Mike Sanzere, a local official who works college basketball games in six different leagues, including the Big Ten and the Big 12, fears that the Donaghy scandal will affect the way fans view officials from all sports, not just basketball.
“It will have a trickle-down effect all the way across the board,” Sanzere said. “Guys that do high school games will hear about it. It’s a black eye for officiating across the board.”
Sanzere, 55, has been working college basketball games for 29 years. He said he has never known an official who has taken money to affect the outcome of games. In fact, he says, this is the first time he has ever heard of anything like this on any level.
And although from a distance it may seem that it would be fairly easy for a basketball official to affect the outcome of a game, Sanzere said it would be more difficult than people think.
“You would have to get to all three of the officials, or at least two of them,” Sanzere said, “because if it was just one guy on a three-man crew, he would stick out like a sore thumb.
“The one thing you talk about all the time is consistency. If there’s a call at one end of the floor and the same situation develops it has to be the same way at the other end of the floor. If you’ve got a guy making calls differently than the other two, that guy’s going to stick out.”
Mathis said this situation could have avoided if the NBA took officiating more seriously and had instituted more effective means of policing and observing them. Too many times, Mathis said, the league employs supervisors and observers who aren’t qualified to judge the officials.
He also said the league has done a poor job of enforcing its standards, allowing some officials to get by without enforcing all the rules the way they were written.
“All of this great overseeing and teaching you know is a bunch of lip service,” Mathis said. “I’ve always said if you’re running a business, there’s three things you do: Hire the right people. Teach and train the right people and then you hold them accountable. The NBA fails in all three.”
As damaging as these allegations could be to the NBA, to the game of basketball and to sports in general, both Mathis and Sanzere are convinced that if they are true, Donaghy is an isolated case.
And Sanzere believes that despite the fact that fans yell so many invectives at officials, most of them believe that referees try to be fair and accurate.
He would hate to see that trust diminished.
“The people that know the game realize how hard something like that would be for somebody to fix a game,” Sanzere said. “They give a lot of credence to how difficult a game it is, especially basketball. The bodies are so big, the kids are so quick, you referee on instinct.
“I don’t see how you could go in, as quick as the game is and make a call that wasn’t what you thought was right in order to cover a point spread. That’s so foreign to me, I can’t imagine it.”
“It will have a trickle-down effect all the way across the board,” Sanzere said. “Guys that do high school games will hear about it. It’s a black eye for officiating across the board.”
Sanzere, 55, has been working college basketball games for 29 years. He said he has never known an official who has taken money to affect the outcome of games. In fact, he says, this is the first time he has ever heard of anything like this on any level.
And although from a distance it may seem that it would be fairly easy for a basketball official to affect the outcome of a game, Sanzere said it would be more difficult than people think.
“You would have to get to all three of the officials, or at least two of them,” Sanzere said, “because if it was just one guy on a three-man crew, he would stick out like a sore thumb.
“The one thing you talk about all the time is consistency. If there’s a call at one end of the floor and the same situation develops it has to be the same way at the other end of the floor. If you’ve got a guy making calls differently than the other two, that guy’s going to stick out.”
Mathis said this situation could have avoided if the NBA took officiating more seriously and had instituted more effective means of policing and observing them. Too many times, Mathis said, the league employs supervisors and observers who aren’t qualified to judge the officials.
He also said the league has done a poor job of enforcing its standards, allowing some officials to get by without enforcing all the rules the way they were written.
“All of this great overseeing and teaching you know is a bunch of lip service,” Mathis said. “I’ve always said if you’re running a business, there’s three things you do: Hire the right people. Teach and train the right people and then you hold them accountable. The NBA fails in all three.”
As damaging as these allegations could be to the NBA, to the game of basketball and to sports in general, both Mathis and Sanzere are convinced that if they are true, Donaghy is an isolated case.
And Sanzere believes that despite the fact that fans yell so many invectives at officials, most of them believe that referees try to be fair and accurate.
He would hate to see that trust diminished.
“The people that know the game realize how hard something like that would be for somebody to fix a game,” Sanzere said. “They give a lot of credence to how difficult a game it is, especially basketball. The bodies are so big, the kids are so quick, you referee on instinct.
“I don’t see how you could go in, as quick as the game is and make a call that wasn’t what you thought was right in order to cover a point spread. That’s so foreign to me, I can’t imagine it.”
