After watching last night's Spurs vs. Lakers game I simply cannot take it anymore. Its becoming harder and harder to justify to myself why I am spending so much of my time and energy watching the sport that I love when the league is clearly dominated by money and could give a crap about fairness. These games certainly appear to be fixed.

For many years I assumed that the home teams / certain players would usually get the calls to go their way and tried my best to live with it. But now the league isn't even trying to disguise their bias and are clearly throwing games to the home teams.

First of all - I am not a Spurs fan, I am a Sixers fan... which means that I suffer every year regardless. But when I do turn on my television set to watch the Eastern/Western conference finals I expect that what I'm watching is going to be legitimate competition and not professional wrestling. Game 1 of the Spurs/Lakers series was something out of the WWF, a totally rigged game that swung completely in the favor of the bigger market that everyone wanted to see in the finals. After the Spurs went up 20, the calls went totally against them... in the final 3 minutes it was obscene.

Gasol smacks Duncan, putting him at the line for 2 free throws... but wait... lets call it a turnover to spare Pau the foul and give the ball back to LA! Gasol knocks Manu out of bounds and Ginobli falls to the ground as the last person to touch the ball out of bounds - meaning either Manu has 2 free throws or it's LA's ball if he didn't get fouled... they call posession Spurs to spare Pau the foul and prevent the points. On the final play Manu has the rebound easily... but he gets tugged... and then he gets flattened but they simply don't want to give the Spurs a chance and its ruled a no-call.

Pau Gasol Slaps Tim Duncan - HUGE missed call
http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id...92-4b9d48701955

Pau Gasol Slams Into Manu - last touched by Manu, but no foul?? Then why SA ball?
http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id...61-237e8ca6b304

Odom Falls On Top Of Manu - No Foul on Fisher or Odom
http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id...32-dca58204f4a8

Even my friend who was rooting for LA thought it was absurd. My father who doesn't even follow basketball closely happened to be watching the game last night (not rooting for either team) and he called me up afterwards and asked me if the game was fixed or if it was just him. But hey, I guess the network is happy and the league is happy. They're going to get their Celtics/Lakers finals this way and great headlines like "Lakers storm back from 20 down!" - but at what cost? When 21 of 23 home games in the 2nd round are victories and LeBron etc. are allowed to take 3 steps into the lane... you have to wonder.

Basketball has always been this way, thats why I hate it......

David Stern needs to be fired. What a joke. Most overrated sports exec in history.

Whatever...if you watched the Lakers v. Spurs series there's no doubt who the better team was, and they won.

The NBA isn't all that fun to watch during the regular season. If you're a betting man/woman it's probably even less fun.

I've been a long time sporter of the idea the NBA is fixed.

However, how do you explain the success of the Spurs?

Sure, you have a beef. But that sammich ain't sellin'.

WWE. Has been for years. Get it right.

As for your rant..what do you expect? The best real basketball is played by student athletes

To add, think of the subjective nature of the league.

How many people claim the NFL fixes games based on subjective calls? for the most part PI calls or non calls. Can I get a Nuclear SUV?

Having the entire game subjected to, well, subjectivity, subjective interpretation is going to lend itself to conspiracy. Probably?

Objectivity? Can I get higher ratings? (or maybe an amen)

Wow...even the "wearer of the tinfoil hat" doesn't buy the conspiracy.

David Stern must go!

Ex-referee Tim Donaghy blows whistle on NBA dirty secrets

Ex-NBA referee Tim Donaghy told the feds two refs fixed the outcome of one playoff series - and that officials were told not to eject star players from games for fear of hurting ticket sales.

Here is the game that was allegedly fixed:

Sacramento Kings at Los Angeles Lakers Box Score, May 31, 2002 - Basketball-Reference.com

Kind of tough to guard Shaq when all of the centers have fouled out....


DAVID STERN NEEDS TO GO!

No way to prove this, but if it could, this would definately get the Pats off for Spygate

LOL, that angry, inept, lying midget had a meltdown on the Meyers and Farnum show on Fox Sports Radio. I will link to audio once they post it.

I believe Donaghy more than I do that proven liar David Stern.

NBA owners: dump the chump!

Interesting read, Ralph Nader wrote a letter to Stern after that Lakers/Kings game in 2002. Here is an article from then. I'm not saying it happened or it didn't, but Tim Donaghy is not exactly a trust worthy source. It is also very easy to take a game that everyone was pissed about, and even wrote letters about, and make an accusation that is impossible to disprove.

Nader Blasts NBA for Shoddy Officiating

We've got one guy who got in debt and had to fix games to keep from getting his legs broken or worse. He throws the league and his fellow refs under the bus while awaiting sentencing on his conviction. The motivation is obvious, and so is the series he picked. That Kings-Lakers series fed the NBA conspiracy theorists, so it's the perfect one to use.

Wade and Shaq versus the Mavericks - why did they let the Heat win the series in game six, on the road? Game seven would've been huge $$$.

Shaq and Kobe versus the Pistons ended in five in 2004. That was stupid.

They could've had Heat-Suns in 2005, but ended up with Spurs-Pistons instead. No doubt they lost on ratings with that combo.

I'm sure fixing occurs in every sport at one time or another, but I don't buy the league conspires to create preferred outcomes.

And David Stern is? I believe Donaghy, who could face serious chargers here if he lies, more so than serial liar David Stern.

I believe you could have a few rogue officials, but I don't think it's a league wide conspiracy.