I’d like to see David Stern hooked up to a polygraph — just as a symbolic gesture, of course. I think he’s an honest guy who is incapable of lying. But I think he’s definitely capable of deluding himself into thinking everything is peachy.

And then I’d like to see the rest of his employees who are directly involved in the outcome of basketball games — officials, coaches, players — undergo the same tests. It may not be necessary. They might all be squeaky clean.

But now it’s about appearances. It’s about using the Tim Donaghy scandal as a springboard to a new day.

When the NBA referee first became synonymous with crime, Stern faced the media and looked like his dog died. He called the incident the “most serious situation and worst situation that I have ever experienced either as a fan of the NBA, a lawyer for the NBA or a commissioner of the NBA.” He was easy to believe.

Perhaps it happened because he was so preoccupied with other news that a crooked ref was able to operate right under his nose. The defining moment of his reign probably was the Malice at the Palace, the brawl that brought the league’s growing image of thuggery and gang behavior to a crescendo.

Since then, Stern has been a veritable hanging judge, doling out severe punishments to anyone who gets into fights on and off the court. That crusade is admirable. He’s a marketing whiz, after all, and image is everything.

But now he understands that the game’s image isn’t nearly as important as the game’s integrity. While it’s appalling to see players getting nailed on traffic stops, wielding guns, scuffling at nightclubs or beating each other’s brains out, those transgressions can be forgiven. An official who tampers with the game itself in order to satisfy his gambling obsession can’t be.

Slide show   Week in Sports Pictures Flying on the hardwood, racing on the rink, getting physical on the gridiron, and much more. more photos

Today the Tim Donaghy scandal will come to a judicial and administrative end. But now it’s no longer about Donaghy, it’s about Stern. It’s about what he does now to assure the public that his primary area of concentration will be making sure the product itself won’t be compromised again.

It’s about background checks on his referees. It’s about polygraphs. It’s about reacting swiftly if there’s even a hint of impropriety.

It will also help, too, if he refrains from dismissing reporters who ask questions about gambling. Those questions are, and will always be, valid from this point on.

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