Goodbye NBA
 

remember Jose Canseco - a dirtbag for sure - but a dirtbag who was telling the truth when he blew the whistle on the rampant everyday use of steroids in baseball.

Tim Donaghy, the disgraced NBA referee headed to prison has told the Feds that the NBA itself rigs games and playoff series.

Anybody who follows the NBA knows in their gut what the truth is.

Goodbye David Stern.

Donaghy first began telling the FBI about other referees in July 2007. He gave federal investigators additional information in a meeting in September. His claims are serious. They include allegations that the NBA attempted to insulate star players from technical fouls to build up ticket sales and television ratings. Most seriously, he claims there was a successful effort by two referees to extend a playoff series to a seventh game, assisting in the victory for the team that trailed 3-2 in the series. The accusations are the kinds of things that fuel conspiracy theories that abound among NBA fans, but Donaghy is now adding dates, places and games. According to Donaghy and Lauro, two referees in 2002 deliberately ignored fouls that resulted in injuries and called "made-up fouls" to give addition foul shots to one team. Even worse, Donaghy asserts that the referees did all of it because they were "company men" who "always act[ed] in the interest of the NBA, and that night, it was in the NBA's interest to add another game to the series."

Top football league in italy had similar drama a couple of years ago.

All though deep down I think this is true, don't you think Donaghy could be trying to save his own ass by making something like this up? I mean the guy could face 25 years. What we really need is consistency with the refs, its ridiculous how many fouls are called now a days. You got the veteran rule, the rookie rule, over the top, charging, etc....It seems like in Boston the refs had let them play and now in LA Kobe gets to the line 18 times but in Boston just 7 times. Its not like in Boston that Pierce or Garnett were at the line a whole lot either, in Boston they let em play. That's like an empire giving a huge strike zone for the home teams pitching and a minimal one for the opposing team, if that happened the Commissioner would be out of there! So hopefully someone will wake up and kick Stern out of there.

well of course that's what Stern and everybody in the NBA is going to say about Donaghy that he is a convicted felon singing like a canary to save his own ass. First, he is already going to prison and has lost most of his money - there's not much ass to be saved.
Baseball said the same shit about Canseco. Whistle blowers with an axe to grind usually are scumbags themselves but that doesn't make them liars.

I've seen way too many NBA games with bizarre calls. Always written off as 'basketball is the hardest game to officiate, bad calls go both ways, they all even out in the end'.

Jeff Van Gundy in 2002 came right out and told people that an NBA 'official' tipped him off that the league had given orders that Yao Ming was going to get called for illegal screens.

Van Gundy last night was already spinning what he said 5 years ago because he knows this is a story that could bring the NBA down and he doesn't want to be in the center of it.

I'm not suprised at any of this. I've wondered for a long time if and how the playoffs were rigged to benefit the NBA and the team owners.

If a series ends before the last possible game, that's a loss of ticket sales, concessions,TV income, advertising sales, on and on. A single game (especially a playoff) = big $$$.

Just simple business logic that they would want to run it out to the last possible contest.

Hell, I would. :)

The NBA has been a joke since the 2nd time Jordan retired. I said goodbye a long time ago. Maybe this shake up will make it watchable again.

this is some serious accusations, it will be interesting to see the outcome.

:thumbsup

its a private owned corp what can the fbi do about it?

I wonder what other leagues this happens in.

Some MMA orgs are starting to look like they are using the refs to influence outcomes in matches.

If anyone watched that Lakers-Kings series back then, it was obvious the game was fixed.

It's happening now. I'm sure this series will go to 7 games. lakers/celts this is a cash cow for the league. I don't even watch the nba like I use to.

Yeah I remember being able to see the strings hanging from the roof that guided Horry's 3 in at the buzzer. They shouldn't make it so obvious. :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Not a HUGE surprise
there is a lot of money wrapped up in games...all the things mentioned like advertising, concessions, etc. but also gambling revenues here in Vegas...

