What NBA referees need is a little more silence

The NBA had conspiracy theories before the infamous Tim Donaghy refereeing scandal and it will have them after Donaghy. Somehow, it comes with the turf in professional basketball, if not that of football, baseball, hockey, et al.

The report delivered today by former federal prosecutor Lawrence Pedowitz, NBA Commissioner David Stern's independent investigator, blamed only Donaghy and found no substance to his allegations of fixes, like Game 6 of the 2002 West Finals in which the Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings.

Donaghy is now serving a 15-month jail sentence for betting on NBA games.

Unfortunately, the people who keep conspiracy theories close to their hearts won't be giving them up. That includes many or most NBA players and executives whose mewing keeps a black cloud over the game that enriches them, which they purport to love.

Pedowitz's recommendations to tighten up rules against legal gambling are fine. For the privilege of officiating games with the attractive salaries that go with it, NBA refs can live without going to casinos.

The recommendations about "transparency," which Stern had already promised his teams, are something else.

The NBA now says it has a "prototype, proprietary system for screening games in an effort to detect data patterns that warrant further investigation."

Oh, happy day!

Actually, that sounds like some nerd's computer model or HAL 9000 from "2001, A Space Odyssey."

In the wake of all the disbelief, starting within the league, the more proactive the NBA tries to be, the more it backfires.

In the name of the dread transparency, Stern's aides arose last spring to second-guess their officials after Game 4 of the Laker-Spurs series when Derek Fisher got away with crashing into Brent Barry as he tried to get off a game-tying shot.

The league said, "With benefit of instant replay, it appears a foul call should have been made."

Of course, the referees couldn't use instant replay; only the NBA administrators second-guessing them had access to the technology.

Worse, the blame went to crew chief Joey Crawford, who'd had several run-ins with the Spurs, although he was behind the play and it was another official, Joe Forte, who blew the call.

The distinction is lost in San Antonio, where a local talk show host had compared Crawford to Charles Manson before that game.

To Stern's credit, he assigned Dick Bavetta to work last spring's Finals, despite the firestorm after Donaghy -- while up for sentencing -- fingered the veteran official.

Stern has named a new team to oversee the officials, although it's not clear what the relevance of Army Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Ronald Johnson's military experience is.

On the other hand, the general replaces Stu Jackson, the V.P. in charge of messing this stuff up, who said "correctness" was more important than "fairness" in his 2007 suspensions of Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw.

Unfortunately, the system, which invites countless protests by hardly disinterested parties, is the problem, not the people.

Every night three NBA referees walk out all by themselves with fans ready to boo, coaches ready to protest every call, players trying to steal every call by flopping and groaning, and GMs ready to e-mail protests to New York in real time on their BlackBerrys.

The referees are then required to go back to their hotels, go through the entire game on video on their laptops and explain any controversial calls, so Stu Jackson or Gen. Johnson will know what to tell the GMs.

Stern should tell his owners, GMs and coaches he can monitor his own officials, thank you, without their help.

But that gets into the politics of running a league. As powerful as Stern is, he thinks he has to let his teams blow off steam.

In the end, the referees, the guardians of the game, get the mushroom treatment, kept in the cellar with fertilizer thrown on them.

mark.heisler@latimes.com