6/11 - Some Links, Some News

-I'm sure anyone who follows any level of basketball has heard about disgraced referee Tim Donaghy's claims that the NBA ordered officials to alter the outcome of games during the playoffs. My initial reaction to this story was 'how can the NBA fix their playoff games?' I know people talk about it all the time (most notably the fans/players/coaches/writers of any team that blows a series or has a tough loss), but to the idea that this ACTUALLY occurs boggled my mind. Forget steroids. Forget spygate. Forget losing a season to a lockout. If this is (proved to be) true, the NBA will never recover. The league has done some amazing things recently to rebuild their image of a league of thugs (even surviving last year's Donaghy scandal) culminating in the perfect NBA Finals matchup - Boston and LA - which will revive the memories of the glory days of this league. Another scandal of this magnitude (which was conveniently released on a game day during the Finals) would be the end of my, and probably many others, following of the NBA.

After thinking about it for a while, it all seemed too calculated. He just so happened to make the filing on an NBA Finals game day, which also happened to follow a game two in which the officiating was heavily scrutinized. As David Stern said, Donaghy is a desperate convicted felon trying to do anything he can to reduce his sentence (he is facing 25 years). So what does he do? He picks two of the most controversial and highly publicized incidences of questionable officiating in the playoffs and says that the NBA and the referees rigged the games for better ratings. If that were true, would the NBA have ever allowed San Antonio to play in the Finals? Or Detroit? What about the two playing each other? Wasn't that considered the most boring Finals ever? And how come there was no mention of the Miami-Dallas series? It just doesn't add up.

UPDATE: This True Hoop article, an interview with a guy that makes his living off of betting NBA games, is an absolute must read.

-Enough with the NBA. Basketball Prospectus put together a nice list of possible second round gems. I'm pretty high on the first three guys on this list, and I think all of them will eventually be starters in the league.

-Andy Katz wrote an article on how the Lopez twins are preparing for the draft. While they seem like they are both a bit out there (comic books?), they are pretty funny. I loved this exchange:

But when it came time to talk about missing each other when they get separated, they couldn't resist reverting back to their good-natured ribbing.

"My biggest fear is that he'll be out of the league in two years," Brook said of Robin, laughing. Robin responded, "My biggest fear for you in the NBA is … it's that someone won't make sure your alarm clock is working."

"I won't miss him sleeping on my floor, the whole year -- terrible," Brook said.

"I won't miss your terrible taste in TV. I can't stand 'Sex and the City,'" Robin said.

I wonder if Brook liked the movie...

-It may be more apparent now why Tyler Hansbrough decided to return to UNC for his senior season. Not only is he going to break all sorts of records at UNC and get a degree in the process, but he also has plenty of "fans" there (The Big Lead said that the girl on his lap is a UNC cheerleader). Nice pull T. Enjoy it while it lasts - chicks don't dig NBDL players (kidding, kidding).



-Touching a little more on the OJ Mayo scandal, Michael Weintreb of Espn's Page 2 wrote about how cheating in college sports has evolved since the 80's.

-Apparently, the Garden is trying to get the NCAA tournament to start playing games there again. 1961 was the last time MSG hosted a game, but they hope that a $500 million renovation will allow them to get the East Regional Final in 2012.