Will the betting scandal kill the NBA?

[$olvent]

Will the betting scandal kill the NBA?

So the Pistons are up by seven points with about a minute left. Rasheed Wallace, who isn't within arm's reach of the nearest player, comes down with a rebound and.... TWEEEEEET!

Foul.
Wallace, whose breaking point is .5 on a scale of 1 to 10, blows a gasket and...TWEEEEET!

Technical foul.

The Pistons eventually hold on to win, but because of all those last minute free throws by their opponent, they fail to cover the point spread. A certain segment of gamblers, those who bet against the Pistons, are pleased about how fortuitous those last 60 seconds played out.

Welcome to the NBA, where the referees ---- one of them at least ---- have discovered creative new ways to supplement their income.

Need a new car? Make a bet. Make a phantom call or two. Then go pick out that Porsche.

Sorry, Rasheed.

You know how the last two minutes of NBA games take longer than an DMV line? You know all those bizarre calls, the ones you didn't see early in the game and leave you wondering if someone spiked your Diet Coke? You know how goofy Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been railing on the league for years about its abhorrent officials?

Tim Donaghy, a referee accused of betting on games and influencing point spreads, is a revelation.

Turns out, the NBA isn't just bad theatre, it's rigged, too.

This league is so inept it can't even police its policemen. If the NBA can't stop officials from dictating outcomes of games, it might as well start allowing players to carry metal folding chairs onto the court. Or, at the very least, allow them to leap from the top turnbuckle.

Every NBA game, every official, every call now comes into question every night. If you can't be sure the game is clean, you sure aren't going to bet on it. And for a million or so wise guys, if you can't bet on it, there's no reason to watch it.

The NBA, in part because of its horrible officiating, has been on life support for years.

Now, it turns out, the refs knew what they were doing all along.

[$olvent]

Will the betting scandal kill the NBA?


No

Rather than booting Tim Donaghy from the sport, NBA commissioner David Stern ought to think about giving the disgraced referee a bonus.

Judging from the intense media spotlight now trained on the recently feeble NBA, this little incident has actually made the league matter again.

From the front page of sports sections across the country, to the lead item on sports news programs, this scandal has put pro basketball on the top of the public consciousness for the first time since the fated intersection of Ron Artest and a flying plastic cup. Donaghy has done more than Kobe Bryant and LeBron James ever could to make the NBA ---- if I may reference ESPN's recent moronic exercise ---- very now. Stern's league is suddenly Michael Vick now.

Lindsay Lohan now.

The fact that tarnished credibility is the reason for all this attention matters about as much as Lohan's alleged antics to her stardom. Get caught allegedly shaving points or sniffing coke these days, and people seem to care more about you.

To quote Irish playwright Brendan Behan, "All publicity is good except your own obituary." And, evidently, the NBA is not as dead as Behan.

The Donaghy incident has proven that some people actually still care about hoops, even if it's only with a freeway rubbernecker's curiosity. At least people are watching, waiting to see what happens next.

That's more than you can say for the most recent NBA Finals that did about as well is the national ratings as re-runs of "That's So Raven".

And besides, it's not as if the NBA had a whole heap of credibility to begin with. I can't tell you how many times I've heard casual basketball fans talk during playoff time and say things like, "Man, you know the Pistons are going to win tonight because the league wants this to go seven games." While that assessment may be wholly unfounded, a whole lot of people already assumed the refs were fixing games at the behest of the league.

The specifics of the Donaghy situation just add a little more flavor to the already murky mix by adding the specter of sports gambling and organized crime.

That sounds like compelling theater to me.

Everybody loves a good Mafia drama, after all.

Now, thanks to the man David Stern now vilifies, his struggling sport has become "The Sopranos." Lord knows the NBA could use similar ratings.

If only Stern could write a more dramatic ending, he may have something here.

[Grga]

Nah. Neither will Michael Vick be punished for dog fighs case.
Only in America.