Just about everyone in my geeky little peer group is talking about this New York Times article that reveals the details of a study claiming white NBA officials call a disproportionate number of fouls on black players, while (to a lesser extent) black officials do the same to white players. Shockingly, commissioner David Stern disagrees:

Stern said in a telephone interview that the league saw a draft copy of the paper last year, and was moved to do its own study this March using its own database of foul calls, which specifies which official called which foul. “We think our cut at the data is more powerful, more robust, and demonstrates that there is no bias,” Mr. Stern said.

Three independent experts asked by The Times to examine the Wolfers-Price paper and materials released by the N.B.A. said they considered the Wolfers-Price argument far more sound.

Yeah, but what does the New York Times know about selecting experts?  They probably just called some friends at Salon.com. 

All this, of course, is just a needless distraction from the real problem — that ALL the officiating in the NBA is terrible. Besides, the data is unfairly biased against the referees.  Did no one look at the possibility that black players commit more fouls when there are white referees?  After all, Stern wouldn't want us to take the blame away from the black people here.