Solving the NBA Ref Problem

The Tim Donaghy scandal has rocked the NBA and rightly so. Bill Simmons has a very good column on the situation. What Simmons does not discuss, however, is a way to prevent this from happening again. I have a simple solution.

The NBA should have a pool of former coaches, players and referees whose integrity is beyond question (say like a Bob Cousy or Dave Bing). The NBA would have each NBA game reviewed by three people (a former coach, former player and former referee of college or pro experience). Only the NBA front office would know who was assigned to each game. The former players, coaches and referees could view the game from the comfort of their own homes and via a Tivo like set up be able to have VCR type controls so that they could rewind, replay, etc. The trio of reviewers would independently make notes of any calls they thought were in error or excessive. If two of the three reviewers flagged the same play - it would be reviewed back at NBA HQ. If a ref was constantly being flagged - then he would be hitting the bricks.

This would be a simple sort of quality assurance for the NBA. This would not only help catch crooked refs like Tim Donaghy (allegedly) but also weed out the refs who just aren't good at doing their jobs. Say if the pay for the reviewers was $2,000 per game - the home team, the visiting team and the NBA HQ could each pony up $2,000 to cover the expense. It would be a small price to pay for keeping the integrity of the NBA intact.