Perception and Donaghy...is it over?

by 92wastheyear on Jul 29, 2008 8:06 PM PDT

Ya know, the thing is…..it just doesn’t matter if Donaghy was lone gunman with a magic bullet (JFK referrences are cool) as Stern contends. The perception of unfair reffing is out there. Has been for years.

The "star call" has been around sooo long that it is ingrained into the very fabric of the game. Listen to any play by play or color guy call a game, and you will hear about it. Every single game! Will Brandon start getting calls because he is now an All Star? How fast will Oden start to get them? We ask it. Every teams asks questions like these.

What about the end of the game scenarios? Oh….you just don’t get that call with only 10 seconds left. The refs don’t want to decide the game…let the players determine the outcome. As if getting mugged is any different in the last 10 seconds of a game or the first 10 seconds of a game. Heck, the league office even admitted that they instruct the refs to call the end of games this way.

Inconsistancy…..Ohh the refs are calling the game tight tonight. The refs are sure letting them play today. What about the home team call? You wouldn’t get that call back in our place.

You see, people watching the NBA all know these things. The annoucers, the coachs, the players and the fans all know this. Basketball (and the NBA in particular) is the hardest game to officiate. And Stern makes it even harder with is highhanded manner and his lack of accountability regarding this issue. We don’t trust him to do the right thing. So what, maybe David is right when he says that Donahgy acted alone and was rogue criminal. Even if it is so, it just doesn’t matter, because when we hear of any cockamamy conspiracy theory that comes down the pike …...we believe it. When we hear that Game 6 of the 2002 WCF was fixed (or Game 7 of the 2000 WCF) ....we believe it. Why ...because we have seen the unfairness of it all before. Hell we know it isn’t straight.

Soooo now I wonder.... What was Tim Donaghy was talking to Scott Foster about all those times? Were they fixing games together? The FBI says no, but I don’t believe them. Why? Cause David Stern taught me not to

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you know aint no way in hell

He did that by himself..there will be futher reprecusions…book it

if it can be conceived it can be achieved

by lyfefindsaway on Jul 29, 2008 10:49 PM PDT reply actions

I've said it before, I'll put it here to.

He wants this gone… and so it will be gone. He doesn’t like hastles and he doesn’t like people meddling with his league.

Need I say more?

Ba da da da dah... I'm BEdgin' it!

by you'vegottomakeyourfreethrows on Jul 29, 2008 10:58 PM PDT reply actions

I was listening to Tirico & Van Pelt and they brought up a huge point

Donaghy was winning at 40% of the games he bet on just by knowing who was going to officiate the game and maybe some injury news. Winning 40% of your bets is HUGE. Van Pelt said something like, “If you’re winning at 40% in Vegas, you’re a rich man.” The NBA can’t let this die. It has to be addressed.

by tominhawaii on Jul 30, 2008 4:00 AM PDT reply actions

Part of that 40% could easily be his BB acumen

I mean the dude was right there for a lot of games. He had to know a little about who was better then whom.

I’m probably the biggest ref skeptic in here, but that rate of winning says more about ‘knowing the game’ than about having a fix in. With a fix, you’d expect his percentage to be near 100 if he had an anonymous betting system. If not, then even 40% would be pretty high.

I'm a really really ridiculously good looking orange mocha frappaccino drinking manhammer sandwich

by hobobob on Jul 30, 2008 12:44 PM PDT up reply actions

do you have a link for

Heck, the league office even admitted that they instruct the refs to call the end of games this way.

I would be really interested in seeing that. Also, I think there is a chance that he acted alone as he was really fixing spreads and not games which would be easier for a lone ref to do through calls or no calls. I do agree that the tons of calls to Scott Foster are really suspicious.

Life is exhausting when you are this stupid.

by jonestr on Jul 30, 2008 6:22 AM PDT reply actions

No link

But it was in the league release right after the Fisher/Barry no call in the Spurs/Laker series I believe

Homer: "Oh no!! A Bear is eating my father!." (On seeing Selma kissing Grampa)

by 92wastheyear on Jul 30, 2008 6:34 AM PDT up reply actions

I think they meant to say

we dont give those calls to Brent Barry

Life is exhausting when you are this stupid.

by jonestr on Jul 30, 2008 6:45 AM PDT up reply actions

Somewhere ...

... John Grisham and Oliver Stone are cooking up an elaborate plot around all this.
The book will be in every thrift store in six months … and the movie will suck-eggs.

Live at Doug Fir Lounge on Aug. 7, 9 pm -- YEAR 5000 -- http://www.myspace.com/y5k

by Y5k on Jul 30, 2008 6:53 AM PDT reply actions

Not so fast

I’m hearing that Dustin Hoffman has already agreed to play David Stern.

