Talk about bad timing! After a game 2 where the refs where very more than friendly to the home team Mr Donaghy dropped the bomb telling that his not the only crooked ref. He also said game 6 of the 2002 Western Finals between the LA Lakers and the Sacramento Kings was fixed. Not really a surprise there. He also testified the NBA protects superstars by "advicing" the refs to not call technical fouls on them. Not really a surprise neither.
The importantance of this matter is that this is a legal document in an US federal investigation, you can't get more serious than that. This allegations are not coming from the regular fan or the pissed off Kings' fanbase, this is coming from one of their own. This is coming from inside. If this is true how is David Stern and the NBA defend themselves when Suns fans present their case. When Spurs fans present their case. When any fan of any team that felt or had felft that his or her team is being targeted by the refs. They just can't. I don't know how are the going to control this or if they can control it at all!
I want to record something here: Being a basketball referee must be pretty damn hard. For any of you who had played basketball at any level you know there's going to be contact all over the place. Some of this contact might not affect what you are doing (shooting, dribbling, passing, running, whatever) and that type of contact is not a foul. All contact can't be called unless you want to made of basketball a 6 hour event with no flow at all. There's another type of contact which actually prevents your action to be executed in a proper manner or in the manner you meant to. That is a foul. BUT (yeah..big BUT) you as a player might understand why the ref didn't called it. Maybe it was a slight push, or just a little snake bite in your shooting arm or a moving screen that didn't moved that much. Should be foul but the referees are human and we know that.
And there are the totally-obvious-in-the-middle-of-the-action-in-front-of-the-referee type of foul. This are the type of fouls that enraged fans and teams. Refs are trained to execute their jobs as efficient as possible, some of them have been doing it for over 20 o 30 years and still they miss calls like that. There must be a reason and maybe Donaghy is giving us that reason. The league saids that don't want the refs to decided the output of the game but if a player lands on top of other player in tha act of shooting or try to grab him went attempting a shot that no-call is not deciding the result of the game. I don't see the point.
As I said, the timing sucks big time. Everybody was calling out on the refs for sending the Celtics 38 times to the line in Game 2 and then in Game 3- just after Donaghy allegations went public - the Lakers had their own free throw parade in the first half. Everybody, from the true NBA fan to the ex NBA fan, is going to have an eye on the refs for the rest of the finals. Another no call at the end of games or another huge disparaty in the free throws is going to trigger the notion that this entire postseason has been fixed. Am I being a little overdramatic? I don't think so. There were rumors 0n the street since the start of the playoffs that the league would love a Lakers- C's final (Stern said it outloud but at the time of those remarks nobody thought LA could get to the finals ) maybe a little too much. They got their finals. They are getting their big ratings. Let's just hope merchandising doesn't decide this year champion.
Update: He's not alone
I want to record something here: Being a basketball referee must be pretty damn hard. For any of you who had played basketball at any level you know there's going to be contact all over the place. Some of this contact might not affect what you are doing (shooting, dribbling, passing, running, whatever) and that type of contact is not a foul. All contact can't be called unless you want to made of basketball a 6 hour event with no flow at all. There's another type of contact which actually prevents your action to be executed in a proper manner or in the manner you meant to. That is a foul. BUT (yeah..big BUT) you as a player might understand why the ref didn't called it. Maybe it was a slight push, or just a little snake bite in your shooting arm or a moving screen that didn't moved that much. Should be foul but the referees are human and we know that.
And there are the totally-obvious-in-the-middle-of-the-action-in-front-of-the-referee type of foul. This are the type of fouls that enraged fans and teams. Refs are trained to execute their jobs as efficient as possible, some of them have been doing it for over 20 o 30 years and still they miss calls like that. There must be a reason and maybe Donaghy is giving us that reason. The league saids that don't want the refs to decided the output of the game but if a player lands on top of other player in tha act of shooting or try to grab him went attempting a shot that no-call is not deciding the result of the game. I don't see the point.
As I said, the timing sucks big time. Everybody was calling out on the refs for sending the Celtics 38 times to the line in Game 2 and then in Game 3- just after Donaghy allegations went public - the Lakers had their own free throw parade in the first half. Everybody, from the true NBA fan to the ex NBA fan, is going to have an eye on the refs for the rest of the finals. Another no call at the end of games or another huge disparaty in the free throws is going to trigger the notion that this entire postseason has been fixed. Am I being a little overdramatic? I don't think so. There were rumors 0n the street since the start of the playoffs that the league would love a Lakers- C's final (Stern said it outloud but at the time of those remarks nobody thought LA could get to the finals ) maybe a little too much. They got their finals. They are getting their big ratings. Let's just hope merchandising doesn't decide this year champion.
Update: He's not alone
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