Mikey D

I'll try to brief on this topic, since it's been covered non-stop for the past week.

ESPN has continuously posed two questions throughout their coverage of Mr. Donaghy and his betting on basketball:
1) How could something like this have happened?
2) How will fans ever be able to watch the NBA product without questioning its integrity?
ESPN has gotten opinions about these two questions from its NBA analysts, legal analysts, talk show hosts, former mobsters, current and former NBA players, coaches...you name a person that could possibly be related to the scandal, they've probably interviewed them, and have, without fail, asked them the two above questions. What interests me is the variety of answers that I hear from people. To me, it's plain as day the answers to both of these questions.

My answers:
1) How could something like this have happened?
I had the pleasure of watching David Stern squirm and be as uncomfortable as I'd ever seen David Stern be this past week during his press conference addressing the Tim Donaghy scandal. I watched it in its entirety (yes, no life here), and I think what was most interesting to me was the beginning of his speech. He tried to cover the NBA's butt by saying they currently have former FBI and CIA agents, NYPD, and a plethora of other high-ranking crime fighters on their staff. It was if he was saying, "Well, it's not our fault he bet on basketball, we had the finest of the fine on our staff to prevent something like this happening."

Nice cover, Mr. Stern. Security is not the issue. Unless you have guys that constantly monitor your referees (and I mean tailing them home after work, tapping their phones, etc....completely invading their privacy), then you cannot stop betting on basketball. I'm sorry, but it is not that hard to do, and I'm not surprised Donaghy was able to circumvent Stern's ring of security.

The real issue? Stern and his NBA product. For too long now the refereeing in the NBA has been borderline shit-ugly. How often are we arguing about no-calls and phantom calls after games? The calls seem to dominate the discussion more so than the game. That's wrong. Those phantom calls that NBA superstars get as they drive down the lane? How many times have we called "bullshit!" on those?

The reason no one was able to detect Tim Donaghy's possible point shaving was because the NBA allows its referees to be crappy. Plain and simple. Let's say Donaghy bet on a game, and needs the home team to get two more points to cover the line. Star player for the home team drives the lane, gets little contact, Donaghy blows his whistle for the foul. Star player hits two free throws and the home team covers the line. Does anyone think twice about Donaghy's call though??? Nope. Just another star player getting the benefit of the doubt. The NBA's officiating has come to the point that it is impossible to distinguish whether a referee is intentionally blowing calls or just expectantly blowing another call.

How could something like this happen? Put a tape of every NBA game in your VCR from the Jordan era-2007 and your answer is clear as day. You let it. The ref didn't slip through your Fort Knox-like defense cracks, he just took advantage of the system you have in place.


2) How will fans ever be able to watch the NBA product without questioning its integrity?
This one baffles me, because the answer is so blatantly clear to anyone with common sense. Do you think anyone in their right mind will try to fix an NBA game in the coming future? If they do, they win the "Brass Balls of the Year" award. The scrutiny will be so intense and the pressure on referees will be so immense that fixing a game should be the farthest thing from their minds.

I'd like to compare this to a restaurant that got shut down for three days a couple years ago in Lansing. Apparently their was some virus that got everyone who ate there one night sick. The restaurant refunded customers money, offered free food vouchers and coupons for a later date, and spent the next three days cleaning their entire restaurant from top to bottom.

Customers were outraged (and sick), and newspaper articles had quotes of people who said they'd never go back to the restaurant because they didn't want to get sick again. Owners of the restaurant admitted business would be slow when they reopened as they tried to regain customers' trust.

Me? I was first in line when that restaurant reopened! Do you know which restaurant was probably the cleanest in Lansing that night? Yup, that one. Do you know which restaurant probably offered the best service and food in Lansing that night? Yup, that one. I guarantee you I sat in the cleanest and most sanitary restaurant that night.

That's the thing with the NBA. Next year they will be so hard on refs' calls and actions that the officiating will probably be the best its been in a long while. The integrity of the game? It will probably have more integrity next year than in the past twenty. I mean that. Scandals like this open peoples eyes and bring about change and reform.

How will fans watch without questioning the integrity? If they aren't ignorant or have an intelligent thought in their head, they will. Next years NBA product will be better than it's been in awhile, I'm almost certain. And if I were to ever bet on basketball, next year would definitely be the year I'd do it, because I would put hard money down that the games will be as clean as a well-douched Vagina. Shiny and pristine.

There, my two cents.

~Mikey D