Not to ruin a good conspiracy theory or anything, but the Kings' win in Game 5 of the 2002 Western Conference finals was just as big a gift as the Lakers got in Game 6. And the Kings coughed up Game 7 when they had every chance to advance to the Finals and crush David Stern's alleged master plan.
In other news from outside Area 51:
• This is all so scripted.
Tim Donaghy decides to clear his conscience six years after the fact with rigging claims that become public during the peak attention of the Finals? Not two weeks earlier or two weeks later? When it also had just been revealed that the league was coming after him for $1 million as restitution for a costly internal investigation?
• Welcome to the first week of the book tour.
The claims that performed a heart transplant without anesthesia on the city of Sacramento came in a letter, dated June 10 and made public that day, from Donaghy's lawyer to a U.S. District Court judge. The correspondence did not specifically mention Lakers-Kings Game 6, though the details of noting a 2002 series that went seven games eliminated every other possibility.
But Donaghy did not bother to name the two referees doing the work of "company men" who were "always acting in the interest of the NBA, and that night, it was in the NBA's interest to add another game to the series." He left unanswered what is obviously a major detail. Another time, perhaps.
" … Tim learned from Referee A that Referees A and F wanted to extend the series to seven games," is all the letter said, using placeholders instead of disclosing what he knew.
Some time to get delicate …
Convict F thereby smeared Bob Delaney, Dick Bavetta and Ted Bernhardt and left everyone dangling.
• Delaney spent 14 years with the New Jersey State Police before becoming a referee. He spent three years undercover to infiltrate organized crime. His work, during the operation and in the subsequent prosecutions, earned praise from the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office, among others.
He would risk his life to expose the mob but lose his moral compass to make Stern happy?
• Game 5: The Lakers led 91-90. Chris Webber fumbled the ball out of bounds, but the referees – a different three-man crew – incorrectly awarded the Kings the ball. Mike Bibby capitalized by hitting a jumper from the right wing with 8.2 seconds remaining for the victory as jubilant fans blew the lid off Arco Arena. The Kings shot 33 free throws, the Lakers 23.
Or, as coach Phil Jackson said Tuesday, when asked about the insinuation that his Lakers had been handed victory in Game 6 to extend the series and get Los Angeles to the Finals: "Was that after the fifth game, after we had the game stolen away from us after a bad call out of bounds and gave the ball back to Sacramento? … There's a lot of things going on in these games, and they're suspicious, but I don't want to throw it back there (to the possibility of a fix)."
• Game 7: The Kings made 16 of 30 free throws. The Lakers made 27 of 33 and won by six points in overtime.
• If the Lakers were an obvious Finals preference as a TV draw because of the massive Los Angeles market, the fast-breaking Kings also were very popular around the country and had Arco as the perfect backdrop for the league to advertise passion. Sacramento in the championship series would have been far from bad news for the NBA.
Refs didn't stop the predictable ratings killers (Spurs-Pistons, Spurs-Nets). But there's a wink-wink understanding to bar the exciting, interesting Kings?
Call The Bee's Scott Howard-Cooper, (916) 321-1210.
