Did Michael really fly? Or did he have some help from the zebras?
Back in the 1990’s when we were innocent enough to believe that the government didn’t keep aliens on ice at Area 51 or that the military did not create the AIDS virus to kill black people, there were whispers of dark conspiracies surrounding the most popular professional game on the planet – the National Basketball Association. There were intimations from crazed fans and journalists hungry for controversy that referees, in cahoots with the league office, were fixing the outcomes of games in the playoffs so that the NBA could realize the best matchups that would guarantee the most revenue.
There were also charges that the zebras would routinely work to extend playoff series so that the most revenue could be wrung from the match-ups.
It was also alleged back then that star players got special treatment from the refs regarding a lack of technical fouls ( allowing them to get away with thuggery) and, in order to keep them in the games, not calling personal fouls on them.
This was the decade that saw the end of the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird era and the beginning of the Chicago Bulls dynastic run of 6 NBA championships in 8 years. Led by arguably the greatest basketball player in history, Michael Jordan, the Bulls slugged it out early in the decade with first the Detroit Pistons and then, their arch nemesis the New York Knicks.
Those Bulls-Knicks series’ were bloody, take no prisoners affairs that have now retreated into legend. But at the time, it seemed that each game witnessed some of the strangest foul calls in the history of the NBA.
Rebounding was the key for both teams and the battle under the boards was incredible; pushing, shoving, elbows to the face, holding uniforms – anything to gain an advantage in positioning in order to grab the rebound. This, in and of itself was not unusual. In playoff refereeing, it was generally recognized that the players would be allowed a little more leeway than was vouchsafed during the regular season.
But the scrum under the boards wasn’t the problem. It was the phantom fouls being called by referees on defenders guarding shooters that raised eyebrows. Little or no contact with the shooter would draw a whistle and send the player to the free throw line. I can recall several games in this series where players and coaches were beside themselves as a result of a foul called for some ticky tacky contact or worse, no contact at all.
Sports talk radio (just coming into its own back then) was hot with callers claiming conspiracy. The league wanted the series to go on, was the charge. The refs were in the bag, whispered the paranoid.
NBA referees, influenced by cozy relationships with league officials, rigged a 2002 playoff series to force it to a revenue-boosting seven games, a former referee at the center of a gambling scandal alleged Tuesday.Without identifying anyone or naming teams, Tim Donaghy also claimed the NBA routinely encouraged refs to ring up bogus fouls to manipulate results but discouraged them from calling technical fouls on star players to keep them in games and protect ticket sales and television ratings.
Donaghy is a former ref convicted of manipulating games on which he bet. He also took money from gamblers to try and fix the point spread on games, receiving $5,000 for every game in which he was successful. At the time the scandal broke, I wondered if he was the only ref involved:
The NBA is in deep trouble. Donaghy, who will turn himself in this week, is said to have agreed to cooperate with the FBI in their investigation. If it is revealed that there are indeed other officials involved in this scandal, it could very well destroy the league. As it is now, fans will be watching NBA games with extra care next year and wondering.Always wondering.
And now, in the midst of the most watched NBA Finals in years, Donaghy apparently confirms all the nasty rumors and conspiracies that have been swirling around the league for more than a decade.
Or is his story just too perfect, too pat?
In one of several allegations of corrupt refereeing, Donaghy said he learned in May 2002 that two referees known as “company men” were working a best-of-seven series in which “Team 5” was leading 3-2. In the sixth game, he alleged the referees purposely ignored personal fouls and called “made-up fouls on Team 5 in order to give additional free throw opportunities for Team 6.”“Team 6” won the game and came back to win the series, the letter said.
Only the Los Angeles Lakers-Sacramento Kings series went to seven games during the 2002 playoffs. And the Lakers went on to win the championship.
At the time, consumer advocate Ralph Nader and the League of Fans, a sports industry watchdog group, sent a letter to Stern complaining about the officiating in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals.
The Lakers, who beat Sacramento 106-102 in that game in Los Angeles, shot 27 free throws in the final quarter and scored 16 of their last 18 points at the line.
The letter also alleged manipulation during a 2005 playoff series.
“Team 3 lost the first two games in the series and Team 3’s owner complained to NBA officials,” the letter said. “Team 3’s owner alleged that referees were letting a Team 4 player get away with illegal screens. NBA Executive Y told Referee Supervisor Z that the referees for that game were to enforce the screening rules strictly against that Team 4 player. ... The referees followed the league’s instructions and Team 3 came back from behind to win the series. The NBA benefited from this because it prolonged the series, resulting in more tickets sold and more televised games.”
