September 12, 2005 Issue 127
	Dick Bavetta, Eric Gregg, Phil Luckett Assigned To Work Last Two Cavaliers Games Originally posted 4/18/2005 Above (from left): Dick Bavetta, Eric Gregg and Phil Luckett CLEVELAND - With LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in danger of missing the playoffs after a late-season slump, NBA commissioner David Stern announced Sunday that the officiating crew for the Cavaliers' last two games of the season will consist of Dick Bavetta, former baseball umpire Eric Gregg and NFL referee Phil Luckett. "This is the trio I'm most comfortable with," Stern said. "I feel they'll be able to achieve the goal of getting the Cavaliers into the playoffs -- uh, that is, um, I mean... of being fair and impartial." Led by second-year sensation James, the Cavaliers have lost five of their last seven games and could be in danger of being caught by the New Jersey Nets for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. "Boy, I'd hate to see that," Stern said. "I think it would be really great for the league if LeBron and the Cavaliers could have a couple of nationally televised playoff games. Wouldn't that be profitable -- I mean, exciting?" Bavetta is well known to NBA fans for his work during several Knicks-Bulls playoff games in the 1990s, as well as his role in the 106-102 Los Angeles Lakers defeat of the Sacramento Kings in Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals, a game in which the officiating was so bad that consumer advocate Ralph Nader wrote Stern a letter urging an apology to Kings fans and a probe into incompetent officiating in the NBA. Gregg is remembered for helping the 1997 Marlins into the World Series with his ridiculously wide strike zone before losing his job as an umpire in 1999. Luckett is most widely known for a controversial botched coin flip that cost the Pittsburgh Steelers a game and a botched touchdown call that may have cost the Seattle Seahawks a playoff berth, both of which happened in 1998. "This crew will be able to deliver the sort of officiating that the NBA really, really needs," said Stern in response to criticism that neither Gregg nor Luckett had ever refereed a basketball game before. "The Cavaliers have two games left, and we need to be sure that everything goes just the way it's supposed to. If you get my meaning."
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