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Results of the Pedowitz Report on the Integrity of NBA Officiating

This came in this afternoon.

                               PEDOWITZ REPORT RECOMMENDS
              SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO NBA OFFICIATING PROGRAM

   - No Additional Referees Found to be Involved in Criminal Activity -

NEW  YORK ,  October 2, 2008 - Lawrence B. Pedowitz issued his report to the
National Basketball Association regarding the league's anti-gambling rules,
policies,  and  procedures,  and  its officiating program.  Mr. 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  and  make  recommendations  on  these  matters  in  the wake of the
indictment and guilty plea of Tim Donaghy.

Following   a   14-month   investigation,   Mr.   Pedowitz  made  extensive
recommendations to improve the league's anti-gambling rules and officiating
program.   The  116-page  report  reflects  the  recommendations  and other
findings  by Mr. Pedowitz and his colleagues from the law firm of Wachtell,
Lipton,  Rose  & Katz.  A complete copy of the Pedowitz Report is available
at http://www.nba.com/media/PedowitzReport.pdf.

The  recommendations  made  by Mr. Pedowitz were substantial.  They include
strengthening  the  NBA's anti-gambling rules, particularly with respect to
the  disclosure  of  confidential information; improving the enforcement of
these  rules  and  creating  a "culture of compliance" among all league and
team  employees,  including through the reorganization of the management of
the  referee  program and the creation of an anonymous hotline for gambling
information;  increasing  the  league's  monitoring of games for suspicious
activity;  and  increasing the league's efforts to eliminate the perception
of  referee  bias,  including by making more information publicly available
about the referee program and increasing access to the referees by fans and
media.

NBA Commissioner David Stern, commenting on the Report, said:

"We  are  very  appreciative  of  the  effort by Mr. Pedowitz and his staff
considering  the  extraordinary  nature  of  the review.  Mr. Pedowitz, who
together  with  his  team conducted approximately 200 interviews, was given
the  broadest  possible  mandate  and was provided unfettered access to our
employees,  records,  data and video library to ensure the independence and
thoroughness of his report.

"We  welcome  the  recommendations  from Mr. Pedowitz in areas where we can
improve - all of which will be adopted, and many of which have already been
adopted,  including  the  hiring  of  Army  Major  General (Ret.) Ronald L.
Johnson  as  the Senior Vice President, Referee Operations.  These measures
are  a beginning, not an end.  We know that the NBA's success hinges on the
integrity of our sport and on competition that allows teams to win based on
their  own skill and performance.  We expect nothing less from our referees
than the highest level of accuracy, professionalism and integrity.

"I have asked Mr. Pedowitz to continue his service by reviewing our program
at   the   end   of  the  season  to  ensure  that  it  comports  with  his
recommendations and aspires to the highest levels of integrity."

Along  with  his  recommendations,  Mr.  Pedowitz  reported  the  following
findings:

·     He found no evidence that any NBA referee other than Mr. Donaghy bet
on NBA games or leaked confidential NBA information to gamblers, and no
evidence that phone calls between referee Scott Foster and Donaghy were
attributable to criminal activity.

·     He found no evidence that any referee miscalled a game to favor a
particular team or player, or that the League has asked referees to call
games to favor particular teams or players.

·     He found no evidence to support specific allegations of game
manipulation or misconduct made by Mr. Donaghy and his attorney in June
2008, including allegations regarding a 2005 playoff series between the
Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets and a 2002 playoff series between
the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings.

·     He found that a number of referees engaged in forms of gambling other
than betting on NBA games, in violation of League rules.  The League
previously decided not to discipline referees for these violations.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

 

1 recs | Comment 10 comments

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Thank you, Mr. Pedowitz

"Personally, I'd rather give an elephant a prostate exam on Chili Day." --Dave on rooting for the Lakers or Celtics

by MiledAnimal on Oct 2, 2008 4:00 PM PDT   2 recs

Apparently his investigation didn't include actually watching that game between the Kings and Lakers

I kid! I kid!… kinda :/

I know a lot of people won’t be satisfied with this and it doesn’t really totally wrap it up for me either, but I’m not sure what else they should do. I guess I feel like it’s time to act (i.e. give up on the NBA) or move on. Baaah baaah, yeah I know, I guess this one just isn’t worth stressing myself out over any more. It’s not like it’s election fraud or anything like that really matters.

by Gargen on Oct 2, 2008 5:26 PM PDT   0 recs

Does this mean we can all move on?

