A couple days ago, excerpts from a book the shamed NBA referee Tim Donaghy authored were released. The claims were massive. They were big enough to shake the integrity of the NBA at it's core. NBA referees manipulating the OUTCOMES OF GAMES. For years, the NBA was sarcastically referred to as about as real as pro wrestling. The NBA and it's lifers wrote those claims off as bitterness from angry degenerate gamblers who lost money on games who were scapegoating blame on the league and the referees. But Donaghy has given ripe and real examples of what went on behind the closed doors of both the referee's locker room and the NBA front offices.
All the NBA has to say is that this is a desperate man, a troubled man, looking to make a buck. That's the easiest and smartest defense to take. And they are doing just that. AND THEY ARE GETTING AWAY WITH IT.
Donaghy's claims have proven (in my eyes) that all the "conspiracy theorists" had some, at least some, validity. I am not saying that every game can be pin pointed as a fix, or every theory is now confirmed, or even that there aren't bitter degenerate gamblers out there who are still wrong on some games that they think we fixed. BUT - KINGS v LAKERS 2002, HEAT v MAVS 2006, two of the most recent and widely criticized PLAYOFF series, in which writers have long smelled something wrong with, can now move up the ladder from very plausible to EXTREMELY PLAUSIBLE.
And since Donaghy only mentions the 2002 WCF in which the Lakers were handed. we'll stick to that. The best way I can put the odds that something was wrong with that series is this:
IF THE 2002 WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS CONSPIRACY WERE ON
"MYTHBUSTERS", THEY WOULD HAVE THE EVIDENCE TO SAY "CONFIRMED!"
How is this going by the way side. Only a couple articles stating how Donaghy made some believeable accusations, but also as quick to point out Donaghy is desperate. Donaghy gives examples of 'games' the referees used to play. He sites real examples, names names, both players and referees, and quotes other referees talking openly about influencing a game. He tells of 'points of emphasis' that the league passes down to the referees before the game, that Donaghy took as not so subtle hints. Some stories on the excerpts quote NBA GM's as saying as much as, 'Yeah, that sounds about right.'
I just dont get how there is not serious, serious OUTRAGE on behalf of the fans, and imparticularly the writers and some of the better basketball blogs. This is as close as we will probably come to knowing that NBA series were fixed! Teams were pushed along. There is no talk of an asteric going down in the record books about the Lakers 2002 Championship. Why not? In baseball, all you hear about is asterics. How come no one is calling for the 2002 Playoffs to be erased from the record book?
It's just simply amzing that the NBA came off about as scot-free as one could when faced with this much in-your-face evidence. Donaghy is a shady guy and a felon, fact. But to ignore his first hand account stories, which seem to validate years and years of specualtion, is just ignorant. We may have been watching a script play out in 2002 and 2006, and everyone seems fine with that. It's sick. Someone grow a set and put everything out there. Someone bigger than little me with 5 readers ask if we were watching a script play out in 2002 that was hand-written by the NBA.
Deadspin's Book Excerpts:
