Donaghy: 2002 NBA Playoffs series fixed

Mizzou, I think that so much more money is wagered on pro football than pro hoops might be taken into consideration.

I would also think the "WWL" in reporting on sports having a huge, huge dog in this fight is playing a part.

Also, the disparity in people that care about the NFL and the NBA might be staggering.

If you took 100 people off the street, I would say on average 50-60 care about the NFL. It would be higher in some cities and lower in others, but if you went to Boise, Idaho and asked 100 people if they cared about the NFL, I would guess 50% would.

If you asked 100 people in Boise if they cared about the NBA, I think 10 would answer yes.

 

"Who cares if it's fixed? There has to be a winner."

- Huggy's old man, a degenerate gambler if there ever was one.

 

to it's credit ESPN radio is all over this story, overnight Mike Mathis was interviewed and he stated "league officials" would meet with referees before and at halftime of playoff games to point out things to look for and things to not emphasize, this is not like a film study after a game to correct errors

 

Do you know how much easier it would be to fix a basketball game than the NFL?

In the NBA, you put a star player in foul trouble and that could do it. Call more fouls on one team than the other and that would do it.

NFL would take so many people being involved that it would be way too difficult to pull off 99 percent of the time.

 

Apparently, ESPN thinks the Soriano injury is bigger news.

 

Easier to get a player than a ref in football.

To this day I think the Steelers were given an unexpected gift when the Vandershank missed by 20 yards.

I have never seen a kick miss by that much. Never. Not even in jv football.

It was almost like the kicker wanted to be sure there was no chance of it going through.

 

It is. It's baseball.

That, and the Cubs are the feel-good story of the year, don'tcha know?

 

Probably because there's actually evidence of Soriano's injury. It's not Pete Rose saying he "heard" from someone that Soriano got hurt.

Leagues stressing points of emphasis happens all the time - hello, balk rule, and pass interference. During the Spurs-Suns series, Popovich had the league look at Shaq stepping over the free throw line. He got called for violations the next game. Was that a conspiracy?

And nobody does PR better than the NBA? That was probably true in 1990. How's the league's reputation been the last few years, even though the quality of the game has been rising? Meanwhile, about half of all NFL games are utterly unwatchable, but the NFL stays as popular as ever. That's a pretty good PR machine there. The best hitter and pitcher of the last two decades were cheats and an entire World Series was canceled, yet baseball remains popular. Pretty good PR there.

 

STG, the NBA was the most watchable in the early 1980s. The quality of play in the NBA is way down.

The NFL is better now than it ever was. The first quarter of every NFL is watchable. After that, the game can get out of hand.

Baseball's roots are too deep. You need a lot more poison to kill that tree.

 

An even better example of that is Canseco.

When Canseco's book was first released, I remember public opinion being nearly uniform: he was lying; Canseco was a proven scumbag; nobody should believe his word against that of fine honorable guys like Palmeiro, McGwire, and Giambi; Canseco was known to be in need of money and was bitter and angry at baseball for allegedly blackballing him; he was obviously trying to get revenge by making up lies to sell books, get publicity, cash in, etc.

Problem is it turns out Canseco was telling the truth and the fine honorable future hall of famers were the ones lying.

I don't know if I believe him, but I'm more reluctant to dismiss Donaghy on the "scumbag/felon" grounds now than I would've been a few years ago.

 

But Canseco wasn't facing years in prison for, say, distributing steroids when he made his accusation. Donaghy didn't write a book. He filed court papers weeks before he's going to be sentenced to prison.

I agree that the 80s was the Golden Era of basketball. But it's not just about quality of play. I've got about 50 tapes of games from that decade. Watching them now, I'm often struck by the poor defense, how many unathletic players got major time, and how many players couldn't shoot threes. The quality of play the last few years has been quite high. What made the 80s great was the style, it was more up and down, fastbreaking, the coaches weren't control freaks who demanded to call every play. I wish the NBA would get back to that style, but that doesn't mean the level of play isn't high.

Baseball's roots are deeper, so are football's. The NBA's always been looked down at to some degree, throughout its existence, and into the 60s, 70s, 90s and today. It was the golden league for a few years in the 80s, but that's about it. So it makes sense that people would also be more willing to accept that there are nefarious happenings in the league, because it doesn't have those deep roots embedded with the public. Something like this fulfills their expectations that there's something deeply wrong with the league, even if Donaghy's tales have a thousand holes.

It's a point of pride among many people to talk about how much they hate the NBA, or how little they care about it. Which is fine. I pretty much feel the same way about the NFL. But that doesn't mean I think the league is rigged when I see a game that has 15 penalties called in it or a guy misses a holding call on the left tackle during a touchdown run.

 

And how many former NFL referees have filed sworn documents in federal court alleging personal knowledge of games being rigged? And how many have already been CONVICTED of actually rigging games in recent years?

You seem to be missing a key element here. This isn't being discussed solely because people have a grudge against the NBA, its being discussed because Donaghy's statement makes it a huge story. And you're deluding yourself if you don't believe we'd be discussing it if an umpire or ref made the same sort of allegations about the NFL or MLB.