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...NBA takes the less-than-stellar image of its referees very seriously. But when the league announced in July that it was putting a two-star Army general in charge of its officiating, the jokes started flying. Even the refs themselves can't resist corny quips. "You know, instead of getting cups of water over at the [scoring] table, we're going to get a canteen," says 32-year veteran ref Joey Crawford. "If you screw up a play, are you going to go down and do 100 push-ups?" Ronald Johnson, the retired general whom the league hired...
...liners, the challenges facing the general are no joke. As the NBA tips off its 2008-'09 regular season this week, Johnson will inherit a demoralized group of referees who have taken a public beating in the fallout from the Tim Donaghy scandal. In August of 2007, Donaghy, a veteran NBA official of 13 years, pleaded guilty to two felony charges related to gambling. He admitted to passing along inside information about referee-player relationships and the physical condition of players to gamblers in exchange for cash. He also copped to betting on basketball games himself, and was ultimately sentenced...
...Though federal prosecutors did not press charges on these allegations, and the NBA just released an independent report that refutes Donaghy's claims, the damage to referee credibility was done. "We were shaken," says Crawford, who himself came under fire in the spring of 2007 for jawing with and unnecessarily ejecting San Antonio Spurs star Tim Duncan from a game. (Crawford was suspended for the 2007 playoffs, and he now admits that he "overreacted" with Duncan.) Crawford, describing the blow to his profession's reputation, says, "It was almost like you were in shock. You find yourself constantly defending yourself...
...Gators and the '03 USC Trojans, had multiple cases. And football is by no means the only sports victim. The infection kept Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Alex Rios out of the 2006 All-Star Game. A few days later another Toronto player caught it, and the clubhouse was disinfected. NBA players Paul Pierce, Grant Hill and Drew Gooden have had it. Staph killed a high school wrestler in California this summer, and last spring 15 students at a Pennsylvania high school were either treated for staph or symptoms caused by the virus...
...Though it's far too early to measure the full impact of the financial turmoil, some distressing signs have already crept onto the field. Because of worries about the U.S. economy, the NBA is eliminating about 80 jobs, or 9% of the league's workforce, and it shuttered its Los Angeles office. Commissioner David Stern has predicted a "modest" decline in season-ticket sales, though sales in some markets, like Houston, are strong. "I will say that corporate sponsors are a bit later than usual coming to the party," says Houston Rockets CEO Tad Brown. "That's the one area...