General oversees referees

NEW YORK – Ron Johnson spent 32 years in the military leading people through difficult situations. He quickly found another challenge when he retired from the Army.

Johnson is the NBA’s new senior vice president of referee operations, where the two-star general will oversee a department that has spent the last year dealing with the fallout from the scandal involving Tim Donaghy, who pleaded guilty to betting on games he officiated and later accused some former colleagues of misconduct.

“This is an incredible leadership challenge,” Johnson said Wednesday. “Leading soldiers or people, I’m used to my people being dispersed across the country, but there’s some intermediate leader there in charge of them. But we’ve got 60 highly talented people that live all across the U.S. and there’s a different leadership challenge there, so I’m excited about how I’m going to do that.”

When the NBA decided last fall to split the basketball operations department and hire someone to oversee the referee programs, commissioner David Stern thought of Johnson. They had met two years ago, when the general came to speak at the league’s rookie transition program.

Johnson said he’s read up on the Donaghy situation, but hasn’t yet seen the internal investigation that Stern ordered last summer, which won’t be completed until after Donaghy is sentenced on July 14.

Even though he’s the “new guy,” Johnson shares Stern’s belief that he’s the right one to lead the referees through their difficult time.