If you thought the officiating was suspect in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, you are most certainly not alone. Ticky-tack fouls on the Golden State Warriors were impossible to ignore for the first time in the series, and the Cleveland Cavaliers went on to blow away the Warriors to force a Game 5 tonight in Oakland. Don’t be shocked if it looks like more of the same in Game 5, according to former NBA referee Tim Donaghy.
“There’s no doubt in my mind they would love this thing to go to a Game 6,” Donaghy said in a radio interview on 1050 The Audible. “I think they’re going to show (the referees) a lot of plays that should’ve been called against Golden State and weren’t. I think they’re going to concentrate on (Draymond) Green and make sure that he isn’t able to be in any physicality or rough house anybody in any shape or form. You’re probably going to see him in foul trouble again. It’s a situation where they’re going to try to get a Game 6 and open things up to create some more revenue for the league.”
That sounds an awful lot like fixing the NBA Finals. Then again, Donaghy knows a thing or two about officiating scandals in the NBA. He resigned from the league in 2009 following a federal investigation accusing him of betting on games he was officiating.
Tim Donaghy is sitting in his one room apartment eating a stouffers TV dinner screaming "this is rigged" at his 24 inch television.
— Lord Single Malt (@Singlemaltfiend) June 10, 2017
“I’ve been in the situation before, I’ve been in these meetings, I’ve been in these sessions,” Donaghy explained. “I’ve walked out of them with my crew and kind of laughed thinking to ourselves, ‘Wow, they really want the Lakers,’ or ‘They want the Spurs, or the Cleveland Cavaliers to win tonight.’”
Not everybody thinks there is actually a rigged system in play in any of the main sports today, but proving it is or is not remains difficult.
I am extremely confident that no NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL game has been compromised since the Tim Donaghy scandal. I cannot prove it. 1/
— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) June 10, 2017
The Warriors are an easy home favorite tonight in Game 5 with a chance to wrap up their second NBA title in three years, a year after blowing a 3-1 lead to the Cavs. The Warriors may not blow a 3-0 lead this season, but if the Cavaliers do win tonight to force a Game 6 back in Cleveland, then there will be plenty of fodder for the skeptics of the league’s integrity ready to closely examine the events of Game 5.
Of course, even if there is a ploy in place to give the Cavaliers an advantage, it goes without saying the NBA would embrace an extra game in the NBA Finals. More games mean more TV exposure, which leads to more advertising revenue generated. So of course the NBA would want a sixth and seventh game. The drama. The excitement. The money.
[KNBR]
