I just watched a 30 minute youtube clip about the corruption and bad refereeing in the 2002 Western Conference finals between the Kings and the Lakers. In game 4 with the Kings up as many as 24 in the first half, they were called for a bunch of phantom fouls to get their star players in foul trouble. Even the commentators were commenting on how that is a horrible call. Lo and behold, the lakers come back and win with a robert horry three. If I remember correctly webber, divac, christie, and pollard all had five fouls or fouled out. Then came game 6. Pollard fouled out on 4 bogus calls (in one of them he set a screen, and shaq literally ran though him and pollard was called for a blocking foul). Another foul came when shaq backed pollard down, threw an elbow in his chest/face, and then spun and flipped the ball near the basket. Pollard was somehow called for the foul on shaq. In Game 6, Divac and Webber also fouled out. Divac had his pinky finger on shaq's arm after a shot and he was called for his 6th foul. He had 2 more fouls where shaq just steamrolled him and he got called for blocking. Chris Webber picked up 2 offensive fouls that were both horrible calls. The first, he drove right by horry, horry then pushed webber and did a classic horry flop to draw the foul. Then, on the ensuing possesion kobe drove into the heart of the defense, clearly initiating contact as he plowed through the back up center. Webber then blocked Kobe's shot from behind and it was clearly all ball and no body contact by webber and he was called for his 6th foul. The lakers went on to win the series and the championship that year. Commentators and reporters all over the world said this was the worst job of officiating they had ever seen, no contest. All of the ref's called a significantly more amount of fouls for the lakers than they did the kings, especially in the fourth quarter (where the lakers shot 27 free throws in game 6 alone). And shaq went 13-17 from the line, and on every single free throw attempt, his entire foot was clearly over the line with about 8 inches to spare.

This year Donaghy was caught in the scandal for ref's, and he admitted to rigging this series along with the other referees. He said that he was given commands from stern to do all he can to make the Lakers win the series and the championship. This tells me that although Donaghy used this for gambling and was extremely corrupt, the problem lies with stern. As knick fans we have had a taste of this (winning the Pat Ewing Lottery). In my opinion, until David Stern is removed, we are going to continue to see more corruption because if certain teams win (like the lakers and the knicks) it is better for the league and Stern ($$).

I know if the knicks had won a championship like the lakers did in 2002, I would not have felt as good as I should have, because in the back of my head would always be the thought that the games were fixed, so we did not deserve to win.

Fixing the NBA by removing stern would be the best thing that can happen for this league. The Kings should have won the championship in 2002, and that alone could have changed the way things are today. The NBA should have return to their roots, and re-establish the physical, defensive type of games they played back in the day. No more of this high octane offense with nit-picky fouls to change the course of hte game. Let the players play, and dont put so much power in the hands of the referees that they can ruin a series. That 2002 series was some of the best basketball ever, and I feel bad for the Kings. They should have won that series, and they almost did despite those horrible calls by the referees and the work of David Stern.

[Edited by - nykbasketball on 12-06-2008 2:38 PM]

The NBA is a setup league. You don't have to go back to 2002 to know it. All you have to do is look at the finals setup of last year. Fake trades sanctioned by the league that should have been rejected. Deals get done basically because GMs were former teammates. The garbage goes on and on in the NBA.

The salary cap is the main culprit of this nonsense.

I friggin hope so.

Hey guys, have your heard about this new thing called the VCR??? You can actually watch movies in your own house now and record stuff off t.v...cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only thing is that it costs about a thousand dollars and its about as big as small coffin, but its worth it. I think I'll get the BetaMax.

Sorry, NY --- just messing with ya. You're hecka late with the Kings/Lakers 02 analysis. In any event, its an undeniable fact that that game was rigged, so it brings into question the whole credibility of the league. Factor in Donaghy and Stern's slippery morality and you have a recipe for corruption.

I just try to enjoy the athletes and the superior competition. Its the best game to watch on t.v. Hopefully soon we'll be on the right side of the fix one day.

Can you post the link to that youtube video?

Whoever says that the NBA is corrupt or 'rigged' is nonchalantly glancing over the sheer magnitude of complexity that is characteristic of any pro-sports league in America.

Explaining: It's just way too complicated to be rigged, dude.

I saw the clips and one thing caught my attention:

In the Lawrence B. Pedowitz Report, in Donaghy's Allegations, they mention the SuperSonics vs. Knicks game in January 24, 2000. Searching info about the game to see how the referees had affected that game, I found this:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F03E1D6163CF936A15752C0A9669C8B63

Pretty interesting...

[Edited by - knicksfan on 12-06-2008 7:41 PM]

Mike D also suffered from this dubious officiating. Its too ridiculous how favored the Spurs were in that game...

Posted by Knicksfansince94:

so you're a conspiracy theorist that gets a kick out of buying into the hype of a few random calls. the calls are under the microscope cos of the circumstances!@#!@#

Call me whatever you want to. You can't deny the case against Donaghy, can you? Think that doesn't happen from time to time, especially in the playoffs?

Think everything is the color the media, the government, the companies etc. paint them to you?

Fine, everyone can see the world the way they want to, but there is a saying that states that "there is no worse blind than the one who can but doesn't want to see."

Posted by Knicksfansince94:

and that 'knee to the groin' wasn't intentional. it was nash frustrated with some calls that went against him, so he pulls out the soccer flop acting.

if you really look at those videos, like without soundz! you'll see that those calls can go either way, man.

I actually do that but you can't ignore the fact that many of those calls are fishy, and now more after the Donaghy case. Im not saying that everything in those videos proves things are corrupt in the NBA, but they sure make you think and look at things differently, especially when you read or hear quotes from players, coaches and even media reporters questioning many things.

Its not about saying the calls were made to change the outcome or not, but its about opening your mind to things that could be just casual but may not be. Who really knows how many of those theories are or aren't true? But just as there is a chance for them to be wrong, there is a chance they would be true. Then you sum things like the Donaghy case, Stern's track etc and you can form your own conclusions.

But if people are happy ignoring the things that may or may not happen behind the scenes, fine with them, thats their choice.