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I thought the exact same thing. However the one trump card the NBA can play is … The Spurs have won 4 rings in 9 years.

Clearly an asterisk belongs next to the Lakers’ 2002 title.

The WCF that year had the hokiest officiating I had ever seen (later that was trumped by the Oklahoma/Oregon football debacle). Donaghy is quite likely telling the truth. Recall that Ralph Nader wanted to bring a lawsuit against the NBA for the suspicious officiating in the 2002 WCF.

The only title in their three-peat the lakers deserved was the middle one. The first one was bullshit too. Portland had a 15 point lead after three quarters in game 7 and every call went against them in the fourth and they refused to call fouls on the lakers against ‘sheed and every other blazer.

As much as I love the game of basketball and love the NBA, all of this just further strengthens my temptation to abandon the league completely after Duncan and Manu are gone. My love for the SPURS will always remain, but I am so tired and so fed up with all of these stains on the integrity of the league that I cannot continue to be a consumer of their product unless massive changes are made. There is no reason to keep spending my money on tickets, jerseys, etc. supporting an organization so obviously driven only by a script. Stern only seems more oblivious and more arrogent with each quote, and it’s become comical how quickly the rest of America has also begun to question the league’s purity. It’s almost a certainty for me that unless the referee union is disbanded from the NBA and assigned to an outside and clearly more partial group, I will no longer be a follower of the new WWE that is professional basketball. Hopefully Stern realizes that I’m not alone in feeling this way, and makes changes to regain the fans’ faith in the game before it’s too late.

If the NBA had indeed done a thorough investigation of that Kings-Lakers series as Stern contends, then why was referee Bob Delaney never interviewed?

I don’t necessarily suscribe to a conspiracy theory or anything like that, but as I stated yesterday David Stern does not do himself a favor when says his dream Finals series would be the Lakers vs. the Lakers. Jokingly or not, if your league has perceptions about outcomes being swayed, you don’t say things like that. Donaghy is a reprehensible person, but I think it would be wise to a least listen to what he is saying. It’s possible that he is lying his ass off, but to dismiss what he is saying would be a mistake, especially from David Stern’s perspective. I mean look at how the steriods issue with baseball took off after Jose Canseco wrote his book. Stern has come across as smug and behaving as if this issue is really a non-issue, but I bet beyond the scenes he is raising hell.

Sternbino is in big trouble. He is at his best when he is in the open court, spinning and wheeling. He is a master of deflecting critics and creating an aura of good feelings. He smooches up to the corporate sponsors and makes them forget about the latest scandal or out cry.

But, now Sternbino is caught in a full court press with no room to dribble. He is falling out of bounds and the shot clock is winding down. He is out of his element. He is like Nixon in his final days. He can spin no more, he can only act tough, bully reporters and deny deny deny. The golden glow is gone. The Lakers titles are now tarnished. The association’s credibility is zero. The old tapes of long forgotten fixed games are being replayed over and over.

The problem that Sternbino is facing is that fans aren’t stupid and can not be intimidated. He can threaten players and coaches in the association with retaliation. He can threaten reporters by cutting off their access. He holds the networks that broadcast games in his pocket. They would never dare go after him or their own cash cow. But, oh but, when Joe Couch Potato looks at Mike Bibby getting elbowed in the head by Kobe, get injured, get the foul called on him and then an ex-official comes out and says the games were fixed. Well, son of a gun, things are starting to line up. The Spurs have a power team in 1999, are up 2-0 on the Knicks, out of nowhere touch fouls start getting called in game 3. The Knicks appear to be given a victory so they will not be disgraced with a sweep. Jordan’s last year, in game seven of the East finals in Indiana, both Pacer big men get called with touch fouls and have to leave the game. Bulls win. The Trailblazers get mauled by the Lakers in the Western finals. The officials swallow their whistles in the fourth. Lakers win. The Bucks get touch fouls called on them and the 76ers advance to the finals with offensively challenged Mutombo shooting double digit free throws. Barry gets clobbered by Fisher as time expires in 2008 costing the Spurs the game and series. The association admits a mistake was made, but no official is fired. Joey Crawford challenges Tim Duncan to a fight and then openly displays abuse of power by throwing him out the game because he cracked a smile. Soon afterwards, Crawford returns to officiate Spurs playoff games against big market Lakers.

Notice a pattern forming? It is never, “Oh the Lakers got ripped against San Antonio” or “Those damn officials really were biased in favor of Indiana, the Bulls got screwed” or “The 76ers got jobbed, the officials fixed the game for the Bucks”. It is always the small market team the winds up with the questionable callls. What is that Sternbino? Just coincidence? Lots of coincidences keep popping up don’t they?

We see obvious favoritism, missed calls, touch calls, brutal play, hacking, grabbing, hard contact and then an official, somebody from the inner circle, flips. We see visual evidence, the FBI catches an official red handed. The feds are crawling all over the place. The NBA with all their monitoring and “super observers” (possibly just made up by Sternbino) fails to catch the Don. It isn’t until the men in black slap the cuffs on the Don that NBA starts throwing him underneath the bus. Sternbino says the NBA had noticed a pattern of odd behavior. OK, would mind showing us the documentation? Exactly where are the notes from last year? When did your observers start catching him? Who were the observers? What did they find? How come no action was taken? We are waiting Sternbino. What are we supposed to just take your word? Don’t count on that.

We have eyes, we have brains and most off all, we can’t be intimidated by Sternbino.

If even a shred of evidence shows up supporting the Dons allegations, Sternbino should be in front of a congressional committee within 24 hours. The association should be shut down immediately. Every official should be sequestered. Phil Jackson should be bound and gagged.

If there is wide spread cheating and fixing going on, Sternbino has to know it. So that means, he is either defending innocent officials with great fever or he is going all out covering up the most massive conspiracy in America’s sport history. If he is found to be lying, no punishment can be too severe for him and the NBA officials.

One last point, does anyone really believe that the greatest player in the history of the game at the prime of his career simply walked away from the game for 2 years to pursue his childhood dream of playing before 50 people a night and striking out 700 times a season booting ground balls around in rickety grapefruit league stadiums?

The fix is in and has been in for some time.

Behind the scenes, I’m SURE it’s understood that any possible conspiracy confirming info leaks, fictional or non, WILL be severely dealt with (Stern has the nooses on easy to see display.)

From ESPN’s Jemele Hill: “On the day the news broke that Tim Donaghy told federal agents that referees helped alter the outcomes of a 2002 playoff series and that league officials instructed referees not to jeopardize ratings by fouling out star players or ejecting them, there was once-suspended referee Joey Crawford working Game 3 of the Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals.

And that typifies what’s wrong with the NBA. This is why some people are willing to entertain Donaghy’s wild accusations rather than accepting Stern’s firm denials. A referee who was once suspended indefinitely because of a personal beef with Tim Duncan, who had to resign from the NBA because he pled guilty to falsely stating his income, is back in the league and officiating on the NBA’s biggest stage.”