Allen: Contrasting styles

With the NBA Finals in full swing, I continue to be amazed at the contrasting commissioner-ing styles of David Stern and Roger Goodell.

Both have had to deal with high profile scandals which would appear to jeopardize the integrity of the sport. The way each one has handled the scandals couldn't be more different.

Goodell of course, has spent almost a year dealing with the "Spygate" scandal. The New England Patriots were caught redhanded illegally recording another teams signals from the sideline. Partly because of the dominance of the Patriots this decade, the incident blew up into a huge maelstrom, with pundits from every corner weighing in to charge the Patriots with cheating, to call their past success into question and to call for heavy sanctions and suspensions to be levied. Commissioner Goodell issued plenty of terse, tough statements, and ultimately fined the Patriots heavily and took away a draft choice. He also destroyed the tapes and evidence from the case, leaving himself and the league wide open to charges of a cover up.

When the subject would come up over the course of the season, Goodell had clearly never fully moved on. He referenced it whenever possible, and made tough threats about what would happen if he found out that there was more to the case. Of course, this only opened up speculation that, you know, there actually WAS more. He never made any effort to squash this speculation. When the story came out the day before the Super Bowl alleging that the Patriots had taped the Rams walk through prior to Super Bowl XXXVI (a story which has since been proven false and retracted) Goodell again did not publicly dismiss the allegations, but rather stated what he would do if evidence emerged that the charges were true. During the entire process, he seems to have actually enjoyed playing the role of the tough guy, and making the threats against hypothetical situations.

Last summer news broke that NBA referee Tom Donaghy had ties to organized crime and gambling, and that he had actually influenced the outcome of games using his power as a league official. Almost immediately, NBA Commissioner David Stern was before the cameras in a press conference which went on for two hours. In that session, Stern squashed any notions that the league's integrity was in question, choosing rather to focus on the fact the Donaghy at the moment was in quite a bit of trouble and was likely just talking in an effort to save his own skin. The press grilled him pretty good that day, but Stern stood up there, firm and never for a moment appearing to show the least bit of self doubt about the situation and the impact on the league. Within a matter of days, the incident, which was much more serious than "Spygate" all but disappeared. Stern had given them answers. Whether it all was truth didn't really matter, all that matter was that their questions were given a solid, firm response.

Think about it, on one hand you've got a team taping the signals of another team. Stealing signs is something that goes on in all sports, and has gone on pretty much from the beginning. What the Patriots did was take the matter too far, and in so doing broke the league rules. Even among the harshest critics of the Patriots in this matter, there is debate about the actual value of these signals, and for the most part agreement that they could not help the Patriots within the course of the same game. On the other hand, you have an NBA referee, someone whose very job is to ensure that things are done according to the rules on the court, and to maintain order during the course of a game so that neither side has an unfair advantage, actually deliberately controlling the outcome of key plays of the game, giving one side, whether they know it or not, an unfair advantage which cripples the legitimacy of the entire contest, and by extension, the league. Stern somehow knocks the whole story right out of the public view.

This week, new allegations by Donaghy have arisen. He mentions specific games in which he claims other NBA officials were told by the league to make calls in favor of one team over the other. Some of these contests are memorable for the very peculiar calls made by the officials in those games. Once again, Stern is in front of the camera, defending the league, and issuing a smackdown of Donaghy, discrediting his claims unequivocally. The media and general public seems to accept these statements because of the authority and conviction with which they are stated. Goodell could've done much the same in his handling of spygate. By leaving so many things open and unanswered he invited speculation and questions about the integrity of the league. Stern is the wise old man in the Commissioner's seat, while Goodell appears to be still learning on the job. He'd do well to imitate the example of Stern going forward.

Bruce Allen is the creator of Boston Sports Media Watch, which has recently been recognized by SI.com as one of the best non-corporate sports web site's on the Internet.