David Stern Can Bite Me

I am sick and tired of NBA commissioner David Stern and his bullying antics. Last week, Jeff Van Gundy who coaches the Houston Rockets, complained about how the referees were calling falls on his player Yao Ming. It appears that after the first two games in the playoffs, the opposing team suggested to the league that Yao was committing illegal screens. The very next game he got called for these fouls. Van Gundy received an anonymous call from a referee who told him that they were instructed to give special attention to Yao and to call more fouls on him. When Van Gundy publicly complained about this mistreatment David Stern fined him $100,000. He also demanded that he reveal the name of the referee and threatened to kick him out of the league altogether if he did not provide the name.

Much has been said that the reason Stern is upset with Van Gundy is because he feels that his complaints give the NBA a bad name and make it look like games can be influenced by the referees. To which I say, yes the games are fixed and its about time somebody had the guts to say so. The real reason Stern is upset is because he is fearful of somebody exposing the leagues unfair approach to calling fouls on certain players and not calling fouls on other players.

The NBA is notorious for giving special treatment to their star players and for calling games so that teams from big cities do well. They are more concerned about TV ratings, Jersey sales and marketing their star players than they are about the fair treatment of teams and players. This is why Michael Jordan never fouled out of a game and why Shaq never gets called for charging even though he throws his shoulder into his opponent at every opportunity.

The NBA wants the Jordans and the Shaqs to do well. They also want LA, Chicago, and NY to win and will do whatever they can to manipulate the system to give them an advantage. Players who are not stars and who play for a small market team never get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to calling fouls. This is what makes it even more shocking that the Pistons were able to overcome this bias and beat the Lakers last year. To see this bias, one only needs to compare how the Pistons were treated by the NBA and the TV schedulers to how the Lakers were treated. If you didn't know better you would think the Lakers won last year because they were showcased and hyped by the league instead of the Pistons.

I hope Van Gundy sticks to his guns and tells David Stern what he can do with his $100,000 fine. Better yet, I hope he refuses to pay it. It would send a signal that the time has come for a change and help keep the spotlight on the NBA and their bias towards the teams they choose. The NBA would be much better off if they just called games evenly and treated each player the same. It would allow the best team to win and restore confidence to a lot of fans. David Stern's treatment of Jeff Van Gundy for daring to speak out on this chicanery does nothing more than fuel an already existing concern that the sport is corrupt.