NBA Playoffs '02 -- Outcome Fixed?

by **Dan Wishengrad** on Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:19 pm

Very serious allegations being made by disgraced former NBA ref Tim Donaghy:

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/8231176?MSNHPHMA

As a Sacramento Kings fan, I always felt that Game 6 was clearly "fixed" and that the Kings should have won that game and hence the Series. We were the best team in the NBA, but it sure seemed like somebody was favoring the Lakers to go to the Finals.

I remember that game like it was yesterday... every single foul went against the Kings. Shaq was throwing his body around and fouling like crazy, but they kept calling it against Sac. Once he threw an elbow to Pollards nose while running him over enroute to the basket, yet Scott got called for the foul. Now we may now why...

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by **StrykerFSU** on Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:32 pm

Stern told a small group of reporters Tuesday night that his only new concern is screaming headlines and sensational conversation about Donaghy, but surely Stern has to know the basketball public is savvy enough to be aware of the decades-old notion that the league and its television partners, now ABC/ESPN and TNT, conspire however subtly to sway things in their favor.

While Stern can frame this, disingenuously, as a media issue, his own league's employees fan the flames. Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, who along with rival coach Pat Riley has driven referee-related conversation on off-days during the playoffs for 20 years, was louder than any talk-show host or columnist when he questioned the officials for awarding the Celtics 38 foul shots to his team's 10 Sunday night in Boston.

And Jackson's comments before Game 3, when he learned of the latest from Donaghy, didn't help the image of referees unduly influencing games. Most unaffiliated observers of the now-infamous Kings-Lakers Game 6 here in 2002 thought the Lakers benefited from blatantly one-sided officiating that allowed them to advance to and win a Game 7, then the NBA championship.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/11/AR2008061100102.html?sid=ST2008061100191

This has the potential to be very bad for the league. The NBA has always favored stars and been reluctant to enforce some rules...like that pesky one about bouncing the ball while running but if there is a grain of truth in these accusations fans everywhere will strongly reconsider how they spend their entertainment dollars.

Of course, if the NBA was truly worried about the fans they wouldn't be starting playoff games at 9PM on the east coast when at least half of the fan base will be signing off before the end of the game.

by **Ravaging Beast** on Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:33 pm

More than just that game. There are a lot of other fishy things involving the Lakers. How did they get Gasol for nothing? How about getting Shaq and Kobe? How about the "no-call" on Fisher at the end of the San Antonio game? I don't think a team gets that many lucky breaks. Especially a team that fuels the NBA when they are successful.

by **Andy Sharp** on Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:36 pm

I don't watch much NBA action, in fact that 2002 Kings game 6 was the last one I remember watching closely enough to remember. I remarked after that game that it appeared fixed and am glad to see at least one future convict agrees.

by **StrykerFSU** on Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:41 pm

Ravaging Beast wrote:More than just that game. There are a lot of other fishy things involving the Lakers. How did they get Gasol for nothing? How about getting Shaq and Kobe? How about the "no-call" on Fisher at the end of the San Antonio game? I don't think a team gets that many lucky breaks. Especially a team that fuels the NBA when they are successful.

Surprisingly, no one asked Jerry West about the Gasol trade last night. Weird.

by **KnoxVegas** on Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:46 pm

Maybe the NBA should adopt NASCAR's approach to cheating.

by **Dan Wishengrad** on Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:55 pm

Then there was that season (many years ago) when the Kings should have gotten the first pick in the draft as the worst NBA team the season before. They had about a zillion ping pong balls in the hopper but not surprisingly David Stern -- a New York guy -- pulls out the one ball in there that has "Knicks" written on it, and NY got to draft Patrick Ewing with the first pick.

I knew that one was fixed also, and that Stern desperately wanted the marquee player for his hometown (and biggest market) team.

by **StrykerFSU** on Wed Jun 11, 2008 1:04 pm

Dan Wishengrad wrote:Then there was that season (many years ago) when the Kings should have gotten the first pick in the draft as the worst NBA team the season before. They had about a zillion ping pong balls in the hopper but not surprisingly David Stern -- a New York guy -- pulls out the one ball in there that has "Knicks" written on it, and NY got to draft Patrick Ewing with the first pick.

I knew that one was fixed also, and that Stern desperately wanted the marquee player for his hometown (and biggest market) team.

You're close. He actually pullet an envelope out of the hopper. There are rumors that the Knicks' envelope was either placed in a freezer before hand or had a broken corner so that Stern could identify it.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=0TgJE7C5wiU[/youtube]

...about 5:30, judge for yourself.

by **Dan Wishengrad** on Wed Jun 11, 2008 1:19 pm

Thanks, Cliff... in my defense it WAS over twenty years ago and I obviously didn't remember that the actual procedure in that era was before they "weighted" the odds to favor the worst team. But I do remember watching the draft, with everyone resigned to the certainty that somehow the Knicks would surely win the rights to draft Ewing, because New York needed him to "save" their franchise.

It was painful watching this video you posted, even though I knew it's outcome. The Knicks executive deserves an Academy Award for his look of shock and surprise that they won the #1 selection ("lucky horse-shoe" my ass!)-- or maybe was he not in on the fix?

by **Tim Whitehead** on Wed Jun 11, 2008 1:53 pm

David Stern has been rigging the NBA for years. This is nothing new.

by **ZagGrad** on Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:10 pm

Dan, you remind me of what I've had to endure as a Steeler fan...and you're from Seattle too...weird. The next thing that will come to light is the fact that the same refs who fixed the Finals are the same ones used to fix the Steeler/Seahawk game. :lol:

I think this is just a prime of example of pulling everyone under the bus once you've been thrown down...we'll see how it shakes out.

by **Zeuslax** on Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:37 am

Was "contained" a Freudian slip by Stern?