I Knew Kyle Korver Was Improving Too Quickly

As if NBA referees weren't under enough public scrutiny already, now they're being accused of racism:

Justin Wolfers, an assistant professor of business and public policy at Penn's Wharton School, and Joseph Price, a Cornell graduate student in economics, said the difference in calls "is large enough that the probability of a team winning is noticeably affected by the racial composition of the refereeing crew."

The study, conducted over a 13-season span through 2004, found that the racial makeup of a three-man officiating crew affected calls by up to 4 1/2 percent.

Sure, the refs are running a little roughshod on the league right now--recently ejecting Tim Duncan for laughing and Stephen Jackson for clapping--but to say their calls are racially motivated (specifically, white refs making calls on black players) is ridiculous.

Hey guys, ever consider that the sample size was skewed? Out of approximately 360 players in the NBA, I would make a conservative estimate that 300 of these players are at least partially African-American. Naturally, some black players are going to have fouls called on them. Black players then also have the highest statistical probability of actually benefiting from the call--i.e., taking free throws!

The point is, one actually expects white players to be underrepresented in most statistical categories simply because they do not make up a majority of NBA players. However, white players are actually overrepresented in terms of total fouls collected in a season. Out of the top 15 players with the most personal fouls each of the past 3 seasons, almost half of them are non-black (African or African-American):

2006-2007: Andris Biedrins (the league leader), Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich, Anderson Varejao (a Brazilian), Zaza Pachulia, Zydrunas Illgauskas, Mehmet Okur

2005-2006: Nenad Krstic, Pachulia, Okur, Illgauskas, Raef LaFrentz, Chris Kaman, Andrew Bogut

2004-2005: Illgauskas, Yao Ming, Krstic, Kyle Korver (for shame!), LaFrentz (Collison was only 16th this particular year)

Along these lines, a equally shaky but less preposterous claim could be made that calls are also based on the refs' hatred for a different ethnicities or nationalities. And what about class warfare? Surely a referee doesn't care whether the fouling player is white or black, but is filled with rage about the relative size of his paycheck in comparison to even the lowliest D-League call-up.

Or the explanation could be a lot simpler: big centers and slashing guards make a lot of fouls. Duh. That's basketball.

(Should that be basketball? That's a question for another time.)

If you read about this study even once, you'll find that there are more holes in this research than there are in Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway at the end of Bonnie and Clyde. This excellent rebuttal points out that Wolfers and Price culled their data from boxscores, which only list the names of the referees and total number of fouls called on each player, as opposed to watching game film, which would indicate exactly which referee called a foul on a specific player. It also makes good points about non-calls and the subjectivity of fouls in general.

However, if we really are to dispel the notion that white referees are trying to alter the game to benefit white players and help them succeed in relation to their black peers, nobody is mentioning the biggest counterpoint available: Christian Laettner.

Case closed.

Study: White Refs Call More Fouls On Blacks [FoxSports.com]
Refs Are Bad, But They're Not Racists [FoxSports.com]