The Refs Cry Foul

Lakers executive vice president Jerry West gasped in horror on the night of April 9 when his young point guard, Nick Van Exel, shoved referee Ron Garretson into a scorer's table in Denver. It was a blatant act of stupidity that blackened the eyes of the storied Lakers franchise and the National Basketball Association. West was so upset, said team sources, that he vowed that either Van Exel or forward Cedric Ceballos, who went AWOL from the team last month, would be gone by next season—maybe both. "This is the low point of the Lakers organization," West said late last week.

Maybe not. Forty-eight hours after West spoke, during the Lakers' game against the Suns on Sunday, his elder point guard, Magic Johnson, who had strongly condemned Van Exel's actions, was ejected for bumping official Scott Foster with his upper arm after approaching him for an explanation on a non-call. The two Lakers incidents, combined with Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman's head-butt of referee Ted Bernhardt last month, has left the league with a public relations migraine.

"This is the NBA's fault, pure and simple," said one incensed referee, who, per order of his union, the National Basketball Referees Association, cannot speak for attribution. "What are they waiting for? For one of these guys to haul off and belt me in the face? What good is some bogus fine going to do if I walk off the court with a broken nose?"

Fred Slaughter, general counsel for the referees' union, has requested a special meeting with NBA executives before the playoffs begin next week. In a written statement, Slaughter said the referees were "extremely concerned and appalled by the recent occurrence and subsequent escalation in physical abuse of referees by NBA players."

However different their offenses, Van Exel and Johnson were relatively unchastened. Van Exel defiantly suggested Garretson's tumble was "a good Hollywood job." Johnson claimed Foster, who has been in the league two years, should have explained the non-call, insisting, "It never would have happened with a veteran official. I was wrong, and so was he for not talking to me."

Rodman received a six-game suspension and a $20,000 fine for the head-butt. Van Exel's transgression earned him a seven-game suspension and a $25,000 fine, a punishment many viewed as too lenient. That included the Lakers brass; thus it may be the first time in league history that the player's team favored a stiffer penalty than the one meted out.

Rod Thorn, the NBA's senior vice president of basketball operations and the man who administers the punishment, explained that Van Exel's actions were deemed comparable to Rodman's head-butt, only a little more extreme. "In 49 years we never had any incident involving this kind of physical contact with an official," Thorn said. "We're literally writing the laws as we go."

Rodman was amused by Van Exel's punishment. "The league's hands were tied," he said. "They had no choice. If they would have given him $10,000 and three or four games, I would have pitched a fit. The league had to make a statement. I had to be the guinea pig. Now whoever touches a referee, it's got to be six games or more, no matter who it is."

Not exactly. Johnson claimed his contact was "accidental," but given the current climate, he should have known enough to avoid any contact, intentional or otherwise. On Monday the league slapped Johnson with a three-game suspension and a $10,000 fine.

If teams feel poor refereeing is even partly to blame for the assaults, no one was willing to say. After surviving replacement officials during last autumn's lockout of league referees, said one general manager, "We're happy to have these guys, even if they aren't perfect."