So how bad could it be?

by knickfan on Jul 30, 2008 7:28 AM PDT up reply actions

I would love to read that book

Grisham can spin a good yarn

Homer: "Oh no!! A Bear is eating my father!." (On seeing Selma kissing Grampa)

by 92wastheyear on Jul 30, 2008 7:59 AM PDT up reply actions

Don't read The Broker

It’s basically a tour of Italy with a spectacularly anticlimactic ending. I think he wrote it just to write off his vacation to Italy.

by tominhawaii on Jul 30, 2008 9:49 AM PDT up reply actions

I read it

concur. I am reading Playing for Pizza right now. It is good so far

Homer: "Oh no!! A Bear is eating my father!." (On seeing Selma kissing Grampa)

by 92wastheyear on Jul 30, 2008 10:05 AM PDT up reply actions

Bukowski

is better suited for a down-and-out dirty ref book.
“Woke up in the front room rocking chair, took a good hard hit off the wine bottle, vomited. Stern left three messages on my phone. I didn’t check them. but I knew it was him. That bastard wants his cut from the Kings game. ...”

too bad old Buk is dead. Ah, he hated B-ball anyway.

Live at Doug Fir Lounge on Aug. 7, 9 pm -- YEAR 5000 -- http://www.myspace.com/y5k

by Y5k on Jul 30, 2008 11:21 AM PDT up reply actions

Michael Connely would be good too

He has a hard boiled Detective feel going ala Raymond Chandler

Homer: "Oh no!! A Bear is eating my father!." (On seeing Selma kissing Grampa)

by 92wastheyear on Jul 30, 2008 11:36 AM PDT up reply actions

Grisham

I’ve been fooled into reading 3 or 4 Grisham’s (last one was The Broker) and each one was the same…incredible page turning story up until the last couple pages, paragraphs or sentences and then everything just ended. He almost could have used the line, ”...and then I woke up and it was all a dream”.

I start to worry when there are 12 different story lines going and there are only 3 pages left in the book. I look for the remains of torn pages because I am certain there must have been another chapter.

And then I see another Grisham when waiting around in the airport terminal and get suckered again…

by lukeyhere on Jul 30, 2008 11:59 AM PDT up reply actions

I just say "no" to Grisham, Kootz, Dan Brown ...

Live at Doug Fir Lounge on Aug. 7, 9 pm -- YEAR 5000 -- http://www.myspace.com/y5k

by Y5k on Jul 30, 2008 12:07 PM PDT up reply actions

Hell

In the Inferno, the Ninth Circle of Hell was the realm of traitors.

Live at Doug Fir Lounge on Aug. 7, 9 pm -- YEAR 5000 -- http://www.myspace.com/y5k

by Y5k on Jul 30, 2008 1:33 PM PDT reply actions

the answer is no

the game is not immune from human nature. something or someone sooner or later will expose itself

"Meow" --- My cat Bonzi suggesting my money would be better spent on albacore then a couple months of mindless TV from COMCAST.... at least until the season starts.

by bow4meow on Jul 30, 2008 2:27 PM PDT reply actions

Follow up

This from Lester Munson of ESPN.com on the impact of Donahgy scandal.

“The second, and perhaps more important, revelation from the scandal is Donaghy’s phenomenal success in predicting the outcomes of NBA games. Although the information is incomplete, we know that Donaghy was successful in picking 37 of 47 games. That is the kind of success that will make gamblers wealthy. What was the basis of Donaghy’s success? According to federal prosecutors, he used his position as a referee to learn the identities of officiating crews for specific games, his knowledge of relationships between referees and players and “team personnel,” and his knowledge of the “physical condition of certain players.” Should that knowledge be enough to predict the winner of a regular-season NBA game nearly 80 percent of the time? Shouldn’t LeBron James or Dwyane Wade or Kobe Bryant have more impact on outcomes? Shouldn’t coaching, scouting, conditioning and preparation be greater factors? Isn’t there something wrong with a competition whose outcome is so dependent on the identities of the referees? Although they are unlikely to discuss it publicly, Stern and the NBA must be concerned about the incredible success that resulted from Donaghy’s fairly limited information.”

This is part of what I am getting at in the main post. These refs are biased ( in wholly predictable ways). A gambler could predict 70% of winners with nothing but knowing who the refs are? Ok…the perception that these games are crooked …even if they are not …is damaging this game and Stern needs to pull his head out and do something about it…now.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?id=3509730

Homer: "Oh no!! A Bear is eating my father!." (On seeing Selma kissing Grampa)

by 92wastheyear on Jul 31, 2008 9:29 AM PDT reply actions

ouch

that makes me verrry sad. its admittedly one of the reasons that i had never been into basketball before now, as it seemed so arbatrary(sp?). but i let my gaurd down and some superfan got his enthusiasm on me. now im infected and am turning into the same, full knowledge that this isnt really as much a sport as it is a show. sad. :(

"Doing research= good
Making up things=bad."

---jksnake99

by ptwnblzr on Aug 2, 2008 5:14 PM PDT up reply actions