The Grass is Greener

Indeed the world seems rosier this week with the news of Tim Donaghy, and the possibility that he may have affected the out come of game three of the Western Conference Semifinals.

As a Suns fan, I couldn't be happier with the news. It's a vindication of sorts for all of us who tried so hard to resist blaming the referees for the game three loss, while the San Antonio fans told us to stop whining about the officiating. Well, everyone and their dead grandmother knew that the officiating in that game was straight out of The Miracle Worker, and now even Spurs fans have to admit that their most recent championship may very well be tainted, if not completely illegitimate.

Though I wrote down my initial feelings yesterday, I didn't want to go through the trouble of going too deep into game research to find out just how plausible it is that the five games that Donaghy officiated may have been rigged. There are far too many games to look at to find his games, and I'd rather let someone else do it for me. I'm sure that some astute blogger out there is in the process of putting together a list of the questionable games, and I'll just check his work.

Apparently, I wasn't alone in my first impression. Kevin Hench of foxsports.com speculated today the feelings of Suns fans in light of this scandal.

Denial — This can't be happening. Robert Horry didn't just hip-check Steve Nash into the scorer's table with the result being the suspensions of our only low-post scorer and best low-post passer. This cannot be happening.

Anger — We hate you, David Stern! We'd like to see Charles Barkley throw you through a plate glass window at Dan Majerle's bar!

Bargaining — Please, please, let us squeak out Game 5. Let the series go seven games. We'll forget all about the unjust suspensions.

Depression — We lost. We're doomed. It's over. Our window of opportunity is closing. Nash is 33. That was our shot.

Acceptance — We're down, but not out. We just signed Grant Hill. Stoudemire will be another year away from microfracture surgery. Leandro Barbosa is getting better by the minute.

He must have been reading all our blogs because those were my exact feelings, although Stern suffered a much worse fate in my anger-induced imagination. He was a bit off on the next part, though.

Denial — There is simply no way an official in a major American sport would do this. This isn't Italian soccer, dammit.

Anger — Was Game 3 the game when Bruce Bowen essentially assaulted Nash from start to finish? Was Bowen really whistled for only two fouls? Did Nash really shoot only three free throws? Was that the game where the Suns were in the midst of a run-out when they were interrupted by a foul call so late it just had to be an inadvertent whistle?

Bargaining — Okay. Please, Federal Bureau of Investigation, just tell us Donaghy hadn't bet on that game. Please just tell us that a pile of mob money didn't come down on the Spurs in Game 3.

Depression — Ah, what's the difference? It's not like Stern is going to give us a do-over.

Acceptance — Probably never.

First of all, I am SO not in denial about this. I have been one to keep a level head throughout the season and NOT succumb to the conspiracy theories. I tried my best, anyway. But I've written extensively on the horrid free throw and foul disparity in that series, so none of this surprises me one bit. I don't know if could surprise any die hard Suns fan.

I did ask those very questions during my brief anger phase. Once I confirmed the answers, I went straight to bargaining. Only I wasn't begging for the Feds to find no fault. I want them to find solid evidence of point shaving during that game. This is what we need, solid evidence that NBA games and NBA officials are not infallible. David Stern has long dismissed talk of biased officiating by stating that his referees get "95% of the calls right." The other five percent is due to the speed of the game and the fact that the refs are human and can make mistakes.

That shouldn't stop him from looking more closely at his officiating crews. A person who is consistently bad at his job finds a pink slip in his mail box in the real world. Consider this gem dropped on us by Jack McCallum at sportsillustrated.com,

Donaghy is the least-regarded of the Cardinal O'Hara foursome, which also includes Joey Crawford, Mike Callahan and Ed Malloy. One NBA coach called him "absolutely the worst referee in the league" but others were kinder. "I'd put him about in the middle," said another coach, requesting anonymity. "Then again, it's a large and undistinguished middle."

Um . . . wow. I have heard coaches talk about officiating after games, but never have I heard them single one out. This one flat out calls Donaghy the worst ref in the league. It would be no wonder that Donaghy wasn't looked at more closely by Stu Jackson, since the penalties for complaints about officiating, and in particular naming specific referees, border on the clinically insane. Ask Mark Cuban how much it costs to bag a ref.

David Stern brought this whole mess upon himself by making his officials beyond reproach, shrouding penalties and disciplinary action for poor officiating from the general public. It was rather Stalin-esque, if you ask me. The Russian dictator's personal guard ran rampant once it was established that any question of their authority was punishable by death, by order of Stalin himself. Eventually they ran amok, causing a backlash against Stalin among his population, and there was no way he was going to kill everyone. So he disbanded them, and the rest is Communist history.

After his smug performance on the Dan Patrick show after the game four suspension fiasco, I am enjoying the show, watching with breathless anticipation to see how Commissioner Stalin handles is own mishandling of the guard. I love the idea that Karma just came back and bit David Stern on the ass like a dog on the postman.

This is beautiful, and, may I say, well-deserved.

Underneath all this mafia madness lies a beautiful irony -- Vegas. Stern is reticent to put a franchise where gambling is legal, and this Donaghy scandal puts a dent in that whole plan, even as Las Vegas continues to host NBA sponsored events. Watch Stern punk out on a huge marketing coup and financial windfall.

See, this kind of thing rarely happens in Vegas. Gambling is legal there, so there is an entire security industry devoted to catching cheats. When they catch someone, they take care of them swiftly and quietly, and that person will be lucky to lay a legal bet anywhere in the continental United States ever again. And they do this, not because they want to maintain the integrity of their gambling establishments, but because they want to protect their assets.

Point shaving schemes and game-fixing are as good as stealing as far as the casinos are concerned. The more a cheater wins, the bigger the felony. It's a matter of protecting their own interests, and they do a damn fine job at it.

Now imagine if these guys were enlisted to oversee officiating and monitor for point shaving and game fixing. Tim Donaghy may never have lasted two months, if the Vegas posse were involved.

That just goes to show the counter-intuitive nature of Stern's recent decision-making. The police are outside, the criminal is inside, and Davey boy locks the front door. How can I not have a good time with this?