NBA Insider with Ken Berger

Lost in our obviously heightened interest in David Stern's decision not to discipline James Dolan and Isiah Thomas over the sexual harassment judgment against them were some intriguing comments from the NBA commissioner about the Tim Donaghy scandal.

While Stern was careful to point out that all the information won't be in until Donaghy is sentenced in January, he said the league's preliminary findings so far have confirmed his initial suspicion: that no refs besides Donaghy bet on NBA games or provided information to gamblers.

But it was somewhat stunning and unsettling that Stern admitted Thursday after the league's Board of Governors meeting that every single one of the 56 referees had technically violated the NBA's gambling policy by betting on poker games and golf matches, by buying lottery tickets, or by participating in NCAA Tournament pools.

Even more alarming was Stern's admission that more than half of the league's 56 referees were found to have gambled in casinos -- though on slot machines, black jack and the like, and not with sports books.

Stern said he decided not to punish any of the refs because he considers these not to be "capital offenses," and went so far as to say he told owners that he actually plans to loosen the gambling restrictions on referees by, for example, allowing them to gamble in casinos during the offseason.

Strange stuff, don't you think?

Maybe it's a good thing.

While some alarmists and moral police will point out that this might not be the best time to allow NBA referees to engage in more gambling, this development was among the signs Thursday that Stern is losing some of his previously draconian opposition to gambling in all forms. Another was his statement that the league soon will hire some sort of security detail with connections to both legal and illegal bookmakers, thus allowing the NBA to monitor unusual swings in point spreads and other potential betting irregularities.

I also applaud his decision to publicly identify officiating crews on the morning of games, as opposed to 90 minutes before tipoff. The identity of officials was among the "insider information" that Donaghy admitted sharing with gamblers, some of whom believe the over-under can be influenced based on a particular referee's penchant for calling fouls.

Maybe Stern has decided that acknowledging gambling as a way of life in America, and by more closely monitoring referees and expecting them to adhere to more realistic standards for conduct, the NBA will be able to move past the Donaghy scandal without taking any more public hits.

But Stern also knows that he and his league are not in the clear until after Donaghy is sentenced, because everything there is to know about the scandal won't be out of the bag until then.

Although David Stern trotted Stu Jackson out Tuesday night to do his dirty work in announcing the controversial suspensions in the Suns-Spurs series, you knew it was only a matter of time before the NBA commissioner surfaced to defend his decision.

He came out Wednesday afternoon throwing bigger punches than anyone involved in the Game 4 incident had to offer, giving a spirited defense of his one-game suspensions for the Suns’ Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw.

Stern: “You can jump up and take a step or two to look out, but the entire intent of the rule for the 10 years or so it’s been in effect was to make it clear that there’s no way to know whether someone running out on the court is coming as friend or foe.

“When Rudy Tomjanovich came running out to see what was going on and then tried to break up a fight, his face was forever changed. And it’s a great concern that we have and so we made it as simple as possible.”

In a contentious interview with Dan Patrick on ESPN Radio, Stern said Stoudemire and Diaw should have known that there is no room for interpretation in the leaving-the-bench rule, which players are reminded of before the season and again before the playoffs.

“Either they didn’t know about it, or they knew about it and they forgot about it, or one of the six assistant coaches that was there didn’t grab them fast enough,” Stern said. “So these players took themselves out of the game.”

Would the owners want Stern to have the authority to interpret a player’s intent when he leaves the bench?

“No,” he said. “They were 20 or 25 feet away from the bench and they violated the rule. It’s a fair point if you want to change the rule.”

Asked by Patrick about the suspensions affecting the outcome of a playoff series, Stern snapped.

“I’m going to wrestle with you, and you better stop that,” he said. “It’s not being decided by that. It’s being decide because two Phoenix Suns, who knew about the rule, forgot about it, couldn’t control themselves, and didn’t have coaches that could control them. And don’t you forget it.

