NBA Voodoo: David Stern Fixes the Playoffs
By Nicholas Stix
A Different Drummer [June 5, 2002]
Well, the Lakers got their threepeat. Let's hear it for Shaq and Kobe and the gang. Coach Phil Jackson was again proven a genius. What's that you say — The finals have yet to begin? A mere formality.
NBA Commissioner David Stern wanted the Lakers to defend their two consecutive NBA championships in the finals. And whatever David wants, David gets.
Friday night, in game six of the Western Conference finals against the Sacramento Kings, in the most corruptly officiated pro basketball game I have ever seen, the referees charged the Kings with a foul, every time one of their players blinked at a Laker, but "let the Lakers play [their] game" — a euphemism for not calling fouls on the Lakers — as an obsequious Jim Gray of NBC volunteered to Shaquille O'Neal after the game. Gray helpfully left unsaid that the Lakers had gotten to shoot an unheard-of 27 free throws — making 21 — in the fourth quarter alone, which would have made clear that the referees weren't letting everyone "play their game."
The Lakers were down three games to two; a loss would have eliminated them, and sent the Kings on to their first championship finals since 1951, when as the Rochester Royals, they beat the New York Knickerbockers for their sole NBA championship. But the fix was in; the refs were not going to permit the Lakers to lose. They won, 106-102.
When O'Neal told interviewers that teams that won two or three championships had to do it different ways, I didn't know that this was what he meant.
Any doubt that the outcome was rigged was erased when, with one minute left in the game, Kobe Bryant tried to get free of tenacious Kings guard Mike Bibby, in order to catch an inbounds pass. Kobe got free, alright. He smashed Bibby in the nose with a forearm.
What did the refs do? Naturally, they called a foul ... on Bibby! Bryant drained two free throws, to bury the Kings. Adding insult to injury, the Kings had to burn their last timeout, in order to give the indispensable Bibby a chance to reflect on what day it was, and where he was playing.
A would-be mugger named Andre Bernard once broke my nose with less violence than Kobe Bryant applied to Mike Bibby. But I prevailed against Andre, thanks to my friend, Mr. Mace. Unfortunately, Bibby was playing unarmed.
Crooked pool is nothing new to the NBA. In 1996, David Stern ignored blatant tampering on the part of the Lakers, when they stole Shaquille O'Neal away from the Orlando Magic, so I guess something like Friday's fiasco was bound to happen.
At the highest levels, organized sports can be the closest thing to a vision of perfection in this world. (I'm obviously not talking about circus sideshows like the WWF, and some of professional boxing and the Olympics.) Unlike in the "real" world, where incompetents and crooks routinely prevail, and keep good men sidelined, the best sports can show us objective excellence and justice. When "Joe Cool" Montana was leading the San Francisco 49ers or John Elway was leading the Denver Broncos on come-from-behind drives in the last two minutes of playoff games or Super Bowls, I don't recall anything looking fixed. Likewise, when Michael Jordan drained his many "buzzer beaters" to win playoff games, in leading the Chicago Bulls to six championships, I don't recall him getting Laker-style help from the referees, or the basket being expanded for him.
Prior to last Friday, I had taken for granted that if the Lakers met my beloved Nets in the finals, Shaq, Kobe, & Co. would bury the Nets, like so many mob hit victims, in the Jersey swampland. But now, I'm angry, and I'm not taking anything for granted. Although I'm not a prayerful man, I'm going to take a page out of the book of a Guyanese woman I used to know, who said of an enemy, "I gonna say a prayer, and bind her spirit." That is good "for I," too. I gonna say a prayer, and bind the Lakers' spirits! You hear that, Shaq, Kobe, Phil? You sure you're invincible against my voodoo?
Shut up and pay your bookie, you whiner.
Actually, he did, to the extent that he almost never was called for blatant offensive fouls, while lesser lights were whistled if they dared to look at His Airness.
I agree with the writer, however, regarding this year's playoffs. For reasons unknown, the league made noted wife-beater Jason Kidd its darling, so the Nets had to beat the Celtics (luckily for Stern, the Celtics cooperated by playing like crap), and the thugs from L.A. were given carte blanche to beat up on the Kings without consequence. Granted, the Kings' inability to hit a free throw didn't help their cause - who can say whether that ineptness was intentional?
First of all the Lakers have won no threepeat. I doubt that the Nets will give LA much trouble, but just as the Kings did and the Sixers last year, the Lakers are vulnerable to an athletic team that moves the ball and can shoot from every spot on the floor. The trophy isn't handed out until the games are won.
Whatever David Stern wants, he gets, riggggght! How many of you really believe he DIDN"T want a Boston vs. LA match up? Come on now, let's see a show of hands!
Game 6, bad calls huh? Every time a Laker was touched, there was a foul? Like the drive Kobe made for a reverse dunk and Webber GRABBED HIS ARM and made the ball fly straight up. Oh yeah, there was no call on that play. Never mind. How about all those touches on the arm by Bibby every time a Laker took a shot? Oh yeah, no calls there either.
Did this guy cry in all the other games when the Kings got way more calls? I guess that's OK since after all they were the more aggressive team, right? Was he screaming like I was when Vlade GRABBED SHAQ BY THE JERSEY and no call was made? I think not.
Now we come to the part where this guy really shows his ignorance. On the inbounds play where Bibby got his nose whacked, Bibby was using the classic move a guard tries in desperate situations. Position yourself in front of your man, force a collision, and pull the offensive player toward you to make it look like a charge. The right call would have been a foul BEFORE THE BALL WAS INBOUNDED, resulting in free throws for LA plus the ball out of bounds! But this guy is too dumb to know it. Look at the replay and you'll see Bibby's right arm wrap around Kobe's back. Anybody's who's played the game could spot it a mile away.
Next we get into the funny stuff. Yeah, Jerry West "tampered" with O'Neal. He never had any thoughts of leaving the Magic till that wicked man, who's profile just happens to be the NBA logo, put evil thoughts in his head. Then comes the capper- Jordan never caught a break from the ref's. I guess this guy's never heard of "Jordan rules".
If the Nets, however unlikely, manage to beat LA for the title it will not be because the series is fixed, it will be because they play better and want it more, the same way the Lakers beat the Kings.
First, let me say that my favorite team is any team that is playing the Lakers. I also only watched the tail end of game six. I cannot comment on the rest of the game, but on this particular play, the refs were correct by not making a call on either player. Why? Because Bibby grabbed Bryant in an attempt to pull him to the floor and get a foul called on Bryant. If there was a foul, the first foul was on Bibby against Bryant. If the ref had made the call, L.A. wouyld have gotten one free throw and the ball out of bounds.
This is the purest hogwash. I saw that play. Bibby had his arm around Kobe's waist trying to keep him from getting the inbound pass. I don't think that is legal in the NFL let alone the NBA. Kobe was simply trying to get himself free of that grip when he smashed Bibby's nose. I don't recall Bibby complaining about the call. Nobody likes to get a smash in the nose but he knew he was holding Kobe, that's what his coach told him to do.
What really happened in this series is the better team going in choked and transformed themselves into the second best team. Not choking is something winners learn how to do and losers (like the guy that wrote this article.) don't.