The NBA and Tim Donaghy

The situation that should be David Stern’s worst nightmare continues.  I say should because Stern continues to brush aside “rogue” former NBA official Tim Donaghy.  In the past couple of days Donaghy has claimed that NBA officials have influenced the outcome of NBA playoff games, including, perhaps most notably, game six of the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Sacramento Kings and the Los Angeles Lakers.

This situation is extremely similar to another sports story of the last couple of years.  When Jose Canseco released Juiced, his tell all steroids book, the public dismissed him as simply trying to attract attention and make himself relevant again (apparently VH1’s The Surreal Life wasn’t enough).  Donaghy doesn't have a book for his secrets, but his statements are just as important.

Now, I am not saying that I completely believe Donaghy, but he should not be ignored.  Investigate the games in question.  If the NBA and its officials did not do anything wrong, they do not have anything to hide.  If anything, get statements from the officials that worked the games.  It couldn’t hurt.

Looking at the particular game under question most would agree something was, and now again is, suspicious about that game.  The Los Angeles Lakers were awarded 27 free throws in the fourth quarter of the game.  Any basketball fan would recognize the absurdity of that number in any game, let alone the conference finals.  They took more than two free throws every minute of the quarter.  Even hack-a-Shaq wouldn’t have worked. 

And I don’t buy into theories of referees having bad days.  I have been a referee.  That being said, it was in soccer not basketball, but I never had a “bad day.”  I made bad calls, but I didn’t repeatedly make bad calls, let alone make them against only one team in the final minutes of the game.  Every time I made a mistake I recognized it and made sure it did not happen again. If I, as a fourteen year-old at the time, could make adjustments during a game I would hope a grown man, who makes his living as an official, could do the same.

David Stern should follow my lead and make adjustments himself.  He needs to stop calling Donaghy a rogue official until he knows for sure he is correct.  He cannot continue to ignore this man because it will come back to hurt him and ultimately his legacy.