rather than hijack my own article a second time with extended ”Albom in Wonderland” commentary, the bigger picture would be to see how Albom and others on TSR would handle this referee story. The answer: NOT ONE WORD. Not in the opening intros, not as a topical segment, and not in anyone’s final “parting shots”. After the show was over, it was 100% clear after the minimal and obligatory first day reporting, executive orders were given to bury the story. The only question is which executive? The specific answer doesn’t even matter. At the end of the day, ESPN will bury a story and David Stern got his wish. If it wasn’t Stern himself, it was top ESPN “company men” who don’t even need a directive.
ESPN will not use its considerable resources to investigate the NBA referees, you know the same way ESPN has been spending the last five months investigating if OJ Mayo received a pittance of some of Donaghy bets. Investigations on a broke 13 year old black youth gets greenlighted in ESPN’s world, while potential real league-wide scandals that can effect the entire league get buried.
Forced into Coverage: In Donaghy’s latest allegations which were written in a public court letter, ESPN was forced into extended coverage. In actuality, the New York Daily News broke the story more than two hours earlier while Sports on My Mind posted the story at least a full hour before ESPN. And while that updated article is currently titled 2002 Laker-Kings game at the Heart of Donaghy Allegations, it’s original version made no mention of the 2002 Lakers-Kings game, but said this instead:
“The letter also details an incident in the 2002 playoffs in which Donaghy alleges that two referees, who were known as NBA “company men,” wanted to extend a series to seven games. “Team 5″ could have wrapped up the series in Game 6 but lost two players to ejection, lost that game and ultimately the series. It is not clear which series this account refers to.”
Considering there was only one 7-game series that whole year, this was a major oversight at best, or a case of intentionally “playing dumb” to minimize the story at worst. But since this was one story that simply could not be buried, writers were given leeway to write about it. Once again, ESPN won’t do its job unless pushed by outsiders. Congress once made Mark McGwire sniffle before the world, the Mitchell Report exposed allegations against Roger Clemens, and the New York Daily News were the first to expose allegations on Rick Ankiel, Andy Pettitte, and many others. It was then and only then that ESPN was FORCED INTO COVERAGE. Actual Investigations? As Whitlock stated, those are reserved for the Barry Bonds’, Miguel Tejada’s, or OJ Mayos. All the while ESPN provides corporate partner David Stern and his referees with a free paid subcription to “NBA League Pass”.
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[1] On Pardon the Interruption, Dan le Batardwas the only pundit to bring up the great irony between Stern waving the rules, and his past “rule with an iron fist” behavior.
Comments
15 Responses to “NBA League Pass: Does David Stern Own ESPN? …A Look Back at the OTHER Ref Scandal”
Got something to say?
Y’all are breaking this shit down. Both pieces are excellent, excellent work. It’s time to write the book. ESPN is doing its job. It’s doing exactly what it did in baseball with the Mitchell Report. It never went after the league - it can’t. That’s the meal ticket. It’s the players that are expendable.
Since the topic of this discussion is the “business of criminality” — and that’s exactly what these leagues are engaged in - from the municipal strong-arming to get real estate downtown with little to no tax payments (Seattle, Cleveland, Indy, Baltimore, Charlotte, New Orleans, and on and on) to the routine fixing of games, the pattern is clear.
When 100% of your folks are gambling, you’ve got a problem. I don’t know what the national average is - it’s probably pretty high — especially if you could set up a control group of men, aged 40-55, with exposure to extreme amounts of cash, who don’t earn exhorbitant wages themselves. Referees and strip club owners would be at the top of the pile.
Somewhere AMG is yelling at the top of his lungs: “Bitch betta have my money.”
MODI is digging in folks’ asses again. You got down with this one man. I’ve heard some of the arguments before, but by compiling them and then showing the comoplicity of ESPN you really did something powerful.
Thanks BM and T3, I actually meant to write this after the ref story was buried in October, but I got real busy, too much time passed, and so I shelved it. I think that I read somewhere that the more detailed findings of the NBA’s internal investigation will be made more public AFTER Donaghy is sentenced. We will see.
But ESPN is definitely a partner on that buried story.
I remember this story back when it came out. I was always surprised that there wasn’t more outrage. Not really surprised about the WWL not reporting it. By them having interests in all of the major sports, they cherry pick what stories they run. The ones that damage the leagues, they don’t run with them as hard. The ones that can be blamed on a single individual, they run into the ground. The WWL doesn’t want to ruin its cozy relationships with the major sports leagues. Going in depth on some of the stories, might make the leagues mad and jeopordize ESPN’s chance to bid once the league is ready to re-up and leading them to some one else. It’s really a conflict of interest for ESPN to be reporting news on the leagues, and to be so heavily invested in them.
“The ones that damage the leagues, they don’t run with them as hard. The ones that can be blamed on a single individual, they run into the ground.”
…in a nutshell kos…
Modi stays on the bench. He does not play. Once again, kudos man for bringing inconsistent, or complete lack there of, of journalistic integrity. Between ESPN chronicling every exploit of the Pacman Jones’s and OJ Mayo’s of the world, it has become almost unwatchable. The absolute lack of vigor they have for sniffing out truth in the ref scandal is only contrasted by the almost three ring circus coverage of more than a few athletes who in the grand scheme of things, come no where close to the now palpable corruption exhibited by major sports organizations.
Let’s just blame it all on Michael Beasly not being 6′10″…
I was given this website address by another person and I have to commend you guys for your sports journalism and not being afraid to address issues and take stances that aren’t popular. Look forward to reading and commenting much more.
TLW, thanks for stopping by. We look forward to hearing your input.
Did you know that Bob Delaney was more than a decorated State Trooper. That description sounds like he made lots of TRAFFIC stops on the Turnpike. Oh, no. Much more than that. Bob Delaney was an UNDERCOVER COP who INFILTRATED an NJ MOB FAMILY in the 1970s for more than two years.
The NBA knew this when he was hired. They know it now — and ESPN should know it — but mums the word. It’s like the network’s consistent reference to McNamee as a “trainer” rather a former member of the New York City Police Department - as a man who wore the shield - as a man who swore to serve and protect - as a man who would be given the benefit of the doubt if he chose to plug 50 bullets into some Negroes.
Bob Delaney knows how to go deep. Is it not just a tad bit difficult to believe that the National Basketball Association (with its deep tentacles in Law Enforcement - Stern basically said they know everything before it happens) DID NOT contact the one referee BEST PREPARED to provide compelling, detailed, unassailable evidence on their behalf.
Bullet Bob Delaney - out of the shadows and into your hearts - sealed with a kiss, by the Czar of All that is Unholy About Hoops, David Stern The Terrible.
By the way - this is not to pass judgment on Delaney - far from it. It is to suggest that, as you’ve stated, the network continues to decontextualize information in order to remove leagues from greater scrutiny. Sad, but true.
The NBA doesn’t determines outcomes, rather they make games watchable by setting certain guidelines for refs to follow. Only an unwatchable, non-competitive series like the Cavs vs Spurs last year would be allowed to end in 4 games. They don’t want blowouts unless it’s a series ending game. I think this year they wanted the season to end as soon as possible so people won’t pay attention to the fix-it debacle created by Donaghy.
[…] made a couple of investigative phone calls here. But before I give too much credit to the network seemingly run by David Stern, could someone explain why they took down the “Outside the Lines” videos on the side […]
@Modi, I see you’re still keeping it real and speaking Truth to Wisdom. Way to go partner!
Im trying Cooley, I’m trying… don’t know if the powers are listening though…
always good to hear from you…
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