NBA ... it's not wrestling
Perhaps selfishly, I cannot believe the allegations by disgraced NBA referee Tom Donaghy that the league rigged games to prolong playoff series and get preferred teams into the Finals.
If I believed that, I would have to admit that, for the 20 years, I covered professional wrestling.
I just don't think it happened.
Too many outstanding people work at the NBA to allow it.
There are too many high-character referees in the NBA to make such schemes work.
Too many players and coaches work too hard for playoff games and world championships to be decided anywhere but on the court.
Say it ain't so.
-- Of course I saw Dick Bavetta's performance in Game 6 of the NBA Finals in 1998 -- one that allegedly cost him his designation as a crew chief the following season and led to very public apologies to Jerry Sloan, John Stockton and Karl Malone the first time he worked another one of their games. I did not see Bavetta hugging and laughing with Michael Jordan deep within the Delta Center less than an hour after the Bulls won another championship, although a couple of Jazz employees swear they did. But does that turn Jordan into Hulk Hogan?
-- Of course I saw referee Ronnie Nunn botch a call in 1994, when the Jazz had a chance to sweep the Denver Nuggets and advance to the Western Conference finals. Instead, the Nuggets took advantage of the bad call in the final seconds to win Game 4. They also won Games 5 and 6 and prolonged the feel-good story of a Cinderella-like No. 8 seed advancing through the playoffs. But does that mean Nunn saw a chance to execute the league's master plan and took advantage of it? No way. He simply made a mistake, right?
-- Of course I saw a Dan Crawford-led crew call a horribly lopsided game in the final days of the lockout-shortened season in 1999. San Antonio used a 42-20 edge in free-throw attempts to beat Utah and clinch the No. 1 seed in the West. Despite finishing with the same record as the Spurs, Utah dropped to the No. 3 seed because San Antonio won the bastardized season series, 2-1. The Spurs ended up breezing to their first-ever championship. The Jazz ended up playing two teams that created horrible matchups for them in the playoffs -- Sacramento and Portland. They outlasted the Kings and lost to the Trail Blazers. But was that late-season game part of a league-mandated master plan: San Antonio, not Utah? I don't believe it.
-- Of course I have seen the long-standing personality conflict between Bob Delaney and Jerry Sloan manifest itself during Jazz games that the veteran referee has worked. Sloan was suspended after pushing Delaney during a game in 1993 and, since then, the uneasiness that still exists between them is palpable the minute Delaney walks onto the court to work a Jazz game. But is Delaney ever sent by the league with a directive to bury the Jazz? It can't possibly work that way.
-- Of course the bosses at the NBA and ABC, including commissioner David Stern, privately prefer an NBA Final matching the Celtics and Lakers. The ratings are in a different stratosphere than the ones generated by last year's San Antonio-Cleveland series and that puts more money in everybody's pocket. But would the NBA risk everything by ordering its officials to manipulate the outcome of games just to make more money?
I can't believe it.
-- Steve Luhm
If I believed that, I would have to admit that, for the 20 years, I covered professional wrestling.
I just don't think it happened.
Too many outstanding people work at the NBA to allow it.
There are too many high-character referees in the NBA to make such schemes work.
Too many players and coaches work too hard for playoff games and world championships to be decided anywhere but on the court.
Say it ain't so.
-- Of course I saw Dick Bavetta's performance in Game 6 of the NBA Finals in 1998 -- one that allegedly cost him his designation as a crew chief the following season and led to very public apologies to Jerry Sloan, John Stockton and Karl Malone the first time he worked another one of their games. I did not see Bavetta hugging and laughing with Michael Jordan deep within the Delta Center less than an hour after the Bulls won another championship, although a couple of Jazz employees swear they did. But does that turn Jordan into Hulk Hogan?
-- Of course I saw referee Ronnie Nunn botch a call in 1994, when the Jazz had a chance to sweep the Denver Nuggets and advance to the Western Conference finals. Instead, the Nuggets took advantage of the bad call in the final seconds to win Game 4. They also won Games 5 and 6 and prolonged the feel-good story of a Cinderella-like No. 8 seed advancing through the playoffs. But does that mean Nunn saw a chance to execute the league's master plan and took advantage of it? No way. He simply made a mistake, right?
-- Of course I saw a Dan Crawford-led crew call a horribly lopsided game in the final days of the lockout-shortened season in 1999. San Antonio used a 42-20 edge in free-throw attempts to beat Utah and clinch the No. 1 seed in the West. Despite finishing with the same record as the Spurs, Utah dropped to the No. 3 seed because San Antonio won the bastardized season series, 2-1. The Spurs ended up breezing to their first-ever championship. The Jazz ended up playing two teams that created horrible matchups for them in the playoffs -- Sacramento and Portland. They outlasted the Kings and lost to the Trail Blazers. But was that late-season game part of a league-mandated master plan: San Antonio, not Utah? I don't believe it.
-- Of course I have seen the long-standing personality conflict between Bob Delaney and Jerry Sloan manifest itself during Jazz games that the veteran referee has worked. Sloan was suspended after pushing Delaney during a game in 1993 and, since then, the uneasiness that still exists between them is palpable the minute Delaney walks onto the court to work a Jazz game. But is Delaney ever sent by the league with a directive to bury the Jazz? It can't possibly work that way.
-- Of course the bosses at the NBA and ABC, including commissioner David Stern, privately prefer an NBA Final matching the Celtics and Lakers. The ratings are in a different stratosphere than the ones generated by last year's San Antonio-Cleveland series and that puts more money in everybody's pocket. But would the NBA risk everything by ordering its officials to manipulate the outcome of games just to make more money?
I can't believe it.
-- Steve Luhm
11:38 AM
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