In that same series, the letter says “Team 3” lost the first two games of the series and that team owner complained to NBA officials. The letter also alleges that the opposing team’s coach later was fined $100,000 after revealing an NBA official informed him of the behind-the-scenes instructions.
That would correspond with the 2005 first-round playoff series between the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks, in which Mark Cuban complained to officials and Jeff Van Gundy was fined.
This “evidence” is not as compelling as one might think. It could very well be that Donaghy was simply “confirming” what was believed by some observers in two very high profile incidents where such referee malfeasance was suspected. He has no physical proof that the league ordered the refs to rig the games. Only the word, as the league points out, of a man desperate to have his sentence reduced:
He’s a singing, cooperating witness who is trying to get as light a sentence as he can,” Stern said. “He turned on basically all of his colleagues in an attempt to demonstrate that he is not the only one who engaged in criminal activity. The U.S. attorney’s office, the FBI, have fully investigated it, and Mr. Donaghy is the only one who is guilty of a crime. And he will be sentenced for that crime regardless of the desperate attempts to implicate as many people as he can.”
All true, except…
Except the US attorney and the FBI may not have been informed of this additional information about NBA refs in a conspiracy with the league office to rig games because the letter containing the damning charges wasn’t filed until last Monday. The feds have investigated Donaghy and determined that no other refs or league officials were involved in his gambling schemes. But have they investigated these other charges?
Stern’s statement is unclear on this matter. However, nothing changes the fact that Donaghy’s letter was self-serving and totally void of proof. All we have is the word of a convicted gambler that conspiracy theories that have been the staple of sports talk radio for more than a decade may actually be true – not a lot to hang your hat on for most observers although I’m sure the lines will be hot with “I told you so’s” from the conspiracy promoters at the big sports talk radio stations today.
If the charges have not been investigated, it is paramount that the prosecutor and FBI do so. If the specific allegations have been looked at and found to be baseless, the league should make that plain to the public. As it stands now, David Stern’s statement is ambiguous about these additional charges.
Donaghy put the pro game under a cloud with his gambling. His shocking allegations could bring the NBA crashing down – if they were true. But even if they haven’t been investigated, Donaghy’s lack of proof in making these spectacular charges only reinforces the idea that he is just another con looking for a break from prosecutors.
8:46 am
Thankfully, I stopped watching NBA basketball 10 years ago. The league is filled with thugs, gangsters and otherwise dispicable characters. Why should the officiating, or for that matter, the front office be any different?
I would love to see an analysis of the rap sheets for the players in the various sports. If I were a betting man, and I am not, I would bet that the NBA has more arrests than either MLB or the NFL- and they have a much smaller roster.
I’ve started watching polo- now there’s a sport where there are very few felons. For those of you that don’t really like the ponys, there is always curling, fencing, and ice skating (now that Tonya Harding has retired).
9:00 am
I too gave up on the NBA when it became clear that it was becoming a thug league. There are no rules only suggestions. Players don’t have to dribble the ball, they just move to the basket and slam each other around. The officials call fouls when they feel like it…or, when it benefits a favored team.
It has become pro wrestling.
11:00 am
[...] Rick Moran writes about this today: However, nothing changes the fact that Donaghy’s letter was self-serving and totally void of proof. All we have is the word of a convicted gambler that conspiracy theories that have been the staple of sports talk radio for more than a decade may actually be true – not a lot to hang your hat on for most observers although I’m sure the lines will be hot with “I told you so’s” from the conspiracy promoters at the big sports talk radio stations today. [...]
11:15 am
Stern and the NBA have been too casual and quiet regarding the whole Donaghy thing. It began to look like either the NBA didn’t care about public relations (the integrity of the game) or they were anxious to have the whole thing disappear.
Donaghy’s allegations are very serious and could merit prosecution under RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act).
This makes me really mad. First, I find out that the dastardly N.E. coach Bill Belichick was spying on my Steelers in the AFC Championship game and now it looks like my Kings were also ripped off!
11:43 am
You can always watch “professional” wrestling. At least they give you a wink-and-a-nod while they pretend to be a real sport.
1:02 pm
I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in Donaghy’s allegations, but the number of phantom fouls is quite high in playoff basketball.
The sport could be instantly improved by making the goals 12 feet high instead of 10 feet. The dunk needs to be limited or eliminated (high school girls can dunk, for heaven’s sake!)and basketball returned to a purer shooting game. Raising the goal would help lessen the wrestling matches under the goals as well, as rebounds would go further. My 2 cents.
All good suggestions. But spectacular dunks make the highlight shows and promote the league. That simple.
ed.
1:58 pm
“All good suggestions. But spectacular dunks make the highlight shows and promote the league. That simple.
ed.”
