what i think about Tim Donaghy's statements (Lakers-Kings 2002)

Now, let's just take a leap to the *moon* and assume that Donaghy is speaking the truth about the refs "fixing" game 6 of the Lakers-Kings series (he's probably just making this up now that he knows he's going to jail).

Would it surprise me if it came out that NBA refs actually do "fix" games?
Of course NOT.  I think a majority intelligent NBA fans think that there is *some* crookedry among NBA refs.

Do I think (as a die hard Laker fan, mind you), that game 6 of the 2002 series was "slanted" by the refs in favor of the Lakers?
Yeah, probably. I thought so at the time (and so did the rest of the world), and I think so now.

But you know what really pi$$ed me off at the time? Sure, the refs were obviously favoring the Lakers at home in game 6 to stretch the series to game 7.

But NOBODY talks about games 2 and 5 of that same series in Sacramento. Those two games were equally as crookedly referee'd -- but in favor of Sacramento (I still have video tapes of the whole series if you wanna see for yourself).

Game 2: after the Lakers won game 1 in Sacramento, Shaq had 23 points in the middle of the 2nd quarter, and the Lakers were seemingly rolling towards a commanding 2-0 series lead, when the refs suddenly took over. Basically the refs said "nope, we're not letting you end this series early" and sent the series back to LA tied at 1-1. To this day, that game was one of the most crooked things I've ever seen, and the reporters even knew it - I remember one of the reporters was interviewing Robert Horry postgame, trying to bate him into saying something about the refs, and Horry just said, "You're trying to get me fined now."

Game 5: 20 seconds left, series tied 2-2 (this was right after the Robert Horry miracle 3 in game 4), Chris Webber with the ball, Kings down by one - keep in mind that Chris Webber may well go down as the worst clutch star in professional sports history. CWebb was obviously scared to death of the fact that he had the ball in his hands, and he started to back in on Robert Horry, then dribbled the ball off his foot, dove to the floor to try to save it, and knocked it out of bounds. Horry took a swipe at saving it but clearly missed... but the refs mystically gave the ball back to SacTown. Bibby hit the game winner on the next inbounds and the Kings led 3-2. Red Auerbach was quoted as saying that THAT was the biggest missed call of the entire playoffs. He was right.

So what pissed me off was that most Laker haters (and let's face it, there were a LOT more of them at the time than there are now, if you can believe that) didn't really pay attention to the series until game 6 - when the Lakers were facing elimination at home. So an entire nation of Laker-haters caught the ONE game out of the 7 that was ref'd in favor of the Lakers.

The avalanche of "the NBA loves LA" conspiracy theories immediately followed.

For those of you that don't follow basketball too closely, do you wanna know HOW the refs can "fix" games and go relatively under the radar?

Call fouls predominantly against one team for 3 and a half quarters. Even if they don't result in free throws, foul trouble on a star player can totally screw a team over (see: Shaq in game 2 of said 2002 series when he was on his way to a 50 point game).

That's how refs can control a game - with their whistles, obviously.

But what do the refs do to cover up a large foul/free-throw discrepancy? Once the favored team has clear control of the game, the refs will start calling a rash of quick fouls in favor of the team that they originally screwed out of a win. By calling a number of fouls when the game is late and clearly already lost, they can make the number of fouls called (and free throw attempts) appear to be within acceptable limits.

If you've watched enough basketball, you've seen it happen - time and again.

Usually when such an egregious crime occurs in an NBA playoff series, it leads to a game 7, which the refs will call fairly even. Usually the better team wins, and everybody ends up talking about how great the final game of the series was, and that's that. Nobody usually remembers anything before the final act, thus any "crooked" refereeing usually goes like water under a bridge. Perception is everything, after all.

Phil Jackson made a great statement tonight when asked about that 2002 incident:

"we all [NBA coaches] think that probably referees should be under a separate entity than the NBA entirely. I mean, that's what we'd like to see probably in the NBA. It would just be separate and apart from it. But I don't think that's going to happen."

Funniest comment I've read so far?
[Donaghy] should go to the witness protection plan, change his name and then move to seattle where nobody in the NBA would ever look for him.  LOL!

Back in the early 80's, when the NBA was looking for a new commish, they considered it of high importance to hire someone with a very strong background in law. Thus they made David Stern the commissioner of the NBA.

Suppose you must take the good with the bad.