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Not That You Could Control It, But Would You Want Donaghy's Allegations About Refs Altering Game To

JackWESQJackWESQ Posts: 2,133 ✭✭✭
in Sports Talk
Not that you could control it (and if you can, more power to you), but would you want Donaghy's allegations about refs altering games to be true? Or would you embrace the truism that ignorance is bliss, e.g., you TRULY believe that your team has a chance to win the championship? Assuming you are already a fan, would you care/pay less attention to the NBA if you knew that all refs did not call all the games evenly/favored some teams/players?

/s/ JackWESQ
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Comments

  • perkdogperkdog Posts: 30,659 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I think the NFL is more fixed than the NBA ever will be, same thing with College Football. But yes I would like to think any sport is a fair playing field and teams that win deserve it and did it on their own.
  • MichiganMichigan Posts: 4,942 ✭
    I think it would be easier to fix an NBA game than an NFL game. With the NFL you would have to have all the refs on board in order
    to pull it off and I think that would be more difficult.

    With the NBA it is easier for one ref to call fouls and sent a team to the line a number of times and affect the outcome of a game.

    Back to the original question, I don't necessarily want the allegations to be true but I just want the truth to come out whatever it is.
  • RonBurgundyRonBurgundy Posts: 5,491 ✭✭✭
    I've always believed the NBA tries to control games and series. No other league makes a huge deal over large market teams having superstars in order to prop up its ratings, so nothing would surprise me out of Stern and his cronies. The officiating, generally speaking, is a joke and always has been so is it that far a stretch to think the league would use them to try and dictate game outcomes? No. What surprises me is that the whispers about it have gone on for years yet no one in the media or law enforcement has ever bothered to look into it. Stern and his general counsel's "non-denial denial" was wonderfully parsed and highly amusing.



    Ron
    Ron Burgundy

    Buying Vintage, all sports.
    Buying Woody Hayes, Les Horvath, Vic Janowicz, and Jesse Owens autographed items
  • SanctionIISanctionII Posts: 12,120 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Human nature being what it is (including greed, avarice, jealousy, hatred, etc.), it would not suprise me to see referees make calls in an NBA game (or other sports; i.e. figure skating in the Olympics) that, for one reason or another, unfairly favor or penalize a specific team and/or player. I could also easily see league executives pulling strings to maximze the chances that the "Star" franchises and/or players make the playoffs, make it to the Championship series (I am sure the league is much happier with a Celtics-Lakers final than a Spurs-Pistons final) and win the Championship.

    I remember a few years ago in a Western Conference playoff match up between the Lakers and the Sacramento Kings. In game 6 of the series, with Sacramento leading 3-2, the Kings got hosed by referees late in the game in Sacramento. The Lakers ended up winning game 6, which they would not have done absent the hose job handed out by the officials. They then won game 7 and advanced. I suspect that a Championship series featuring the Sacramento Kings would not be high on the NBA's wish list and that instead the NBA would prefer the Lakers, Kobe and Phil Jackson.

    Refereeing a basketball game is not easy. Missed called will always be present. In a perfect world the best one could hope for as a referee would be to call the game in a consistent manner throughout the game (tight or loose), treat both teams equally and treat all players equally regardless of whether you are talking about a superstar or a benchwarmer. Unfortunately the world is not perfect since humans are involved.
  • TheVonTheVon Posts: 2,725 ✭
    Everyone in Sacramento has believed that the fix was in during the 2002 series and this only pours salt into the wound. I can't imagine that the rest of the country wanted to watch the Kings play more than the Lakers, so of course the officials were going to call 22 fouls against the Kings compared to only 4 or whatever they called against the Lakers . . .

  • PROMETHIUS88PROMETHIUS88 Posts: 2,885 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I've been saying this to my wife for a few years now... although she doesn't care and I think she stopped listening to me long ago. I believe the NBA has been this way for years under Stern. How often do you see a series sweep in any level of the playoffs anymore? Rarely and if so, normally just in the early rounds. The League and the teams involved have a huge incentive to let a series go one or two extra games longer than they should. With most arenas seating what, only about 20-25k fans, a short series can really cost them. Ticket sales, concessions, TV money.... it's huge. Of course, we want to have teams with marquee players in the finals or nobody is going to watch. To be honest, I'm not really even a basketball fan and I wouldn't have watched one game had it been Detroit vs San Antonio. But the classic rivalry returns... Lakers vs Celtics.... I'm in! Now, being a baseball fan, I haven't noticed it to be the same, although it could happen. Football is going to be less of a factor as well because there's only a certain amount of games going to be played anyway and the only thing that can be altered would be the teams in the playoffs/Super Bowl.
    I say, lets get the Congress involved in this sport as well. They've done a great job handling MLB and NFL issues!!

    So, to answer the original question in the subject... Yes .... because they are!
    Promethius881969@yahoo.com
  • gosteelersgosteelers Posts: 2,668 ✭✭✭


    << <i>I've been saying this to my wife for a few years now... although she doesn't care and I think she stopped listening to me long ago. I believe the NBA has been this way for years under Stern. How often do you see a series sweep in any level of the playoffs anymore? Rarely and if so, normally just in the early rounds. The League and the teams involved have a huge incentive to let a series go one or two extra games longer than they should. With most arenas seating what, only about 20-25k fans, a short series can really cost them. Ticket sales, concessions, TV money.... it's huge. Of course, we want to have teams with marquee players in the finals or nobody is going to watch. To be honest, I'm not really even a basketball fan and I wouldn't have watched one game had it been Detroit vs San Antonio. But the classic rivalry returns... Lakers vs Celtics.... I'm in! Now, being a baseball fan, I haven't noticed it to be the same, although it could happen. Football is going to be less of a factor as well because there's only a certain amount of games going to be played anyway and the only thing that can be altered would be the teams in the playoffs/Super Bowl.
    I say, lets get the Congress involved in this sport as well. They've done a great job handling MLB and NFL issues!!

    So, to answer the original question in the subject... Yes .... because they are! >>



    2001 Finals-4-1
    2002 Finals-4-0
    2004 Finals-4-1
    2007 Finals-4-0

    Sweeps (or close to it) happen in the finals...
  • larryallen73larryallen73 Posts: 6,061 ✭✭✭
    Everyone in Sacramento has believed that the fix was in during the 2002 series and this only pours salt into the wound. I can't imagine that the rest of the country wanted to watch the Kings play more than the Lakers, so of course the officials were going to call 22 fouls against the Kings compared to only 4 or whatever they called against the Lakers . . .

    I blogged about this today. Check it out.

    SacTownGuy Blog
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