Jul

21

NBA Must Be Pro-Active To Get Rid Of Controversy

Posted by Jeff Sack under Main 

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As I sat at home on Tuesday night July 10, watching the ninth inning of the MLB All-Star Game, I watched as the National League rallied to score two in the bottom of the ninth, and eventually load the bases, only for the American League to hold on and prevail 5-4.? I knew I was going to be a guest the next evening on a Cleveland radio station WTAM-1100 to talk about an interview I had done a few weeks earlier with Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia. If the subject of the All-Star Game had come up, especially the senior circuit making it a thrilling contest down to the last pitch. I had my answer planned. (It never did by the way.) If WTAM host Andre Knott had asked me about the game my planned response was going to be “Yeah Commissioner Selig called down to American League manager Jim Leyland and said that Fox wanted it to be a closer game, so allow the National League to score a couple of runs!” I chuckled to myself as?I thought about it, knowing that any MLB fan would think one of two things; A) This guy is joking B) this guy is out of his mind.?No rational baseball fan would have thought that there was even a shred of credibility in the possibility of a MLB Game being manipulated either by the Commissioner, or by the Television Networks. Yet given the same scenario in the NBA, many so called “knowledgeable sports fans” would believe that the situation could really happen.

If you are a regular reader of mine than you know that I covered the NBA, MLB, and the NFL from 1995-2006 in Cleveland, Ohio. If I had a nickle for every person who has asked me in some way shape or form if “The NBA is fixed” I would own beach front property in Maui. For what ever the reason there has always been a significant segment of sports fans who question the credibility of the NBA in general, and NBA Commissioner David Stern in particular. People who would never even think of challenging the integrity, of either Pro-Football or Pro-Baseball truly believe in their heart of hearts that not everything is on the “up and up” with the NBA. My response has always been as a reporter, a talk show host and now a columnist that if I had any doubts about the League’s integrity, that I could not cover the sport. Credibility is everything to me whether in my field, or in the World Of Sports, if I thought that the NBA was “fixed” than I would have no more respect for it than the WWE, or WWF (you can see how closely I follow wrestling!) I am a Sports Reporter not an Entertainment Reporter if the game in my mind was fixed it would cease being Sport, and turn into strictly Entertainment.

Questions have arisen over the years about the credibility of the NBA Draft Lottery System, which I am on the record to saying I am opposed to, and?to certain players getting favorable calls by NBA referees such as the so called “Jordan Rules.”?The “Jordan Rules” named after NBA superstar Michael Jordan is a euphemism for referees giving star players preferential treatment calling violations. In other words as an examplea Jason Kidd could get away with palming the basketball, but an Earl Boykins could not.? Does this go on? Probably just like Greg Maddux gets a larger strike zone than Julian Tavarez, reputation and a certain amount of bias has to come into play after all we are dealing with flesh and blood human beings who have emotions not computers that deal strictly on fact.

But Friday news started filtering out that could put a stench on the NBA that the league will never be able to get rid of. NBA veteran referee Tim Donaghy according to reports has been the subject of an going Federal Investigation to see if he was involved in any way shape or form with fixing the outcome of NBA contests, or if he or any of his “associates” were gambling on games that he was officiating. A Grand Jury has been convening in Brooklyn, New York and will come to it’s conclusion in the next few weeks. Speculation started running rampant Friday, that Donaghy may be involved with organized crime, that he is a habitual gambler who fell deeply in debt, and the only way? for him to settle the score was to “fix games.” These allegations whether proven to be true or not have the capability of shaking the NBA to it’s core. And the longer they continue the deeper the hole is going to be from the NBA to re-emerge from.

The NBA has come back from the brink once before, back in the mid 1970’s to mid 1980’s. The thing that derailed the League the last time was drugs, cocaine in particular. NBA superstars such as Roy Tarpley, and Micheal Ray Richardson to name just two saw promising NBA careers grind to a dead halt because of their addictions and their demons. Things got so bad for the NBA that back in the early 1980’s CBS Television showed the NBA Finals on a tape delay basis at 11:30pm!

But just when the League was at it’s lowest ebb the “Holy Trinity” of the NBA came forward, I am of course talking about the Boston Celtic’s Larry Bird, the Los Angeles Lakers Magic Johnson, and a couple of years later the Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan.??All of a sudden the the NBA became “FAN-tastic” and truly grew in leaps and bounds until the mid to late 1990’s, when Jordan retired the second time. The league had started to lose some of it’s cache, but the NBA?Draft of 2003 bringing in LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Bosch just to name a few?infused some major talent into the league. And the?2007 edition at first glance looks like it could rival it with not only Oden and Durant, but Jeff Green, Brandan Wright, and my own personal sleeper Mike Conley Jr. who I think has the capability to be the true gem of this draft. This was truly a deep draft, despite what ESPN Resident Bozo Stephen A Smith had to say (You know I?have never ripped a peer publicly, but could someone please tell me what the fascination is with this man? Stephen, you?can be?arrogant, or you?can be wrong, but you can’t be both!?)

I like the fact that Commissioner Stern issued a statement on Friday dealing with Donaghy, he has to be pro-active in this case. This is going to be a lot tougher to bounce back from the earlier drug controversy the League went through. We are talking about the integrity and the credibility of the Sport being called into question. Stern has to with the help of Players Union, make sure that nothing like this can ever happen again. Reports surfaced Friday that Donaghy has already resigned from the NBA, if that is true great. If it proves not to be true he must at the very least be suspended and not allowed to work any games. David Stern over the years has been given great accolades for how he runs the NBA, for the first time in many years he has to prove he can live up to his legend.

? Copyright thesackattack.com 2007



Comments

One Response to “NBA Must Be Pro-Active To Get Rid Of Controversy”

  1. Steve on July 28th, 2007 11:33 pm

    I totally agree with your sentiment. I did see Earl Boykins get away with the most ridiculous travel I’ve ever seen in my life in his last game with the Nuggets.

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