“Now, is it exactly fair? Probably not. Is it a red-letter rule? Absolutely. Did it cost other teams their playoffs and championship? Yes. So I guess there’s no way for us to get the message through. Do you think next year the players will understand it?

“I’m unhappy with this result, there’s no doubt about it. And if the owners would like to change it, I’m happy to do it. Believe me, I’d be very happy to do it. But to listen to the clamor that Robert Horry changed this series is just silly. What changed this series is Amare and Boris ran out onto the court. And they either forgot about it or they couldn’t control themselves, I don’t know which one. And there wasn’t an assistant coach there, one of the six, to restrain them. OK? So now either we have to have new rules, put up a fence, or hire more assistant coaches.”

Stern said he reviewed video of the Spurs’ bench during the altercation sparked by Robert Horry’s hard foul on Steve Nash with 18 seconds left in Game 4 and said no member of the Spurs left the bench. He also rejected the notion that Tim Duncan should have been suspended for walking several steps onto the court in the second quarter when the Spurs’ Francisco Elson and the Suns’ James Jones got tangled up after a dunk by Elson.

“He didn’t leave to go to an altercation,” Stern said. “That was looked at. … Your point is right on one point: It’s a shame this happened, and it’s a shame that by the players not being able to control themselves, they’ve put their team into this position. And I guess it’s a shame that we have a rule that I have to enforce. And I accept all of the above. So the owners and the teams will have to decide to change the rule, which is fine, too. I’m OK with that.

“Frankly, one of the things that I’ve watched over the years is that we’ve tried so hard to squeeze fighting out of our game and potential injury out of our game,” Stern said. “And so if I had a team, I would make sure that my players never leave the bench, and so would you. … That’s the spectacle that we try and avoid: bench-clearing brawls, OK?”

Strong stuff from a commissioner who, as usual, is not backing down to criticism.

I am seriously torn about this Spurs-Suns incident last night in San Antonio.

Didn’t see it? Can’t blame you. These West Coast NBA playoff games are aimed at a pretty narrow target audience back here in the East: insomniacs, people working the graveyard shift in security booths, and NBA writers who got stuck in traffic driving home from Game 4 of the Nets-Cavs series at the Meadowlands.

For those who do not fit those demographics: The Spurs’ Robert Horry hip-checked the Suns’ Steve Nash into the scorer’s table with 18 seconds left and Phoenix leading, 100-97, in Game 4. It was ruled a flagrant foul-type 2, and Horry was ejected.

Horry, who has made a living on big shots in the playoffs, might have inadvertently connected on the biggest one of his career with that foul.

That’s because as Nash popped up and Raja Bell came to his defense along the sideline, the Suns’ Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw left the bench area and headed toward the fray. They were stopped by assistant coach Marc Iavaroni, but perhaps too late to prevent them from being suspended for Game 5. Watch the video here.

The NBA has a history of strictly enforcing a rule prohibiting players from leaving the bench during an altercation on the court. It all started with the Knicks’ Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, Allan Houston, and John Starks leaving the bench during a Game 5 brawl between Charlie Ward and P.J. Brown in 1997.

The Knicks led 3-2, but lost Game 6 without Ewing and Houston and then lost Game 7 without Starks and Johnson.

David Stern is in a very tough predicament on this one, and it’s of his own making. A one-game suspension for Horry goes without saying. But if Stern follows the rule to the letter, he must suspend Stoudemire and Diaw for Game 5 as well.

That would mean rewarding the Spurs for Horry’s actions. And it would all but doom the Suns, who have all the momentum in the series after closing Game 4 with a 12-1 run and stealing it on the Spurs’ home floor, 104-98.

Game 5 is tomorrow night in Phoenix, and the Suns would stand little chance to beat the superior Spurs without their All-NBA center, Stoudemire, and Diaw, a valuable backup.

