NBA Referee Bias: Do Statistics Suggest a Home Court Advantage? Is there Favoritism toward Teams Facing Elimination?
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Title:
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NBA Referee Bias: Do Statistics Suggest a Home Court Advantage? Is there Favoritism toward Teams Facing Elimination? |
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Author:
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Haneman, Patrick
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Advisor:
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Ball, Richard J.
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Department:
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Haverford College. Dept. of Economics |
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Type:
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Thesis (B.A.) |
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Issue Date:
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2012 |
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Abstract:
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In the summer of 2007, former National Basketball Association (NBA) referee Tim Donaghy
was found to have bet on games that he officiated. Donaghy subsequently alleged that referee bias is rampant throughout the league. The scandal created widespread speculation about the
legitimacy of controversial games in recent history, though NBA Commissioner David Stern argued vehemently that Donaghy was an isolated individual in his deviance. In light of this contentious issue, this paper empirically investigates whether there is evidence of referee bias.
Specifically, home bias and prolonged playoff series bias are examined through analysis of
multiple statistical categories, including discretionary turnovers (DTOs) and non-discretionary
turnovers (NTOs). To analyze prolonged series bias, this study observes teams facing
elimination (down 2-3, 1-3, or 0-3) as well as those threatening to eliminate (up 3-2, 3-1, or 3-0). In these “one-sided elimination games,” or “pre-game 7 elimination games,” only a win by the team trailing in the series can extend the series to an additional game, generating added league
revenue from ticket and advertisement sales. So, if the data analysis suggests that particular
statistics are significantly favored toward teams facing “one-sided elimination,” it may suggest
prolonged series bias among referees. |
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Subject:
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Basketball -- United States -- Econometric models
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Subject:
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Basketball referees -- United States -- Econometric models
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Subject:
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Basketball -- Officiating -- Econometric models
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Terms of Use:
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/
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Permanent URL:
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http://hdl.handle.net/10066/8134
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Files in this item
Citation
Haneman, Patrick.
"NBA Referee Bias: Do Statistics Suggest a Home Court Advantage? Is there Favoritism toward Teams Facing Elimination?".
2012. Available electronically from
http://hdl.handle.net/10066/8134.
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