THE NBA IS FIXED

by Brian P. Foley, The College Baseball Blog

I have come to the conclusion that I will back up Tim Donaghy's statements that the NBA is fixed to have certain teams in the next round of the playoffs. How do you rationalize the non-call in the San Antonio-LA series where Derek Fisher clearly fouls Brent Barry shooting a three point shot? Ok, maybe the official missed that call but there are many other instances of NBA officials changing the way they call the game.

In Game 2 of the NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics shot 38 free throws to the Lakers 10 on Sunday evening. The first thing that is brought up in the postgame press conference is that Leon Powe or what Phil Jackson wants to call him Leon POW shot more free throws then the entire Lakers team in only 15 minutes of action. So fast forward to Game 3 of the NBA finals which took place on Tuesday night and the Los Angeles Lakers shot 20 out of the first 22 free throws to make up for the discrepancy from the other night. Is this a coincidence that the Celtics start committing more fouls on the road then they do at home? I don't think so as the court is the same size and the rim is the same height at every arena around the country. Nothing has changed.

David Stern responded to the accusations that Tim Donaghy brought up by calling him a ROGUE official that just wants to pull down the NBA before going into jail for fixing game. Donaghy isn't the only one that has brought up the fact that the 2005 series between the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks was influenced by the NBA office. Jeff Van Gundy who was the coach of the Rockets at the time said that an NBA official told him that the series would be officiated differently based on the fact that Mark Cuban complained about how Yao Ming was setting screens. The series changed after the comments by Cuban where a ton of illegal screen calls were made thus changing the momentum of the game and the series. Donaghy also stated that the 2002 series between the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers was fixed to go seven games to make the league and the teams some extra money.

So David Stern, Do you think there is an image problem in the NBA now with your officials? I think you have a major problem on your hand but you decide to continue to go after Donaghy instead of investigating the charges. Everyone that has watched an NBA game over the last 3-4 years can state many instances of the officials making some suspicious calls which has cost a team a game or a series.

BTW...START CALLING TRAVELING...IT IS IN THE RULE BOOK!