My thoughts about Donaghy

[Khamit]

I've watched basketball religiously for the last 20years and never really had a problem with NBA officiating.  Don't get me wrong, I've been annoyed by bad calls but for the most part I viewed them as mistakes.  I think anyone who thinks officials should get everyone call right is somewhat naive. They (officials) are humans and we have to factor in human error. After all, I also make mistakes at work.  There are also times when personal relationships and biases influence how games are called.  For example, considering Joey Crawford doesn't like the Spurs or Nick Bavetta is not a fan of Shaq and Ed Rush founds "dates" for Michael Jordon it reasonable to assume that some calls in games involving those players/teams & officials were influenced by factors outside of the court.  Not fair but I'm not going to stop watch basketball because of it.  And then there are those cheaters (players, coaches & officials) who blatantly ignore the rules for their own person gains.  These folks should be dealt with accordingly but it doesn't negate the legitimacy of the league as a whole.  However, if Donaghy's accusations are correct how can we ever trust anything that happens in the NBA. If the league office does determine games then it would be foolish to believe that it only happened in the 2002 WCF.  What about the 1994 Western Conference Finals where in game 7 Barkley shot 22 free throws in the 4th quarter alone (game tally Suns 64FT, Sonics 34FT), or the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals where Scott Williams was suspended for game 7 because of a very suspect flagrant call in game 6 and Mutombo shot 16 free throws (9.5 above his average from the previous 6 games) and finally there is last year's Spurs-Phoenix series -- there is no need to rehash the what went down there.  Are the Bird, Magic & Jordan dynasties legit or were Celtics, Lakers & Bulls  lucky that to have these guys on their team at a time when the NBA began to focus its marketing on individual stars and not teams.  What about the Spurs locking up the #1 pick and choirboy Tim Duncan to join choirboy David Robinson at a time when the NBA began to show concern that the negative image of many of these individual stars would hurt the league.  No answers...just a bunch of questions.

[Joe Vancil]

Those are fair questions - and ones that I think the NBA needs to take more seriously than they have been.

Do I believe games have been fixed?  ABSOLUTELY.  Phoenix/Milwaukee in the late '80's.  Some of the players implied to have been a part of that are TODAY assistant coaches in the league.  One was actually a head coach for a while.  And no big stink was made about it back then.  Everyone closed their eyes and pretended that it all went away.

Were all the championships since then "scripted?"  No.  No way.  No way at all.

Were *ANY* of the championships "scripted"?  I don't believe so.  I certainly hope not.  If any was, it was the Dallas/Miami one in 2006.

Were any of the GAMES along the way scripted?  I'm starting to think they were, or at the very least, could have been.

Was any SERIES altered by the league office?  In my opinion, ABSOLUTELY.  Phoenix/San An last year.  They ask us to believe that it was all according to the rules - rules which have not been as rigorously observed before OR SINCE.  That makes me disbelieve what the league office says.

The NBA is losing credibility.  Their handling of the Donaghy situation damaged their credibility further.  Their nowhere-close-to-stated-policy handling of other referee gambling  ought to really tick off those Suns fans who were told, "We've got to do it by our stated policy" last year.  Their message is inconsistent.  It's one thing to be unfair to EVERYBODY - it's another thing entirely to SOMETIMES be unfair.  The latter is too easily corrupted, and everyone knows it.

Let me put it another way:  I've always said that if I had billions of dollars, I'd try to buy an NBA team.  It's up there after buying up Surfside Court, demolishing one house to put an indoor basketball court with professional style locker rooms in, connecting the all the houses around do it via underground tunnel, and then giving those houses to my closest friends and teammates - so you can see that this is more fantasy than anything.  But RIGHT NOW, were I to have those billions of dollars, I *WOULDN'T* try to buy an NBA team.  I'd want to check into it and make sure everything was on the up-and-up - because if I had that kind of money, I wouldn't be worried about trying to make more money...I'd be in it because of love for the sport.  Now, I'd want to be sure the games would be fair - that if I put my money into trying to build a contender and then a champion, it would be *POSSIBLE* - before I'd consider it.  I'd have to know that, as an owner, it would be on ME - not on my standing with league offices, criminal organizations, player agents, or anything like that - to determine how well my team could do.  Right now, I question that.  And that's a huge change from where I used to be.

I love NBA basketball.  Probably always will.  But I don't trust the officials or the league office.  They've got to rebuild that trust.

[Skandery]

What about the 1994 Western Conference Finals where in game 7 Barkley shot 22 free throws in the 4th quarter alone (game tally Suns 64FT, Sonics 34FT), or the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals where Scott Williams was suspended for game 7 because of a very suspect flagrant call in game 6 and Mutombo shot 16 free throws (9.5 above his average from the previous 6 games) and finally there is last year's Spurs-Phoenix series -- there is no need to rehash the what went down there.

Great points Khamit.

I had just managed to completely bury the memory of Seattle being robbed in that Game 7 against MVP Barkley's Suns.  Thanks for dredging that up.

Joe makes a lot of sense and I like the way he put it.  While I don't believe that the NBA is "scripted", I don't trust a lot of the referees or the league office.

[msc]

Khamit and Joe, both very thoughtful and honest posts.  Thanks for that and welcome back, Khamit!  

While I agree that the league has to be more proactive in addressing these issues, I don't believe the NBA is rigging games.  I can't speak for the actions of individual officials or players, but I just don't buy that the league would risk its already profitable business over fixing a game or two here and there.  Another indicator is Vegas.  Do you think the Casino's would continue to take action if they knew the league was fixed?  I don't.  And while there are obviously individuals who will look to point shave and cheat within the Vegas system, the entire industry as a whole would not support gaming on the NBA if it was fixed.  Trust me, they would know more than we would.    

I also find it interesting that the NBA is the only pro sports league under such scrutiny.  Obviously the timing with the Donaghy case is bringing it to the forefront.  That said certainly MLB and the NFL could very easily fix games.  I see umpires call different strike zones from game to game and even from batter to batter.  An ump could easily affect the outcome of a MLB game.  We're constantly seeing managers get tossed for arguing calls, yet we don't see the same "conspiracy" talk among the media and fans when it comes to baseball.  Same goes for the NFL.  A ref could literally call holding on every down, yet they don't.  When, how often and which team they call it on can easily sway the outcome of a close game.  

Personally, I believe that these "suspicious" events are anomalies, random occurences and coincidences that are bound to happen over the course of 1,000's of games officiated by human beings.  As Khamit pointed out, some of these officials now have the reputation for not liking certain players/teams (Crawford with Timmy D and the Spurs as an example).  While this is wrong and clearly needs to be addressed by the league, I'm inclined to believe that these examples are often due to human error rather than a premeditated conspiracy to cheat by the league office.