Well, I was at that game, so maybe I have some idea what I'm talking about. I've watched the NBA for approximately 25 years and I've never felt a game was fixed. Basketball is a game of momentum. We see teams get up by 20+ points and we know the other team is going to make a run, we just saw this the other night. The team that is ahead rests on their lead a bit, they quite playing as aggressively and tries to maintain the lead rather than playing their normal game. When you're on the road the home team can feed off of the energy in the building. The home players start playing more aggressively, the rambunctious crowd fuels the home team and negatively impacts the road team. The refs too are affected by this ... I've seen it. I saw it in Game 2 in the 08 Finals and I saw it in Game 6 of the 2002 WCF. There's no doubt the Lakers got some calls, the energy in the building was unlike anything I've ever experienced. The refs made some bad calls, no doubt about it, but the Lakers also played with more energy and aggression in the last 18 minutes or so. The Kings tensed up and got nervous, the momentum completely shifted. It happens. I believe all that, I was there I lived it, I breathed it, I watched it. Never for one minute then or now do I believe the refs were mandated by the league to call phony fouls so the Lakers would win. I don't believe this criminal Donaghy for one second. Of course he's going to reference that game. That's one of the most infamous games in the history of the NBA. A real shocker a guy who's trying to lighten his sentence and bring the house down with him would reference that game. Predictable really.
So I have no idea what I'm talking about? I could say the same thing for you that because you're so jaded and jilted over your team laying an egg you can't see past your rage for all thing Lakers and that's skewing your perception. It goes both ways, doesn't it? I would have a hard time accepting the fact that my team blew a 26 point lead on the road in Game 6 of a WCF and then came home and laid an egg in Game 7. If they were the better team, and they felt they got jilted by the refs, then they would have come home twice as angry and with twice the motivation and they would have kicked the Lakers butts. That's what they would have done if they were the better team.
Again, if you truly believe the league cheats, why watch? I wouldn't.
Again, why on earth would you have an honest opinion about that game, whether you were watching it live or not? I am sure the big screen at Staples showed all the bad calls on replays continuously, like they did on TV, right?
No, msc, your credibility on this one can not be trusted and that is just how it is. Besides, would not bad calls rev up the crowd even more? I would not know, having never experienced bad calls that benefitted the Kings in a playoff series with the ramifications of 2002, but as you stated, you have plenty of experience on how a home (Laker) crowd would react, having the refs lead your team back into contention in a game they had clearly lost.
And no, I can not agree that any team, once it was made abundantly clear they were not wanted in the Championship Series by the League, that they would necessarily respond in a positive fashion in the next game. It would take a while for the stench of the bad game to wear off.
In that, as you state, Donaghy even made an accusation regarding this game, does that not tell you the game is STILL causing controversy, even six years later? Hardly matters if he is truthful or not, and his credibility is highly questionable, but that he CAN reference this game and claim it was influenced - why are YOU not outraged that this is being brought up and damaging the League and quit watching as well? It is out on the table once again that there is a problem with the honesty of the referees that affects all of us, not just Kings' fans.
And, again, since 2002 I have hardly had the same ardor for the NBA as I did prior to that, so yes, I guess I AM not all that involved with it any more. But as long as you have your Lakers getting to play in championship after championship series and you can live with the very clear fact that some of them will forevermore be tainted, what does it matter if a few of us who are more honest with ourselves and are paying less attention to it leave it alone to do other things.
It is
YOUR support of the NBA that is continuing the problem, genius,
NOT mine.
