ABOVE: Tim Donaghy - Heroic whistleblower or just a convicted felon trying to get an easier sentence? Recall Donaghy was convicted of gambling on NBA games for which he was also working as referee
For years NBA conspiracy theorists have charged commissioner David Stern and his cronies of "fixing" games by instructing NBA refs on how to call key games. And there have been some horribly called games that can be easily used as "evidence", such as the infamous Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals where in the crucial 4th quarter the L.A. Lakers shot 27 free throws to Sacramento's nine. The Lakers won the game, and eventually won the championship that year. Consumer crusader/perrenial presidential candidate/Kings fan Ralph Nader even wrote a letter of complaint to Stern and the NBA office about that game. Ask any San Antonio Spurs fan about their chances of winning a game if Joey Crawford is on the court to officiate. Or consider the almost acknowledged double standard for how you officiate for the stars of the league vs. the regular players. I recall a rather infamous game where Shaq was called for a foul, and then the ref actually went to the scorer's table to make sure he wouldn't be fouling Shaq out of the game. Why should that matter?
In every sport you will have complaints about officiating, but in no sport does it reach the level of dissatisfaction that it does in the NBA. And now disgraced ref Donaghy, through his lawyers, has sung about two specific games (including the controversial Lakers/Kings Game 6) that were evidently "fixed" in order to extend a series to make more money for the league. Now, you can dismiss his accusations as those of a man facing a sentencing and trying to get a better deal, as Stern does. But the sad thing is that nobody was really shocked by the allegations. Now even players from that 2002 series like Scot Pollard are coming out and saying they agree that there was something "wrong" with that series. When asked about it this week, Lakers coach Phil Jackson responded by referring to the Game 5 before that was, in his view, "stolen" from the Lakers on bad calls.
Do I think these games were "fixed"? I have a hard time believing that. And as several sports commentators have pointed out in the past few days, if the league is fixing things, they haven't done a very good job. Why let small market San Antonio win four championships in the last decade? Why let Detroit get so far, so often? If they were fixing things, it would be all Lakers, Knicks, Celtics and Bulls all the time. But there does need to be some sort of overhaul, because the officiating is often atrocious. For years I have been furious about the double standard for the league's stars. A foul is a foul, dammit.
I have sympathy for the refs, too. Officiating a constantly moving basketball game is a lot harder than officiating a slow as molasses baseball game or even football. More fouls are called, and you have to be watching all of the players every second of the game. It is constant action and mistakes will be made. But the NBA is going to have to do something to restore their credibility, whether or not Donaghy is full of shit. Hearings? A more open review after games? Something. Perception is crucial for a business like the NBA, and they have a real credibility problem right now. I don't really have an answer because I am not sure what would really work, but something needs to change.
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