Study of N.B.A. Sees Racial Bias in Calling Fouls - New York Times

• Jason

  +2

  Lots of interesting findings here, for example:
  

  Their results suggested that for each additional black starter a team had, relative to its opponent, a team’s chance of winning would decline from a theoretical 50 percent to 49 percent and so on, a concept mirrored by the game evidence: the team with the greater share of playing time by black players during those 13 years won 48.6 percent of games -- a difference of about two victories in an 82-game season.
  

  ... despite the fact that every single MVP and 94% of the First Team All-NBA players during this period were black.

  Posted 5/2/2007 [reply] [flag]

• You Been Blinded

  +1

  i guess this explains the joey crawford, tim duncan scrape..

  Posted 5/2/2007 [reply] [flag]

• Redsauce

  +2

  I wish the NBA would come out & say "it's possible this happens, everyone's human.  We're doing our best by hiring the best referees in the business to make sure this type of thing doesn't happen"  And then go into how they have a more comprehensive database that might show there is now bias.  Talk about how there are measures in place to make sure the referees can't do this.  Etc.

  The immediate, knee-jerk reaction only makes it seem like they know about it already & are covering it up (to me, anyway).  Not saying that's how it is, but what's wrong with admitting that their league isn't perfect? 

  Posted 5/2/2007 [reply] [flag]

  • RedBaron

    +2

    I thought the same thing while reading this--the league's reaction seems awfully defensive.  The Rod Thorn quote was just non-sensical:

    “I don’t believe it. I think officials get the vast majority of calls right. They don’t get them all right. The vast majority of our players are black.”

    Posted 5/2/2007 [reply] [flag]

• dlozo

  low-rated comment [show] -3

  I first heard about this on a radio show this morning and thought wait 90% of the league is black, who would waste their time doing a study on that. It is like saying Eskimos build more igloos in Alaska than whites.

  C'mon what a waste of time, I am going out on a limb and say blacks foul more than whites in the NBA, too.

  Posted 5/2/2007 [reply] [flag]

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Links (8)

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Filed under: NBA Fans, NBA Gambling, NBA Gossip, Jazz A little over a year ago, Wharton School professor Justin Wolfers published a controversial study which he felt proved that there was a racial component to the calls that NBA referees made on the court. The study claimed that "during the 13 seasons from 1991 through 2004, white referees called fouls at a greater rate against black players than against white players." The impact was said to be that "the probability of a team winning is noticeably affected by the racial composition of the refereeing crew assigned to the game." David Stern (predictably) was not ...

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