You are of course correct. But I miss the game in which players had to be thinkers, not thugs. Guess I am officially old.
And, Dear Editor, any chance of an update on the Iraq War? It seems a lot of positives politically and militarily are happening but it is very hard to get specifics. I was one who grumped about getting into the wrong war in Iraq, but if can have a positive outcome, I will happily admit being wrong, eat my hat and send a donation to the G. W. Bush Library.
2:18 pm
Thinking out loud: I wonder what makes a “dunk” so spectacular? Anybody that can jump 30” high can do it, provided their hands are big enough- and that includes 99% of all the thugs in the NBA.
On the other hand, picking up the speed and trajectory of a circular missle travelling 92 mph (withing inches of your head), and crushing the living shit out of it with a wooden stick… now THAT is spectacular.
In my humble opinion (and yes, I know that many disagree), baseball requires the most talent of all the 3 major US sports. The combination of hand-eye coordination, arm strength, base running, instant decision making, etc. makes it the most demanding. Unfortunately, it is also the slowest and most boring.
2:22 pm
And probably the most rife with steroid abuse.
4:09 pm
Also… how amazing is it that the best center in NBA history, Wilt Champerlain never fouled out of one game? Think there wasn’t some issues with the officiating? Favoritism?
Chamberlain at 7’3” was playing against 6’8” centers. He didn’t need to body them to defend them. And there wasn’t as muich driving to the basket back then – especially with Chamberlain’s ability to swat the ball away.
Might seem like conspiracy but I think the situation was a little different.
ed.
4:10 pm
I have an open letter to David Stern at my blog. 14 days and counting with NO response.
4:24 pm
And raising the basket only means the big man plays a more important part. The higher the basket, the more missed shots = more rebounds.
The big guys would still dunk at 12’ high…
6:33 pm
Wilt was measured at 7’ 1 3/4” and although he never fouled out he was fouled all the time because he couldn’t shoot foul shoots,worse than Shack. Boston had two guys, Jungle Jim Lusketoff and Clyde Lovellette, not sure of the spelling and their job was to foul Wilt, and they used to hack the crap out of him and he would still score 50 against them.
12:35 am
As a Freshman at Kansas, Wilt also ran the (then) 440 yard dash faster than all but a few men in the country. He was a phenomenal athlete.
4:45 am
[...] people wondering, especially since this is not the NBA’s first experience with phantom fouls. Blogger Rick Moran writes about the Bulls/Knicks series that had rumors circulating: Little or no contact with the [...]
5:39 am
Whether Donaghy is lying or not, Stern should lose his job. It doesn’t take a mensa to realize that Donaghy could make a claim like this and for Stern not to have done something proactively to insulate the league against this is irresponsible. Phil Jackson stated that he would prefer that the league farm out the reffing to protect itself; it’s pretty damn bad when a head coach has a more insightful solution than the commissioner and his staff of lackeys.
The last two NBA playoffs have been rife with potential corruption: The Mavs were jobbed by the refs after the first two blowouts against the Heat as Dwayne Wade went to the line continually and Nowitzki couldn’t buy a call, and Stackhouse gets suspended for a hard foul that Shaq barely felt (and iirc wasn’t called a flagrant by the game refs) after Shaq opened him up. Last year the Suns got jobbed by suspensions of players that left the bench but did nothing more after a hard foul. And this year Joey freaking Crawford was assigned a Spurs/Lakers game after being suspended for his anger management problems with Tim Duncan.
Stern, and a former sub-mediocre head coach, Stu Jackson, who inexplicably has been put in a position of responsibility, have contributed to a decline in the integrity of the game. Purportedly one of the motives for Donaghy dropping this bombshell was that, in addition to the criminal charges, the NBA was charging Donaghy a million dollars for the cost of investigating him. This from the same league that throws money away supporting the worthless WNBA. I’m hoping Cuban or somebody takes action against Stern for reducing the value of their franchises. If no owner does anything to get rid of him, they’re dumber than I thought.
7:38 am
Not surprising at all…
I can point to two instances when the NBA head office blatantly helped the Lakers in the last 5 years.
First was in 2003 when the Lakers got off to a rocky start, Shaq was injured and the team was going to only qualify for a low seed. The NBA extened the first round to 7 games – arbitrarily and in the middle of the season.
The next was in 2004. The T-wolves (my team) were the number one seed. The Lakers were already qualified for the Conference championship, while the Kings had taken Minnesota to 7. The League had the conference finals start the day after the T-wolves seventh game. The wolves were tired and flat and lost that first game, and then lost the series.
So, yeah, I believe it.