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June 17, 2008

Something Just Wasn't Right

By Mark Smith
Of the Journal
      So it wasn't just me.
    I take pride in impartiality, especially when it comes to officiating.
    Whiny, boisterous superfans who blame the refs drive me nuts.
    Boy, certainly can't think of any of those around these parts, huh?
    It's bad enough to hear how a “ref cost us the game.”
    It's worse to hear how the Chosen Ones (ie ... Brigham Young, Yankees, Cowboys, Lakers) always get the calls.
    But when I hear fanatics gripe about as a ref being paid off, or being intimidated by a league, I just laugh and move along.
    No argument needed for such buffoonery.
    Usually.
    As ludicrous as the notion of a cheating ref is – or was – I think back to the 2002 NBA Western Conference playoffs.
    Even I had doubts.
    Stern accusation
    On May 31, 2002, Sacramento was at the L.A. Lakers and, yes, I wanted to see the Kings win.
    With Albuquerque natives Joe and Gavin Maloof as owners, it's as close to a local NBA squad as we've got.
    More over, I despise the Lakers. I have since I was a Celtics fan as a youth, and it increased with the loud-mouth obnoxiousness of some buddies who root for L.A. as if their families were being held hostage.
    I asked one, “if you have a crappy day at work, do you think Kobe loses any sleep?”
    Yet Laker losses ruined their lives.
    And, so it seems, David Stern's as well.
    Difference is, my buddies couldn't do anything about it. The NBA commissioner, however, apparently could.
    And did. At least according to exiled cheater Tim Donaghy.
    Donaghy, you recall, is the former NBA ref who admitted taking money to fix games for gamblers.
    Stern dismissed Donaghy as a rogue ref.
    Unfortunately for the NBA, it was another black eye in a game many fans consider pro wrestling on hardwood. Last week, Donaghy blackened the other eye – and tossed a haymaker in for kicks.
    Rogue rat
    Donaghy, who will be sentenced July 14 on felony charges, alleges the NBA conspired to influence the outcome of certain games for financial gain, one being Game 6 of that Kings-Lakers Western Conference final.
    Sour grapes? Perhaps.
    But more than a few folks still have a sour taste from that contest.
    The Kings led the series 3-2 but the Lakers won Game 6 106-102, sending the series – one of the most watched in NBA history – back to Sac for Game 7. The Lakers won there 112-106 in overtime, then swept New Jersey in the NBA Finals.
    But it was Game 6 against Sac-town, in which L.A. made 21-of-27 free throws in the fourth quarter to the Kings' 7-of-9, that caused a stir. Ralph Nader sent a letter to Stern saying the NBA commissioner had “too much power. Where else can decision-makers (referees) escape all responsibility to admit serious and egregious errors and have their bosses (you) fine those wronged (players and coaches) who dare to speak out critically?”
    Stern, basically, has blown off all criticisms.
    The Maloofs, too, are downplaying Donaghy's accusations.
    “It was a horribly officiated game,” Joe said this week. “Gavin and I, our whole family, are getting so many calls from all over the country since this happened (with Donaghy), and we're all reliving it again. But we believe in David Stern. We believe in the NBA.”
    Sure guys. And the Palms Casino is a break-even proposition.
    It's there simply for entertainment purposes only.
    Tinseltown meltdown
    The NBA, too, is for entertainment purposes. Stern just wants to entertain fans as long as possible.
    According to gambling odds expert RJ Bell of pregame.com, NBA playoff series are going seven games an “abnormal percentage.”
    By his calculations, the odds of a first-round series going seven games should be 18 percent. But since 2000, it's been 26 percent.
    “The odds of that happening randomly are 180 to 1,” he says.
    I used to think the odds against a cheating ref were a million-to-1. No more.
    Still, as I age, I've noticed how memories can be tricky.
    So I requested a copy of that 2002 game and viewed it again this week. It wasn't as bad as I had recalled.
    It was worse.
    So blatant were the officials' errors, that they too often became the main topic of the broadcast.
    “Time and time again, (the Kings) are getting knocked to the floor and whistles are in the pockets of the referees,” color man Bill Walton said, with the Kings leading 71-66.
    He later added that Sacramento guard Mike Bibby “can't let the officials take him out of the game.”
    They couldn't. But Lakers star Kobe Bryant did.
    Bryant fired a brutal elbow into Bibby's nose in the closing seconds of a one-point game. The only foul called on the play was on Sacramento.
    There were so many ridiculous whistles by the crew of Dick Bavetta, Bob Delaney and Ted Bernhardt – including phantom sixth fouls against both Sac big men Vlade Divac and Scot Pollard –that the Kings were laughing on the bench.
    Under the microscope
    The Lakers, of course, will never have to return their rings from 2002. But for the NBA, the Donaghy-Stern hoopla is taking away from the Boston-L.A. Finals.
    Or is it?
    Instead of taking away from the game, the negative publicity is assuring nothing is taken away from the Celtics – a la Sacramento, in 2002.
    This time, if the Lakers collect another ring, they will have to do so without any questions.
    And will have to find a way to get it to Game 7.
    The guess here is that not even Stern or the NBA can get that done this go-around.
   

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