The Lakers shot 27 free throws in the 4th quarter, the Kings shot 4. Seriously, did you watch the game? It was either the worst officiated game in the history of basketball, or it was fixed.

i have compared the nba to wwf for 10-15 years sadly this is not news to me

The fact that Tim Donaghy felt it was ok to make some phantom calls to throw the game for his own benefit during the Suns/Spurs series tells you that this is common place and part of the culture of NBA refs. Otherwise, his crew would have called him up on that. Just wait until something like this breaks in the the NFL. Thats when shit will hit the fan. The NFL has been dodging bullets like the 'Tuck Rule' for sometime. Eventually it will come out that those games are fixed as well.

They can call grand jury hearings to find out the truth. Anyone who is caught lying can be sentenced to jail time.

Just like baseball and it will be a waste of taxpayer?s money.:2 cents:

very true. i feel the same way with the NFL too. oh well, rigged or not, still fun to watch

As an NBA fan I'm appalled, but I would not be shocked at all. Every sport has crooked people, I dont care how clean they try to keep it.

Sucks there are people like this ruining the game

need somebody to corraburate Donaghy's claims - won't be Jeff Van Gundy, he's got a career to protect as does anybody else connected to the NBA.

Van Gundy was fined $100,000 for speaking out in 2002 - that is one helluva big fine - question this begs was the NBA super sensitive about it for a reason and also makes you wonder about Donaghy - did he just conveniently remember that this controversy went down and has no real knowledge of anything but he knows the NBA can't disprove it and is just trying to bring other people, David Stern mostly, down with him.

From a news story I just read:

"Perhaps the most explosive allegation was that two unnamed referees that Donaghy refers to as "company men" officiated a Game 6 in the 2002 playoffs with the explicit intention of forcing the series to seven games, which is what occurred. He alleges that they did so by calling "made-up fouls" on one team, and by ignoring obvious fouls committed by the other team.

That is believed to refer to the infamous Game 6 in the 2002 Western Conference final between the Lakers and Sacramento. The two-time champion Lakers trailed 3-2 going into Game 6 at home in this very building, and forced a Game 7 thanks in part to 40 free-throw attempts, 29 of which came in the fourth quarter. Several Kings found foul trouble - Sacramento centre Vlade Divac told reporters, "I knew before the game I'm going to be [fouling] out," - and on one play with 12 seconds left, Kobe Bryant elbowed and pushed aside Sacramento's Mike Bibby, only to see an incredulous Bibby be called for the foul.

Even at the time, the game was considered an officiating travesty: Jack McCallum of Sports Illustrated, one of the game's most respected chroniclers, called it "one of the worst officiated games I've ever seen." Michael Wilbon of The Washington Post and ABC said last night it was the worst-refereed game he had seen in 28 years of covering the NBA."

Yikes.

Kind of ironic how Mr League Image himself is about to shamefully bow out.. Dude goes on and on about how players dress, how they act off the court, suspensions/fines for even speaking bad about the league or refs..

Fuckin douchebag.

I believe its because of number of issues. I think congress came them exemption to anti-trust laws or something, and another being illegal gambling and fixing.

As long as my Lakers win in 6 games, that's all I care about! Rig/Fix Away Mr Stern!

My point was if they were trying to fix the game why did it take a 3 point buzzer beater to win it?

Anyway there are poorly officiated games all the time, doesn't mean there is some big conspiracy going on. Officials make mistakes every single game, some games more then others. That is a fact. Combine that with the Lakers being at home, Shaq and Kobe being 2 players that were probably averaging the most free throw attempts in the league at the time and I don't see how it is "obvious" that the game was fixed. Poorly officiated probably but fixed, I doubt it.

I bet there were some pissed off people betting on that game! (and some really happy people too.)

:disgust

well, Spurs aren't playing the Finals, so NBA sucks this season for sure :(

Actually the max he can get is 33 months and the prosecution asked for probation. So I don't think he's using it to get of lighter. How much lighter do you get than probation?

How is the NFL rigged?

Superbowl 32 was a good example.