So Tim Donaghy says relationships among NBA players, coaches and officials have “affected the outcome of games.” This after every radio talk-show host in the (ratings) book has been proclaiming that the league wants a Celtics-Lakers final and presumably the refs will help make that happen.
And now the draft lottery is won by a big-market, big-tradition team that had a mathematical 1.7% chance.
These are things that make everybody go hmmm…
Sure, Donaghy’s revelation came in a letter his lawyer filed in district court, and is surely part of a concerted effort by Donaghy to stay out of jail. Sure, a Celtics-Lakers final is possible and perhaps likely no matter what the refs do. Sure, if the league was going to fix the lottery, it could much more plausibly have done so to help the Knicks, the league’s largest-market club, which could use the help more than the Bulls could.
If they can construct a conspiracy theory, many people are going to do so, and the NBA in recent years has provided too much construction material.
What’s crazy is the NBA is really good now. There’s no team like the Bird Celtics or Magic Lakers and Jordan Bulls, but there are 7-8 - say, the Spurs, Lakers, Pistons, Celtics, Jazz, Hornets, Suns and LeBrons - that, when watched on an average night against an average team, are capable of making you think, “geez, these guys can play…”
In most years in most sports, you can’t even say that about the champion.
The big reason why almost nobody could win on the road in the just completed round of the playoffs, I think, was that it mostly matched those 7-8 teams against each other. They were evenly matched enough that homecourt was decisive.
It could be that way again in the semis. I took the Spurs and Pistons yesterday on “The Low Post,” but I could just as easily go the other way now.
Nah. I’m on the record. I’ll stick with San Antonio and Detroit.
