NBA referees Lee Jones and Jim Capers were featured in an August issue of the Philippine Panorama after officiating the 1981 PBA Open Conference championship series between Toyota and Crispa.
With their 20 eyes, NBA referees could spot technical fouls that the local refs couldn’t (or wouldn’t?)
By Al S. Mendoza
Philippine Panorama
Published Sunday Aug. 9, 1981
Indeed, the scenario was a rarity, like the pearl in the proverbial deep blue sea. It was happening, this dream of ticket scalpers, this madness called the Sunday Suspense Theater: The Crispa-Toyota war.
Yes, the war was raging and a multitude was gripped no end by frenzy, suspense, panic, ecstasy. For everytime this madness occurs, the world stops turning; it had been that way ever since guys like Robert Jaworski, Atoy Co, Francis Arnaiz, Ramon Fernandez, Bogs Adornado, Philip Cezar invaded the hardcourt: to sow the seeds of cultism, hero-worship addiction to the national religion now commonly known as basketball.
As the war was unfolding right in the living room of millions via the boob tube, and before 30,000 souls that packed the Big Dome in Cubao, one readily notice an outstanding feature of the bitterly-fought encounter — that is, order was being enforced to the hilt. In a unique phenomenon, no one dared to disrupt the war. No one tried to turn goat. The missiles were missing: used radio batteries, crumpled paper cups, coins, ballpens, corn cobs, lipsticks, hairpins. Previously, all these were among the weaponry when the war was raging. This time, during that steamy, smoky, sweltering night on July 25, the missiles lay intact in the arsenal indeed, it was an unprecedented show of sterling discipline by the throng, which normally, was as volatile as Mayon Volcano everytime the war was on.
The phenomenon has been credited to the extra “police powers” accorded Lee Jones and Jim Capers, the referees from the National Basketball Association of America, who whistled the game out of trouble for a full two hours or less.
The duo, both 45, had been whistle-blowing for 13 years in the NBA. They are among today’s top NBA referees, their salaries are in the vicinity of 50 grand a year. They were hired by PBA officials to “teach” our local refs the “proper” way of officiating, the “professional way” as some PBA bigwigs would put it.
Did the local refs learn from them?
“We learned much about positioning,” said ref Rodolfo Manuel.
“They taught us to master the trade,” said ref Jose Obias.
But some local refs did not take the duo’s visit seriously. They contend the two acted like “gods”.
Crispa coach Baby Dalupan termed the officiating of the two during Game 5 as an “overkill”. He observed that with the way the duo handled that game, “it would seem that our players should never show any kind of reaction at all. Para bang sa bawat tawag nila, kelangan ay yumukod ka na lang nang yumukod.”
Dalupan was not sour-graping as indeed Jones and Capers were rather strict that night, and even during Games 1 and 4. They were a bit whistle-happy, slapping fouls with the slightest physical contact.
Dalupan had a point. For fear of drawing a technical, the players acted like robots, puppets, totally depriving themselves of human emotions everytime the two Americans refs made a call. Crispa’s Atoy Co got a technical for merely jumping twice, thrice while disputing a call by Jones — a reaction that hastened Toyota’s impending triumph.
One local referee observed that had the best-of-five championship series been officiated by homegrown refs, the title-showdown would not be completed without spectator reactions, which are sometimes too violent that debris of all kinds would rain the hardcourt in an instant with just one “controversial” whistle.
It has been noted that PBA officials were too kind and generous to the two NBA refs. Why did they deviate from the usual three-referee system and allow only the two Americans to officiate the championship series? The move was unprecedented in the six-year history of the league.
The original plan was to have the two as refs in the semifinals and to have them hold clinics for local referees. These were pushed through. They were not scheduled to officiate in the championship. But Crispa owner-manager Danny Floro, together with Toyota’s young manager Ricky Silverio, agreed that the two should officiate in the championship. They would shoulder the refs’ extra expenses as the PBA subsidy for the two was to end last July 16. The PBA officials agreed and so we had the two as refs in the championship series.
The rest is history.
How did Capers and Jones rate our own refs?
“They have strong potentials,” observed Jones. “what they lack are the fundamentals. Nothing more. In fact given proper training, your top referees today could make it in the NBA.”
Capers, whose blonde wife writes for the Ladies Home Journal back home in New York says our refs should have more games to work on to perfect the art of officiating.
“Your league is just a baby compared to the NBA,” says Capers. “You are only six years old, the NBA is 35. What your refs need are more games to work on. Back home, I average four games a week. When the year ends, I should have officiated in at least 82 games.
Capers, a voracious rice-eater who s an above-average tennis player, has a point. In the PBA, a referee is sometimes “vacant” for a week during a conference. This is because of the rather defective system of choosing the referees for a particular game, which is the outmoded draw-by-lot method. Before every game, the 13 referees are raffled, with each one joining the draw-by-lot. The refs whose names had not been drawn are given transportation fare. Only one is a full-time ref — among the 13 referees.
But Capers sees bright hopes for the local refs.
“I predict bright prospects here. Your league is a baby, yes. But all babies grow up good and well, as long as they are being taken cared of well.”
He advises that the PBA should adopt numerous methods regarding the improvement of officiating. “Because your league is young, you should open yourself to new ideas, innovations. You should always try to change the system. That way, you’ll soon find the perfect formula for a trouble-free officiating.”
Capers and Jones said they would love to come back. And when the day comes, they hope that the boo-boos in local officiating shall have been drastically trimmed to a minimal.
If not, the “Two Policemen” promised that they would put everybody in chains once again — as what they did during the just-concluded PBA open championship series.
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