First of all, the Suns’ immediate explanation – that Stoudemire was on his way to the scorer’s table to check back into the game as part of an offensive-defensive substitution pattern – is absurd. But that’s their story, and you can’t blame them for sticking to it considering their best shot at winning an NBA title is at stake. There is no way such a transparent explanation gets past Stern and disciplinary chief Stu Jackson.

As of early this afternoon, a league spokesman said there’s no word yet on the timing of any disciplinary announcements. But they’re expected today, if nothing else to give the teams enough time to make adjustments for Game 5.

It’s a nightmare scenario any way you look at it. If NBA officials aren’t already petrified of the Spurs dragging down the TV ratings for the NBA Finals, there is no doubt the broadcast partners feel that way. But that is not the point – or shouldn’t be.

The point is, should Stern enforce his no-leaving-the-bench rule without regard for the star power of the player involved? That has been his history, in case anyone has forgotten Carmelo Anthony’s 15-game suspension for throwing a punch that escalated the December brawl between the Knicks and Nuggets at the Garden.

What makes sense is that the league should consider that Stoudemire and Diaw got up and took a few steps in the heat of the moment, then retreated once they realized the consequences of their actions. Neither player got involved in the altercation, nor did either player appear to have intentions to do so.

But I can hear Stern’s harsh explanation reverberating between my eardrums already: The posture or intentions of a player leaving the bench cannot be left up to interpretation. That is why the rule is as black-and-white as it is. Leave the bench during a fight, and you are suspended for the next game. Case closed.

Which means enjoy the Spurs-Jazz in the Western Conference Finals. And congratulate Horry for the biggest shot of his storied playoff career. No, it doesn’t seem right or fair. But that’s the rule.

David Stern came loaded with vitriol Friday night at Game 6 of the Nets-Raptors game. The commish was apoplectic about the academic study released last week purporting that racial bias has affected NBA officiating.

But with the postseason off to a thrilling start – Golden State’s stunning victory over Dallas, plus four stellar matchups in the conference semifinals – Stern had a lot more on his mind.

One could argue that he doth protest too much about the flimsy officiating study first published in The New York Times Wednesday, and that he should be careful not to give the story more credence by defending his system of referee oversight so staunchly.

But Stern’s strongest comment on a topic other than race and refereeing came when he rolled out a laundry list of talent that is either in the league or on the way and predicted that the next golden age of NBA basketball will begin to evolve in the next two years.

“Here we have Duncan, Shaq, Kobe, Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson – sure, future Hall of Famers in our league – Jason Kidd, probably Vince Carter,” Stern said. “At the same time, we’ve got LeBron and Dwyane and Chris Bosh and Carmelo, and then we have Dirk and Nash and Tony Parker and the great international players that we’re looking at on Utah, and Yao, Kirilenko – still going – and we have the best draft coming in a long period of time.

“With those four groups,” Stern said, “in the next two years we’re going to have the largest number of great players playing in the NBA in its history. That’s what we should be talking about, OK?”

Stern, of course, is given to hyperbole. But I happen to agree with him on this. A strong argument can be made that once the likes of Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, Roy Hibbert, Mike Conley, et al are added to those Stern mentioned, the talent in the NBA will never have been as strong in the post-Michael Jordan era as it will be in the next few years.

One problem is that the league is still struggling to wrest itself from the era of isolation offense, which dragged down the tempo of the games and overemphasized one-on-one play. But Stern said rules changes to allow zone defense and limit hand-checking on the perimeter has the quality of play “getting to a place where it will be as good as we’ve ever had.”

“I believe that the isolation game really caused us to stagnate,” he said. “Our rules allowed it, and we encouraged it. And we made changes to do away with that. And I think that, together with the idea that anything short of an attack wouldn’t be called as the guy made his way to the basket, was not a good thing for our game.

“The game just didn’t look very good, and it’s starting to look good,” he said. “And what the rules changes do is encourage teams to do these strange things – pass, run, and shoot.”

The way Phoenix and Golden State play prove Stern’s point. But there’s still a long way to go before a majority of teams catch on.