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Nado Natterings |
A weekly column by David Axelson |
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Nado Natterings
by David Axelson, Chief Executive Officer
The Islander Sports Foundation
25 July 2007 Issue #28
National Basketball
Association Referee Tim Donaghy has
been accused of placing bets on games he officiated, and of making calls that may
have impacted the final scoring margins of regular season and playoff games.
Allegedly Donaghy amassed a large gambling debt and was approached by people
with mob ties to influence game results.
The public relations fallout regarding
Donaghy’s indiscretions, who has resigned his position with the NBA and is
currently under investigation by the FBI, has been immediate and aggressive.
The general line of thought is ‘If we can’t trust the officials, who can we
trust?’
Fortunately for the sake of
this column, Your Natterer has an
impeccable and easily accessible source on professional roundball refereeing,
my father Joe Axelson, who was the
NBA Vice President of Basketball Operations from 1980-83 and the creator of the
referee assessment system still in place today. His job description was
basically to deal with all on-court basketball issues, including direct
supervision of game officials. Although Donaghy apparently slipped through a
fissure in the system, the measures the NBA takes to keep the game clean and
the players and referees above reproach are considerable.
“There is a staff of three in
the league office, headed by a former FBI guy, who checks on the security in
the buildings, the players and the referees,” Axelson said. “In addition, there
is one guy similarly trained and on retainer in every NBA city. They examine
every phase of security including where the players stay and what they do. The
three-man referee crews are rotated every game and they never work with the same
people. Every rumor regarding trouble in the game is double and triple checked.
Anything they hear is checked out.”
Axelson, a long-time
The NBA’s due diligence
extends to close supervision and a thorough review of the games. “The officials
are observed every game they work,” Axelson continued. “They are observed in
person and the games are taped. All of the tapes are reviewed by someone in the
league office. The teams don’t know who is going to be there officiating the
game until 10 minutes before the game starts when the referees arrive at the
scorer’s table. The referees can’t stay in the same hotels the teams do and
their monthly assignment schedules are never published. They can’t tell anyone
where they are going. They don’t work more than three days in a row and on the
senior officials work 80 games a season, which averages three games a week.”
Senior NBA referees earn in
the neighborhood of $350,000 per year, plus a generous travel allowance and
additional compensation for each playoff game worked. Donaghy, 40, had worked
13 seasons in the NBA, refereeing a total of 20 post-season games, five of them
during the 2007 playoffs. Perhaps a sign of the times is that a recent Google
search for ‘Tim Donaghy’ yielded 648,000 mentions and that’s not positive news
for the NBA.
The public normally associates
game-fixing with
Finding referees, even at the
highest level of the game is difficult, according to Axelson. “NBA officials
are trained to not call things that don’t affect play. It’s very hard to find
officials who don’t call everything. People aren’t going to pay money to see a
free throw contest. Only experienced officials work the playoffs and they are
watched very carefully. Referees are fined, although the fines aren’t
announced. They are fined for rules and personal mistakes, such as showing up
to a game late. From one to five officials are let go every year due to low
ratings. They are paid a lot of money and they are highly paid to reduce any
consideration of cheating.”
When asked the best referees
he saw work in his long tenure in the NBA, Axelson said, “Mendy Rudolph and Darryl Garretson. As far as controlling
things and using common sense they were the best. They knew people didn’t buy
tickets to see them officiate.”
Having spent a dozen years in
the NBA myself, in the employ of the Sacramento Kings and Miami Heat, I have
been around NBA Commissioner David Stern
on several occasions. Generally considered the strongest and most effective
league head in professional sports, Stern will bring his considerable intellect
and no-nonsense approach to cleaning up the Donaghy scandal. When confronted by
similar challenges in the past, the Detroit Piston-Indiana Pacer brawl at the
Palace of Auburn Hills a couple of seasons back as an example, Stern has always
hit the right buttons. Bet (no pun intended) he does the right thing again.
