Donaghy: 2002 NBA Playoffs series fixed

Morons,

That series was going seven no matter what. The Kings and Lakers were that evenly matched. They went the full five games in a first round series two years before. Los Angeles swept Sacto in 2001, but that was before Sacramento traded for Mike Bibby, and the Lakers lost just once in the entire 2001 postseason.

10 of the Laker free throws in the fourth quarter of that Game 6 came off of Hack-a-Shaq, and six were intentional fouls in the last minute to stop the clock. That leaves 11 free throws in the fourth quarter for the Lakers, as compared with 9 for the Kings.

That's a two free throw disparity.

That's a fix?

What the refs did in that Game 6 was refuse to buy into the flopping and fainting that the Kings had been getting away with and getting foul calls on for the first five games of that series, flops that were being complained about ON THIS FRIGGIN' BOARD. Of course, when the refs look the other way when Vlade and Pollard and Turkoglu take a dive, as was being begged for by certain posters on this board back then, that left a whole new batch of complaints. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

 

So, Jordan didn't get knocked on his ass a half-dozen times in that fourth quarter? Toni Kukoc didn't hit all those shots?

Good players go to the free throw line for a reason. They get fouled.

 

Hey Slim, go back and watch that 4th quarter. I was at that game, a fan of neither team, and it was one of the most poorly officiated games I've ever seen. Others, including Mike Wilbon, have said the same thing. Whether it was incompetence or dishonesty, I don't know, but I do know that the free throw disparity doesn't even begin tell the whole story of how egregiously bad the officiating was.

Also, Stern says the NBA and the feds both investigated Donaghy's claims and found them baseless. Yet Bob Delaney, one of the refs from that Lakers-Kings game, says no investigator has ever contacted him about it. So where's this thorough investigation Stern is talking about? Something stinks here, big time.

 

Yes, the refs were so prejudiced that they forced a decrepit Adrian Griffin to try and guard Dwyane Wade, and they made Griffin and Devin Harris shove two hands into Wade every time Wade drove. A-hole refs, I say.

 

It was a horribly officiated game, as was Game 5. There was a complete shift in refereeing styles (Kobe nearly fouled out of Game 5, Shaq fouled out of Game 5) from the flop-kindly to the flop-unkindly, and the teams weren't ready for it.

It certainly doesn't mean that Bernhardt and Bavetta have ratings in mind every time they micro-manage whistle anything that moves.

 

In the middle of the 1984 Finals, then-rookie Commissioner Stern said it would be great for the league if the series went seven games, for which Larry Bird ripped Stern several new bodily apertures in remarks to the media.
So don't say the league doesn't want long series. It does. Would they cheat to get them? I dunno.
As for officiating assignments, there's a pool of refs who work the playoffs, and a smaller pool who work the Finals. If Salvatore (who has always sucked) didn't work Games 1-2, there was a better than 50 percent chance he'd work Game 3. Simmons' thought was interesting, for once, but don't give too much credit for forecasting.

 

It went way beyond bad officiating. It was absurd. Even the biggest Lakers fanboy knew it was fixed.

 

I'm the last one that will ever come to the NBA's defense, as it's become a damn joke. It's not all Stern's fault either ... but this post here has a little bit TOO much crazy conspiracy feel to it for my tastes.

 

Conspiracies are easy to say, harder to prove.

However, they do come to light because of the paper trail and because it almost always involves a lower level person who has the facts (think about who used to type out the memos and letters, the people who delivered the stuff, someone who overhears something, a spouse).

This is exactly why I do not buy into the JFK/RFK/MLK conspiracies. If someone knows about it, they will eventually spill the beans because they have no motivation to keep the secret.

Donaghy is the perfect guy. Yes he is a convicted felon but that explains the release point. However, let's see if someone corroborates him. At this point, he's got no direct evidence, just repeating what someone else supposedly told him.

And he's got the motivation to lie, he's requesting leniency by complaining that he's not the only crooked ref. If he convinces his sentencing judge, he gets less jail time. So he's definitely out for No. 1, not the public.

 

You seem to so confident about this, sounds like you have one hell of a story. Others on here are giving opinions while you are guaranteeing it, your a journalist so why haven't you written this blockbuster yet.

 

Not really sure if you've got the game on tape or not or something -- I don't, haven't watched it since it happened. But to say that all 10 fouls on Shaq in the fourth were intentional hack-a-shaq's is out there. I distinctly recall him getting away with murder on the block throughout that entire game AND usually when he was bull-rushing and leading with his elbow -- blatant offensive fouls -- it would go as a defensive call. I remember more than one instance of Kobe floating through the lane, not getting so much as breathed upon, and then sinking two free throws. Also, the fact that O'Neal gets through such a physical game like that with only four fouls when virtually all the Kings bigs have at least five is absurd. It goes beyond simple numbers.

 

Fuck that league. They made their own bed.

But fuck guys like Mizzou96. That guy is an absolute douche.