If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I would encourage you to take an hour or so (it’s about 130 pages) and go through the Pedowitz Report, the document prepared by Lawrence B. Pedowitz for the NBA in regard to referee conduct.

It’s interesting and revealing. You will learn a lot about how carefully the league attempts to monitor and evaluate its officials. I used to think refereeing in the league would have been a fun career, but after reading about the layer after layer of evaluation and scrutiny these guys have to undergo for every call they make, I’ve decided it sounds like a miserable job. You have no idea how many people are looking over their shoulders.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life it’s that the only thing worse than having a job where you have to make a great many difficult calls is a job where you get second-guessed a lot on all those difficult calls.

If you read the report, you’ll find out how exact they’ve attempted to make this very inexact science. There is even some explanation of the proprietary software the league uses to link video clips and game statistics so that individual blame can be assessed to each call during a game.

And you’ll also learn that you shouldn’t invite Dick Bavetta and Bob Delaney to the same party. If you’re an NBA fan, it’s a must-read document.

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