OT: NBA losing credibility?

I don’t really watch the NBA, so I don’t know. I’m more of a college basketball man myself.

Who cares? It’s similar to the Barry situation in that all the fuss over it is just ridiculous (especially with Congress involved w/ Barry) because most of us just want to be entertained. That’s how I feel, at least.

It’s also interesting that Donaghy didn’t work that game yet claims to know it was fixed. Although there may have been some questionable calls (I don’t remember it real well), the montage of clips they showed on ESPN while they commentated on it didn’t actually show any questionable calls. The Kings actually did foul the Lakers. As far as the free throw disparity goes, remember that much of that involved late-game Hack-A-Shaq.

All in all, I think people just like to have an excuse for why their team loses. I know I do when my team loses.

I would say that the NBA was losing credibility if it had any credibility to lose in the first place. The league is obviously a joke. That being said, if the league actually produced good and exciting basketball that was watchable (like the NCAA does), I would still watch it in spite of the obvious credibility issues. It’s the fact that the product is terrible that keeps people from watching it.

when the Donaghy story initially came out last summer it got almost no coverage after David Stern held that news conference and basically told everybody “fuck off, there is nothing to see here.” That makes perfect sense because all of these media outlets that might usually be inclined to report a story like this are business partners of the NBA, for instance ESPN/ABC makes a ton of money broadcasting games, HBO and CNN are owned by Tim Warner who also own the Atlanta Hawks and TNT which broadcasts games, and so on. So it stands to reason that they wouldn’t want to aggressively investigate and report something that could hurt the league so badly. I’m thinking the league gets another free pass here and next year the last few people who actually watch the NBA just go right on blissfully believing that it is some kind of legitimate sport.

Another thing the NBA did a few years back is change the opening round series from 5 to 7 games. It was widely believed to be done so the LA Fakers would be certain in a 7 game series. This change was done not before the season began but about 2 months prior to the playoffs.

I’ve watched thousands of baseball, football and basketball games. I’ve seen bad calls in all these sports, but never thought that the calls in football or baseball were anything other than incompetence. Basketball is different. I have seen so many bad calls that I’ve thought many a game was fixed. Either the NBA hires absolute fools to referee their games, or Donaghy is indeed telling the truth.

Go Lakers!

When the game is in so much control by the officials, it is easy to see how easily it could be done. I think in the NBA it is more obvious with only 10 players out there & contact is supposed to be at a minimum. Ticky-tack calls are more open for debate. But the NFL officiating is just as bad. Heck, an official can throw his flag on every play. In both sports, a game’s outcome is often defined by how the officals call the game.

In baseball, not so much. Sure you can have umps with shitty strike zones. But it’s often shitty for both teams. When it’s one-sided, it’s quite obvious. BUT, even if an ump was trying to fix the game, he can’t make the other team score runs. He could force the opposing pitcher to throw right down the middle of the plate, but the hitter still has to hit the ball. And he could smack that ball as hard as he wants, but there’s no guarantee of a home run, hit or if he grounds into a double play. The only way to truly get control of the outcome of the game, you need the pitchers in on it. And that’s too many people for a conspiracy. But of course, MLB doesn’t need fixing. It’s financial structure is beneficial to major markets already. The big markets are constantly in the playoffs.

I used to be a NFL & NBA fan. But within the past few years, it’s just too much of a coincidence. The Patriots tackling the Rams receivers at the line of scrimmage, the Lakers handed the series against the Kings & Blazers & Pau Gasol, the Tuck Rule, Spygate, Donaghy…..

Let’s just say the NBA was broken when David Stern was asked to fix it.

LA LOLakers!

Was this for real?

That said I lost interest in it years ago. When a "name" vet palms the ball and steps 3 times form the yards behind the top of key and that fine. When a 2nd year man gets bumped and his pivot foot slides is a walk I had enough. They really are not far enough from professional wrestling in my eyes. Both take some serious athletic gifts to perform. Both can be entertaining. The referees in both can provide nice comic relief if you are not taking it too seriously.

I’ve never seen such a harolded 7-footer look to immediately pass the ball every time he touches it. I heard he was soft, but for goodness sake, that was ridiculous. He’s afraid to take it to the basket agains PJ Brown….PJ BROWN!!!

Paul Pierce for his dual role as Willis Reed’s #2 and a flailing European soccer player