The NBA and Its Refs: Money and Popularity

The NBA finals are upon us again and this time its a classic rivalry. The Los Angeles Lakers against the Boston Celtics is the epitome of the NBA legacy that has gone on for years. David Stern must be grinning from ear to ear right now, at least you would think so. Stern is now facing more allegations from Tim Donaghy that other games were fixed.

Lets first just say that I use to love the NBA. I've watched NBA basketball since I was a kid and idolized so many of the players. A lot has changed since I was a kid though. The NBA has lost its team oriented style and now has teams with one superstar and a couple of role playing guys going to the finals or you have a team that just buys there way to the finals. I don't want to sound rude but the truth hurts. Theses guys make millions upon millions of dollars. Lets take LeBron for example when he signed a hundred million dollar contract with Nike before he ever stepped on the court at the age of eighteen. Thats ludicrous. What man is worth that much money. He is a superstar but thats just to much for anyone. I don't want to single out just LeBron but the truth is that the majority of the players in the NBA could get one contract and still make more money in one year than the majority of their audience does in ten to twenty years.

A major problem facing the NBA is the referees. Tim Donaghy was caught gambling and Stern says the investigation is over and that Donaghy acted alone. Sorry, I don't buy that. The new allegations are very interesting for the fact that if the referees were suppose to push playoff games to a seven game series then that would give the NBA more money, more attention, more publicity, and more people tuning in to the games. The games that were supposedly fixed were some in 2002 when the Lakers played the Kings. I watched those games and watched all the press about them then and now and its very surprising but Donaghy might, just might be pointing to something bigger. The fact that the games were pushed to seven games and the superstar teams were suppose to win seems like it could be true. I do know that one of the other refs that was referring that game said that he was never investigated or asked any questions about anything. This of course was all said after Mr. Stern said the case was closed and he had nothing more to offer.

David Stern must hate the fact that all of this is going on in the finals of the decade but I think that their is some truth to the story and allegations. Stern wants this to be over and is trying to just shove it under the rug but now that I know about all of this it makes me wonder if the games are worth watching. What if the Lakers come back and win 4 straight of what if the Celtics get pushed to game seven? Will you not wonder if its the refs just getting paid on the side or doing what they are told to do. Lets just look at the fouls called in the finals right now. In games one and two the Celtics out shot the Lakers in free throws by a long shot and then in game three the Lakers shot twelve more free throws than the Celtics. Maybe its not just coincidence but the numbers don't lie.

Now that everything is out in the open, at least for now, the NBA has to do something to clean up its act and gain back its loyal fans like me. I don't want to watch a game that is all about money and obviously can and has been tampered with by the refs. For now I'll stick to college basketball and watch the young men go for glory, respect, and eventually money.