Not a joke: General Johnson to Officiate NBA Refs!

[drsd]

United States Army general has been hired by the NBA to the newly created position of senior vice president for referee operations, the league announced Tuesday.

Ronald L. Johnson, a two-star general who recently retired from active duty as deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will be responsible for all aspects of the NBA's officiating program, including recruiting, training and development, scheduling, data management and analysis, and work rules enforcement.

ESPN: NBA defines new role for oversight of referee operations

Is there a question to the wisdom of this??? After the PR nightmare of Donaghy, and the likely fixing of an NBA divisional champion, this is a great step forward (I HOPE!) .


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[darthcheech2000]

HOLY$HIT

[CourtsideTV]

great..nba is taken over by unkal s@m

[UCFJayBird]

roflmao. that's hilarious. Maybe he can instill some discipline.

[ivDT]

a shameless PR move.

i expect nothing to change.

[damo[23]]

If its just a PR move it could still work - fear into those ref's that they actually will be held accountable for bad calls etc...

If its really to kick their bums into sorting themselves out - then good move - because the NBA [and many other sports] HAVE to sort the state of referring out. I am sick of this "using experience to call things - assuming what happens rather than calling exactly what they see" - which is what spawned superstar treatment ["oh oh, lebron is to good to have travelled"]

[craig01]

It may be a step in the right direction, though is certainly not the fix.

Until the WWE mentality goes away, nobody will believe anything is different.

Now, if the good General can get officials to quit playing with the game (makeup calls, superstar calls), I'll jump on the bandwagon.

[ProfX]

Amen..the NBA needs to bring back respectibility back to the league.. people are tired of the SHOW. This is a sport where the greatness of athletes should determine the outcome.