Perception ? Reality: Analyzing Specific Allegations of NBA Referee Bias
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Ryan Rodenberg
The 2007 gambling scandal involving a National Basketball Association (NBA) referee, coupled with the NBA’s follow-up investigation, put allegations of basketball referee bias in the spotlight. This paper analyzes specific allegations of bias by Miami Heat coach and general manager Pat Riley against NBA referees Steve Javie and Derrick Stafford. In the course of analyzing every referee who officiated a Miami Heat during a nine-year period, neither Javie nor Stafford exhibited systematic bias that had an adverse effect on the Miami Heat. In fact, the Heat performed slightly better than predicted when Javie officiated their games. The results provide real-world empirical evidence consistent with “confirmation bias,” a theory grounded in the finding that individuals with a vested interest in certain self-justifying outcomes may reach generalized conclusions unsupported by actual evidence.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
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- Uncovering Europe's Best Goalscorers from the 2009-2010 Season
- Dynamic Effort, Sustainability, Myopia, and 110% Effort
- The Intra-Match Home Advantage in Australian Rules Football
- The Relationship between Leader Experience and Team Performance in Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Designs
- Stratified Odds Ratios for Evaluating NBA Players Based on their Plus/Minus Statistics
- Dependence Relationships between On Field Performance, Wins, and Payroll in Major League Baseball
- Optimal Dynamic Clustering Through Relegation and Promotion: How to Design a Competitive Sports League
- Perception ? Reality: Analyzing Specific Allegations of NBA Referee Bias
- NFL Prediction using Committees of Artificial Neural Networks
- An Alternative to the NFL Draft Pick Value Chart Based upon Player Performance
- Monte Carlo Simulation for High School Football Playoff Seed Projection
- Defining the Performance Coefficient in Golf: A Case Study at the 2009 Masters
- Reconsideration of the Best Batting Order in Baseball: Is the Order to Maximize the Expected Number of Runs Really the Best?
- Never Too Late to Win
- An Extension of the Pythagorean Expectation for Association Football
- Pitcher Accuracy Through Catcher Spotting: Assessing Rater Reliability
- Valuing Nostalgia: The Case of the Topps 1957 Baseball Cards
Articles in the same Issue
- Conference Paper
- Uncovering Europe's Best Goalscorers from the 2009-2010 Season
- Dynamic Effort, Sustainability, Myopia, and 110% Effort
- The Intra-Match Home Advantage in Australian Rules Football
- The Relationship between Leader Experience and Team Performance in Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Designs
- Stratified Odds Ratios for Evaluating NBA Players Based on their Plus/Minus Statistics
- Dependence Relationships between On Field Performance, Wins, and Payroll in Major League Baseball
- Optimal Dynamic Clustering Through Relegation and Promotion: How to Design a Competitive Sports League
- Perception ? Reality: Analyzing Specific Allegations of NBA Referee Bias
- NFL Prediction using Committees of Artificial Neural Networks
- An Alternative to the NFL Draft Pick Value Chart Based upon Player Performance
- Monte Carlo Simulation for High School Football Playoff Seed Projection
- Defining the Performance Coefficient in Golf: A Case Study at the 2009 Masters
- Reconsideration of the Best Batting Order in Baseball: Is the Order to Maximize the Expected Number of Runs Really the Best?
- Never Too Late to Win
- An Extension of the Pythagorean Expectation for Association Football
- Pitcher Accuracy Through Catcher Spotting: Assessing Rater Reliability
- Valuing Nostalgia: The Case of the Topps 1957 Baseball Cards
