anybody watch the nets/bulls game 4 last year? bulls were up 2-1 in the series, wasn't rooting for either team (if anything i was leaning towards the nets), but the refs were falling all over themselves trying to manufacture ways for the nets to win.
watched the game with a laker fan friend, and we were both in awe of how blatantly that game was fixed. not poorly officiated, but fixed.
free-trows were 45-29 nets, but that doesn't even begin to describe the multitude of ways that the refs were warping the game.
amazingly the bulls won - and i gained a ton of respect for them. nets played like absolute losers, without the refs they would have lost by 20 at least. it's a disgrace that the officials (and david stern) tried to steal that game from them.
as for donaghy, who knows whether or not donaghy is telling the truth in this particular situation. he certainly has financial motives for stirring up trouble. he's a criminal - but probably only one of many. his phone pal, the hideous scott foster, still has a job. also, in what might be just a huge coincidence, there are a bunch of other refs in the league from tim donaghy's high school in philly. and no, i'm not making that up, joey crawford, ed malloy and mike callahan. i first read about this back when the donaghy story broke, i think it was on yahoo or nbc news. but here's a link that covers it.
http://articles.philly.com/2007-07-25/news/25239921_1_nba-issues-nba-officials-nbraif i recall ed rush (recently retired) also comes from the same neighborhood. maybe it's a coincidence, but it's also a little worrying. but what i do know is that my powers of observation and critical thinking leave me with the impression that this league is highly dishonest. i also have a friend of a friend who worked in the league office - extremely credible source IMO - who says stern was "crooked as hell." so when donaghy talks it's hard to not at least consider his claims.