San Diego Padre Playoff Run Starts Now
Paraphrasing author Tennessee Williams, ‘through the
kindness of strangers’ the Natter Wife
and I attended the Padres vs. Phillies game Sunday, only to see the hometown
favorites fall by the score of 9-0. Truly the highlight of the outing was a
visit to the newly-installed Tony Gwynn
statue located deep beyond the centerfield fence.
According to friend and fellow
Rotarian Steve Duermeyer, who
moonlights as an usher at
The news regarding the Padres
is a little less heartening, as they posted a 3-4 record on their latest home
stand. More to the point, their ace Jake
Peavy, who was unhittable early in the season, was roughed up early and
often by a strong lineup of Philly hitters.
Peavy is sure to return to
form, but the Padre offense, which has flirted with disaster for the past
several months now has officially hit rock bottom. Their team batting average
of .242 is now 30th out of the 30 teams in the Major Leagues, a full
point behind the anemic Chicago White Sox offense. They are also tied for 27th
place in runs scored. Generally speaking when your shortstop (Khalil Greene for the Padres) leads
your team in home runs, you are experiencing a severe power outage in your
lineup.
Padre Manager Bud Black, although keeping a positive
public approach regarding his club to the media, has to know in his heart of
hearts that he is riding into battle with a lineup that needs a major infusion
of offensive talent to compete. I believe that Black, much like his predecessor
at the Padre helm Bruce Bochy, has
produced amazing results with a mid-level amount of talent.
In short, when things go
downhill, the role of the manager keeping things positive in the dugout assumes
added importance. Black will earn his post season ‘Manager of the Year’
accolades if he can right the Padres ship, especially if no assistance is
forthcoming from the Padres ownership and front office.
Athletic Physicals for CHS and CMS
Athletes
The 2007-08 athletic season physicals will be given
Student-athletes with last
names beginning with the letters A-L will start at
The cost for the physicals is
$15 per student or $25 for two students from the same immediate family. The fee
is $10 per student for three or more students from the same family. All
proceeds from the athletic physicals are donated by the physicians to the
operation of the athletic training room at
Prior to the exams, the
two-page athletic physical form found at IslanderSportsFoundation.com, should
be downloaded and all of the questions on page one should be completed. Both
pages of the physical form should be brought to the exam. Checks should be made
payable to: The Islander Sports Foundation.
Scott Meloche, director of Majors Baseball and facilities manager
for Coronado Little League provides an overview of the 2007 season. “The future
of baseball in
All three of the championship
teams from Minors, Majors, and Juniors advanced to the
championship game of the District 32 Tournament of Champions. This is a local
tournament within the District, which puts championship teams from each
division into a single elimination tournament. The Express (Minors), the Padres
(Majors) and the Nationals (Juniors) all won the first
three games of the tournament. It looked like CLL could bring home three flags
on one night.
Following the Tournament of
Champions, the All-Star Season begins. CLL sent four teams to each of the District
Level Championships. These consisted of the 9 and 10 age group, 11’s, 12’s (the
group that advances to
The 11 year-olds surprised
many by picking up two key wins in district play before bowing out with a 2-2
record. The team was managed by Scott
Smith and coached by Bruce Shepherd.
The 12 year-olds got off to an
amazing 4-0 start to quickly advance to the winner’s bracket championship. They
ran into a tough Scripps Ranch National team that came through the loser’s
bracket to defeat us twice and claim the District title.
The 13-14 year-olds advanced
to the semi-finals compiling a 3-2 record. The team was managed by Jeff Bunker and coached by Scott Meloche.
The 9 and 10 year olds were
the highlight of the season. Managed by Mike
Kachigian, along with coaches Mark
McNary and Alan Sappenfield, our
CLL ‘little guys’ dominated the District 32 tournament with five straight
wins to bring home the District flag. They then advanced to the Section 6
tournament, which was held in
This event brings together
three other District champions from throughout
Please visit
Coronadolittleleague.org for the latest CLL baseball news and upcoming winter
ball information.