Donaghy: 2002 NBA Playoffs series fixed

I'm watching it with the sound off because I'm transcribing an interview, so I don't know if it's been mentioned. I do know, however, that the Lakers shot about 20 free throws in the first half; the Celtics have shot four.

Just sayin'.

 

Free throw disparity alone is never the answer when trying to discern whether a game is on the up-and-up, style of play by a team on a given night can legitimately skew free throw disparity.

It's how you COME to the alleged free throw disparity and it isn't often reflected in the numbers. To wit, game total free throws might only be off by a free throw or three, but if one of the teams shot 14 in a row via phantom/questionable calls, there's your fix.

There are better ways to fix a game than obviously bad call anyway. A better way a ref can fix a game can be done without detection in a box score, or even a play-by-play. A bad possession call on a scramble out of bounds or a loose ball, awarding a phantom timeout when an opposing team clearly has a ballhandler legitimately trapped, awarding a shooting foul instead of a non-shooting foul and vice versa, oddball lane violations on free throw attempts, etc.

I've only covered one game in my life (not the Lakers-Kings game) that I thought was fixed. And it featured all of the above.

To the topic at hand, the "condemned man singing a song defense" by the NBA is as instantly mistrusted by me as Donaghy's allegations are mistrusted by them.

I don't know if I buy what Donaghy is selling or not, but there's too much smoke to indicate fire for me to ever trust the NBA or the product it puts on the floor ... and that's a shame.

 

He's not a reporter any more.. he's a celebrity

 

If I'm the NBA, I don't want Stephen A. Smith on my side. Except, of course, that he's essentially paid by my side.

 

NBA is all about fixing things. Two highest rated tv markets in the final after having both teams make unusual, unreal trades to allow the teams to contain legit players in the first place. The NBA draft is a complete joke and the fact that the lottery is done behind closed doors and that teams with less then 2% chance consistently win the top pick is beyond suspicious.

 

Bubbler's got it best so far. No surprise.

Remember to focus, people, on the fact Donaghy's not claiming that the series' outcome was fixed, just that they wanted it to go seven games.

Gotta see this all the way through - both the NBA media in reporting it and the rest of us in making a final judgement.
But boy, as someone has already said, there is an awful lot of smoke here.

 

So you figure there's any correlation between that happening and DWade now being the player in all the TV commercials in playoff games?

 

Also, an excellent point by Simon.
I think just as damning as any of this latest info - maybe even more so - are the allegations of encouraging preferential treatment of 'star' players. Every damn one of us who has ever watched an NBA game has felt that way. Were it true, and were it to come out that that edict came down from the very top of the league, that would be irreparably damaging.
It's one thing for everyone to know about it and even joke about it because it's gone on for so long. (Anyone else remember the Dream Team photo shoot where Magic jokes that "You can't get too close to Michael, or it's a foul?") That in itself is not terribly harmful.
But if the whole things comes out as a de facto official company line, that's devastating stuff.

Because the bottom line is, if you're not on the up-and-up, you're the WWE.

 

Basketball is the one sport where a ref's calls, more than any other sport, can change the outcome of a game, or a series in the playoffs. It doesn't have to be 40-6 free throws for one team over another.

A charge instead of a blocking foul here, a walk there, a no-call there, a push off that's called on the defensive guy instead -- especially in a crucial point of a game-- or a main player getting 2 or 3 quick fouls while another player gets away with axe murdering....it doesn't take much, people. That's why the conspiracies are out there. It's too easy to tilt a game one way or the other.

 

Maybe that's what Donaghy thought too. Maybe that is why we said it. Remember we are taking the word of a crooked sleazy dude who bet on something that was otherwise pure.

Now I strongly believe he is telling the truth, in which case Stern is gone, and his cronies. It would hurt basketball but not kill it, because I will still follow my team. But this is still something to think about Donaghy could be lying.

 

Barry Bonds was once untouchable and beyond reproach.

Stern may be laughing it off now and it may take a few years for this to suss out, but as Bubbler said, around the court, where there's smoke there's fire.

Either that, or George McGinnis is puffin' on a Kool Filter King in the locker room.