The Integrity of the NBA

This is becoming a nightmare for David Stern. He didn't want to see the events unfolding like this. He didn't believe that there were multiple refs "rigging" games besides Tim Donaghy. If this happened, the integrity of professional basketball could be ruined for a long time.

Yesterday, Tim Donaghy said that the 2002 Western Conference Finals, which featured the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings, was rigged by the referees. The Los Angeles Lakers did come back and win both games 6 and 7 to go on to the NBA Finals, but shot an incredible 21 of 27 free throws only in the fourth quarter. The Kings? Only 7 of 9 in the fourth quarter alone. Many Kings' players spoke to ESPN.com, or other sources, and everyone said basically the same thing: "I knew there was something wrong with those two games, they just didn't feel right. We weren't given a chance to win."

Phil Jackson, the current Lakers' head coach, who was the head coach back in 2002 responded differently. "Was that after the fifth game, after we had the game stolen away from us after a bad call out of bounds and gave the ball back to Sacramento and they made a 3-point shot?" he said. "There's a lot of things going on in these games and they're suspicious, but I don't want to throw it back to there."

Now, there are many views to look at this epidemic. Tim Donaghy may be an unreliable source because he is trying to decrease his sentencing which will be decided in July, and whatever he can say can ultimately lower his sentence. However, let's say the allegations he said were true. How badly can this affect the NBA? This could ruin the reputation of the NBA for a long period of time.

Of course, there are conspiracy theories created constantly, whether there are allegations about it or not. It's just that this time, there are allegations about games being rigged. It is unfortunate that the referees, who have a responsibility to call as fair of a game as they can, are bribed to alter games for various reasons.

However, the worst situation will be if the NBA executives bribed or told the referees in the 2002 Western Conference Finals to alter the series so it goes to 7 games. This is the worst situation because it will show the non-stability the league has, and the reputation they will get out of this. If TV executives and NBA executives are doing this, then it creates a lot of questions and doubts about the league and most importantly, about professional basketball. I don't believe David Stern had a say in rigging the games, and I don't think anyone did. From what I have seen and heard right now, it's either Tim Donaghy saving his a** or playing the "cat and mouse" type of game.

To avoid this situation from ever happening again, I suggest to the NBA that they have a group of members and their job is to make sure that this "ref rigging scandal" never happens again. Also, the NBA should make it mandatory that the referees go to press conferences after the game, and if there are any questionable calls, they explain their side of the story and show the media and the fans why they made the call they did. This is the only way in my opinion, to make sure that this is not going on.

After starting to lose the "thug" image of the NBA, it looks like if this scandal turns out badly, the NBA might have a new reputation that will be even harder to lose.

*donde16*