This doesn’t affect the way I view he NBA, because I’m a closet conspiracy theorist who i intrigued by the financial implications of who does/doesn’t win.

That star treatment, tick tacky calls, or fouls on the wrong guy is something we all know. Even we don’t admit it, we are trained to think that way.

1.) Donaghy pretty much admitted that the league didn’t openly “fix” games. It was “Subtle messages.” Who doesn’t think this anyway.

2.) The NBA will have no choice but to clean up officiating.

I wish I could read the whole book. Part of the reason I love professional sports, especially the NBA, is the story lines. This is why players are pros. When the money is on the line, who will come through? The refs are the tool of a league. They will make sure that chances are given and the best pros get it done when their number is called. Jordan was the best professional we ever saw. Kobe is made of the same ilk. When his chance is given, they comes through.

I could go on and on about this.

Who’d thunk it?!

There’s no doubt that referees will whistle players unnecessarily in order to make up for a bad call at the other end. Confirmed by Donaghy. There will also be makeup GAMES. In the 2002 WCF, the 4th quarter of Game 6 was a makeup game for the abysmal performance of the referees in the final 24 seconds of Game 5, when these three things happened in succession: (1) with the Lakers leading by one point and the Kings with possession, the ball went out of bounds, quite obviously touched last by a King. The refs awarded the ball to the Kings; (2) with about ten seconds left, the Kings inbounded the ball to Bibby, who went left around the most blatantly illegal pick ever set (by Chris Webber) and hit a 20-footer; and (3) the Lakers got the ball to Kobe, who put a move or two on Bobby Jackson and went up to shoot a jumper over him, but Jackson grabbed Kobe’s jersey and pulled it completely out of his shorts as he went up for the shot (no call).

All of the national whiners refer to Game 6, when the Lakers shot 27 FTs in the 4th quarter to 9 for the Kings (8 of those FTs came when the Kings fouled the Lakers intentionally at the end). Nobody ever talks about Game 5, when three obvious calls/non-calls in succession went against the Lakers in the final 24 seconds.

In addition, Game 2 was pretty blatantly one-sided against the Lakers as well. The Lakers had blasted the Kings in six consecutive playoff games at that point, and the entire starting lineup was in foul trouble in the first half (Kings benefited from a huge FT disparity). If not for the zebras taking over, the Kings would have been at a huge psychological disadvantage after getting blown out in 2000 1st Round Game 5, 2001 2nd Round in four straight games, and 2002 WCF Game 1.

Also, everyone I’m sure is familiar with the 2008 NBA Finals. In Game 2, halfway through the 3rd quarter, the Celtics had shot 25 FTs to the Lakers only 2!!! And this occurred in a game where the shot chart showed a nearly equal amount of shots taken within five feet of the rim for both teams. So in Game 3 in LA, the Lakers drove to the hole and had a huge FT disparity in their favor as the refs called fouls on the Celtics for EVERYTHING.

These sort of things are not that hard to believe that they do happen. You can micro manage something as big as the NBA but there will always be things that slip through the cracks.

I don’t think it’s enough to swing or change an outcome of a series, especially a 7 game series. The best team will win, and that usually has nothing to do with the refs.

Or am I being too nice to the refs?

So the officiating looks slightly more honest :P

…there’s some very meaty stuff in there and its quite disappointing. I still will continue to love the sport, but I’d be lying if i said this won’t totally change my outlook on the game. Anyways, a lot of it will be easy to prove or disprove because donaghey cites very specific games and calls. How does Stern handle this?

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/The_Baseline/entry/view/41020/donaghy_revelations_valuable_to_casual_nba_fan;_to_true_fan,_not_so_much

As always I know ref miss calls and I think they all SUCK and now the league will have to look into these allegations and improve their refs. I think replay should be used more or more refs need to be assigned to each game or something because this doesn’t change my view of the game but NBA will want to make it seem like Tim is wrong so they will look to make adjustments or improvements to keep their market value.