What's Going On Elsewhere In Sports...?

It's interesting for hockey fans right now to sit back and watch the other sports receive potshots about how they do business, isn't it? You've got Barry Bonds juiced up like The Kool-aid Man and his chase of what Bob Costas believes is the most sacred record in sports, the all-time home run record.. . You have Mike Vick and his affinity for dogfights. You've got Pacman Jones and his magnetic ability to attract the police to everything he does short of brushing his teeth. And now, you have Tim Donaghy and his alleged gambling issues, mob ties, and whether or not he has shaved points in NBA games he refereed over the past few seasons. Fun times all around, eh?

A lot of people are talking about this crooked NBA referee and whether or not this kind of thing could happen in other sports. Well, of course it could. The game officials are constantly disrespected by the players and they make a lot less money than the athletes do. Hell, in the NFL, the guys who officiate NFL games aren't even full-time employees! No other sport generates the kind of money that the NFL does and they can't even find the cake to pay these guys full-time salaries or take proper care of the players from the past who built the league into what it is today. That makes them vulnerable. All it might take is for someone to wave a couple of bucks under a truly frustrated official's nose to set the thing in motion. To think any differently is naïve.

The big trouble that could come from all of this as far as the NBA is concerned is going to be when Tim Donaghy finally gets around to spilling his guts about what has gone down in regards to his habit. David Stern has to be petrified that Donaghy will give the FBI another referee's name as being part of this mess. It will be even worse if he names a player or anyone else from the NBA offices. Stern is always so good and so smooth when he is trying to diffuse a crisis (taking notes, Vince McMahon?) and yet he has to be worried that there's going to be more names or more innuendo that comes out when Donaghy finally gets around to talking to the feds. Let's not forget that this isn't an investigation by the NBA. It's the freaking FBI. David Stern has no control over what information is released to anyone, including himself. He is at the will of the government's disclosure.

This whole gambling issue rocks the very core of all sports. We take it for granted that the calls made in any sport are on the up-and-up because the officials have to be impartial for the game itself to have any credibility.. Basketball has always seemed to be governed by what used to be called The Jordan Rules (stars get preferential treatment) and the issue with Donaghy lends credence to anyone who has ever thought that the referees "screwed" their team out of a victory. Besides, aren't we all wondering how could this referee--who had previously been investigated for irrational, erratic, and volatile behavior, even been allowed to keep his job--when you consider that he also was under investigation for gambling as well? And why, exactly, was he refereeing playoff games (and game with playoff implications) when he was under suspicion of possibly gambling on games he was officiating?

How does this relate to the NHL? Well, perception is a very powerful reality. Again, if this sort of thing could go on in the NBA, it could happen in any sport. I am sure hopeful that the NHL screens their officials and performs background checks on all of their employees since the devastation that was (and is) the mess with John Spano. And if they haven't beefed up their screening process, well then, they leave themselves wide open for something like this NBA issue to happen under their own noses. David Stern can tell the world what he knew and when he knew it all he wants but hockey is judged on a different standard because so many in the mainstream media are prejudiced against it. Bettman was under the radar with the mainstream media, for the most part, during the Spano scandal. Now, with the media ready to pounce on the next headline-producing scandal, he and the league have better make sure something like this doesn't happen to the game we love. The NHL has taken too many hits of late and this is one that would be tough to come back from.

Let's also not forget that Rick Tocchet is still out there in limbo--still suspended by the league. Wayne Gretzky's assistant coach was spotted playing in the World Series of Poker a week or so ago. Not the best message you want to send when you're hopeful of getting back into hockey; let alone the suspect in a high-stakes gambling ring that implicated the wife of the greatest player of all-time. Again, not the best decision to make if you're trying to alter the common perception that you may have been doing something wrong.

Gambling is a part of life and a part of the sporting culture. Whenever competitive people are around, you're going to have some people who are going to want to make the mundane exciting. Why not put a little money on it? And it isn't even an issue with just sports in North America. Italy was rocked by a very public scandal involving a referee who was implicated for rigging a game he was officiating. The Pakistani cricket coach died in very odd circumstances after his team lost to a much lower-ranked opponent in the Cricket World Cup. Charles Barkley has been frank with his gambling ability...or lack thereof. And of course, the rumors that Michael Jordan quit the NBA to play baseball was a smokescreen concocted by Stern and Jordan to camouflage a gambling-related suspension just don't go away.

Which leads us back to the NBA. When one referee has been compromised, the specter of others perhaps being similarly influenced is going to hang over the game (and other sports) for years to come. It took 20 years for college basketball to matter again after the City College point-shaving scandal in the 1950s. Any NBA fan watching a game now is going to be doing so with the stereotypical jaundiced eye. The implication of one man and his weakness taints the entire profession--and like I said--that fact is just not going to just dry up and fly away. It's going to be bowling-shoe ugly for the National Basketball Association.