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(By Joe Kukura)
The National Basketball Association hopes you are enjoying the Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals… and hopes you are totally oblivious to what could be the Mother of All Sports Scandals – namely, the allegations that NBA referees have been fixing the games to favor certain stars and to make playoff series last the maximum number of games. There’s one referee under indictment, and he’s singing like an Ed Jew fan at a Board of Supervisors meeting, naming other referees and insisting that the league has been in on the fix all along.
Disgraced referee Tim “It’s Pronounced Donna-Phee!!!” Donaghy, nailed by the FBI for gambling on the games he officiated, testifies in court papers that NBA referees were instructed to manipulate games to “boost ticket sales and television ratings.” He offers specific allegations that in hindsight seem so disturbingly legit they give us Ouija Board goosebumps, particularly in regards to a certain 2002 Lakers-Kings Western Conference Finals. (Even Ralph Nader complained, remember that?) When we strain our drug-addled brains, we actually do remember a NorCal/SoCal series with a Game Six that was extremely fishy…. If we’re remembering wrong, then go ahead and flay us in the comments. But the momentum swing of that game did seem weird at the time.
Granted, the guy’s a convicted felon, looking at 25 years in the clink, and desperately wants to minimize that sentence because he probably still owes gambling money to his potential future cellmates. But doesn’t it make you wonder when your lower-revenue tier hometown team wins 48 games and still misses the playoffs? And hasn’t the NBA always seemed particularly bad about giving calls to the home team and/or the favored team? And if you can’t trust an admitted felon with an elaborate gambling and mafia history, then who can you trust?
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1) Pro basketball is tedious and boring
2) After they stopped calling traveling, pro basketball became unimaginably tedious and boring.
What do you mean, they stopped calling traveling. They were showing all lakers-celtics series, and you could see Kareem receive the ball in the post, and shuffle his feet once, and twice, and maybe another time, then make his move. Then McHale would do the same thing. They would have blown the whistle ten times nowadays.
I don't find the NBA to be tedious or boring
I hope the allegations aren't true but something tells me that there is something there. Not explict directives but subtle requests form management on what they would like
i can't believe this idea is a surprise to anyone.. the way fouls are called in the nba is very loose and open to interpretation, so of course it's open to abuse as a result. watch any game and you'll notice that they almost never show replays of questionable foul calls because 99% of them should not have been called, and if they went to a replay type of system games would take 2x as long since practically every other play ends in a foul. the idea that star players can just drive towards the rim and automatically get foul shots is just silly and takes away from what would otherwise be considered good defense.
I doubt this is limited to basketball. Hello football, baseball, soccer, Olympics etc etc.
i remember watching the 2002 kings-lakers series. outside of boxing, i've never seen anything so blatantly rigged.
example: a player from the lakers runs full-speed into a completely set kings player, knocks him to the ground, shoots (directly in front of the ref). ten seconds later, same ref calls a phantom foul on a kings player. not a questionable foul... i mean, literally, a foul that he obviously just made up.
the stats (fouls called per team, in particular) after the game really told the story.
wow... i'm getting angry all over again...
The Lakers shot 27 free throws in the fourth quarter and scored 16 of their final 18 points at the foul line in a 106-102 victory. Lakers guard Kobe Bryant's elbow to Mike Bibby's nose that was not called a foul with less than 20 seconds left "prompted many fans to start wondering about what was motivating these officials"
this is news?
It's not whether you win or lose, but whether or not you make the point spread
I remember Divac and Kobe, I think it was Kobe, diving for a loose ball. Two great players going at it, giving it their all, amazing, clean. Whistle, foul on Divac. 6 and you're gone. Replay after replay and there was nothing.
I don't watch the NBA anymore. That was it, and I was more of a Laker's fan at the time. Divac was a fan favorite in LA before he got traded to Sacto via Charlotte. And Shaq was great to watch. Ok, I didn't like Webber.