Blazers Edge has an alarmist vision

by tominhawaii on Oct 2, 2008 8:16 PM PDT   0 recs

hmmm

so engaging in some kinds of gambling is a violation of league rules. hmm

and some refs were found to have engaged in some of these kinds of gambling.

gosh I just don’t like the smell of the whole thing. something rotten big time went down in Denmark and I gotta say it wasn’t your ordinary run-of-the-mill bad apple rogue ref. I don’t buy that stuff for a minute. this was a system wide failure and a coverup.

but you know what? we are going to move on and heal and come together as a sports community (end sarcastic font). The league bosses have all the say anyway. Who are we? Just ordinary fans.

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

According to James Kunstler, who writes a well-respected if slightly profane financial blog whose title I cannot repeat here, "The Republicans must be clearly identified as the party that wrecked America... it's hard to imagine the American people giving the clean-up task to the very group that created the mess -- no matter how many cute little faces Sarah Palin can make on TV."

by vavoom on Oct 2, 2008 9:15 PM PDT   1 recs

If you want more info

It’s on page 35 of the report. It even says what kind of gambling the refs were involved in and exactly why Stern decided not to discipline them.

by Gargen on Oct 2, 2008 10:27 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

I remember

That a lot were betting when they played golf or cards.

Blazers Edge has an alarmist vision

by tominhawaii on Oct 3, 2008 11:34 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Hillarious Picture!

Why am I not suprised and/or relieved by these results? Hmm….“He found no evidence that any referee miscalled a game to favor a particular team or player” Huh? evidently Mr. Pedowitz scathing and indepth investigation didn’t include any footage of how many steps Kobe get’s to take, in comparison to a Webster. Forget the 2002, 2005 playoff’s, how about some evidence form 2000 Shaq vs. Sabonis. In the big games Sabonis wasn’t allowed to breath on Shaq.

Why when I read the results do I get the subconcious picture of Kernel Klink and Shultz? I picture a nervous, sweaty foreheaded Kernel Klink as David Stern next to a Pedowitz Schultz, “I know nothing, I see nothing!”

The officiating needs to improve. I have to laugh though as one of the recomendations is " increasing access to the referees by fans" this seems to me just to be a bad idea. Yep being a ref is a tireless, thankless job. Just do the best you can I don’t really want more access unless it’s a dunk tank.

"Mother Nature started this fight, I think it's about time we ended it!"

by Krang on Oct 3, 2008 1:41 AM PDT   0 recs

This is not a small thing.

As much as I love the NBA, this ref thing is one of the few things which taints my love for the NBA.

Is it a big thing? YES!!!

Having a level playing feild is an absolute must. If we don’t have one, it’s the same thing as the old time merchant who has a fraudulent scale to measure out goods to his customers. The league should be ferociously protective of the integrity of their product, and this strikes at the very heart of it.

I would rather see the impression of the league going overboard in eforcing integrity among officiating, and calling games fair both ways. Instead we see this token response. It’s short sighted.

The NBA could be absolutely huge (like the NFL), if it took hold of the greatness in it’s product. I won’t go into my list of potential NBA improvements, but they should see this as a high priority.

by GoBlazersWIN on Oct 3, 2008 10:25 AM PDT   0 recs

(not really...it just seems appropriate)

“The 116-page report reflects the recommendations and other findings by Mr. Pedowitz (the brother-in-law of NBA commisioner David Stern) and his colleagues from the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rose & Katz”

by two4larue on Oct 3, 2008 12:40 PM PDT   0 recs

all lies

and stern and his flunkies know it too !!!!

by fatty on Oct 3, 2008 4:02 PM PDT   0 recs

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