ESPN article about coaches/officials

[rdelizo35]

Don't know if this has already been posted here, but with the referee scandal in the NBA, I thought it was relevant.

Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3483237

Credit: ESPN.

[Andrew]

It's concerning and the league would do well to monitor the situation and discourage the fraternising so no one is calling in favours but I wonder if it's a situation that balances itself out. A coach may have an official on his side but another may be hostile towards him and friendly with another coach, none of whom call every game for any one team. It's not right, but it's probably never given any one team any more of an advantage in officiating than simply having a star player on the roster (although that comes into play with the fraternising issues as well).