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Studying under Dick Bavetta for 13 years was like pursuing a graduate degree in advanced game manipulation. He knew how to marshal the tempo and tone of a game better than any referee in the league, by far. He also knew how to take subtle-and not so subtle-cues from the NBA front office and extend a playoff series or, worse yet, change the complexion of that series.

The 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings presents a stunning example of game and series manipulation at its ugliest. As the teams prepared for Game 6 at the Staples Center, Sacramento had a 3–2 lead in the series. The referees assigned to work Game 6 were Dick Bavetta, Bob Delaney, and Ted Bernhardt. As soon as the referees for the game were chosen, the rest of us knew immediately that there would be a Game 7. A prolonged series was good for the league, good for the networks, and good for the game. Oh, and one more thing: it was great for the big-market, star-studded Los Angeles Lakers.

In the pregame meeting prior to Game 6, the league office sent down word that certain calls-calls that would have benefitted the Lakers — were being missed by the referees. This was the type of not-so-subtle information that I and other referees were left to interpret. After receiving the dispatch, Bavetta openly talked about the fact that the league wanted a Game 7.

"If we give the benefit of the calls to the team that's down in the series, nobody's going to complain. The series will be even at three apiece, and then the better team can win Game 7," Bavetta stated.

As history shows, Sacramento lost Game 6 in a wild come-from-behind thriller that saw the Lakers repeatedly sent to the foul line by the referees. For other NBA referees watching the game on television, it was a shameful performance by Bavetta's crew, one of the most poorly officiated games of all time.

And a lot more at:
http://deadspin.com/5392067/excerpts-fr ... ou-to-read

LOL.

i'm only LOL'ing in a sad, tell-us-something-we-don't-know kinda way.

This stuff makes me sick, honestly I cant help but believe alot of what is written. Anyone that has watched the game at all in the past 20 years has seen situations where alot of this makes sense. When he talks about inside bets with the refs on who would make the first personal foul call or who would get the first T on the "bad guy" where the loser would tip the ball boy....all makes sense. The free throw discrepancies you see, especially in that 2002 WCF game where LA took 20 more....

Who knows, maybe this will be for the better of the league now that the microscope is pointed back to the officiating.

Does he talk about the game in New Jersey where he gave Doc two technical fouls in the opening minute?

this is why the refs shouldn't have gotten re upped..
Knick bavetta, and others are always throwing games..

MVE85 wrote:This stuff makes me sick, honestly I cant help but believe alot of what is written. Anyone that has watched the game at all in the past 20 years has seen situations where alot of this makes sense. When he talks about inside bets with the refs on who would make the first personal foul call or who would get the first T on the "bad guy" where the loser would tip the ball boy....all makes sense. The free throw discrepancies you see, especially in that 2002 WCF game where LA took 20 more....

Who knows, maybe this will be for the better of the league now that the microscope is pointed back to the officiating.

thats so right dude

It seemed pretty tame until the Bavetta section.

I think that, as Celtics fans, we can really thank Donaghy for scaring the refs straight in the 2008 finals.

This makes me wonder how people DIDN'T like the replacement refs. I can't believe how much complaining there was about the replacement refs in the preseason. For years, we complain about terrible calls and how we need other refs..finally get them and complaints of too many calls. At least it was FAIR!

I wish the refs never re-upped and they were still on strike or whatever.

I actually was hoping that the replacements would have reffed for a chunk of the season! At least with them the calls didn't seem so lopsided (at least I thought) towards the stars, they weren't that bad in the games I saw, just a lot of free throws which I don't mind as long as they are merited!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjU3nvru9wA

I wanna hear about this one.

Sadly to me those excerpts have the ring of truth. Its the old adage - power corrupts and absolute power corrupts completely. Stern is dirty and had this book blocked to hide the truth. He had a team of lawyers scare the crap out of the publisher IMHO.

ParticleMan wrote:LOL.

i'm only LOL'ing in a sad, tell-us-something-we-don't-know kinda way.

Exactly...I wasn't surprised one bit by any of the accusations and I'm sure 99.99% of all NBA fans aren't either...

stern is dirty.

Scalamental wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjU3nvru9wA

I wanna hear about this one.

Wow, great clip. I actually remember watching that game and losing my god damn mind. That free throw discrepancy seemed to be alot more common place a couple years ago.

chakdaddy wrote:It seemed pretty tame until the Bavetta section.

I think that, as Celtics fans, we can really thank Donaghy for scaring the refs straight in the 2008 finals.

I agree I always say thank god this Donaghy stuff came up before the finals and not after, that way our title is legit and nobody can say we had the refs in our pockets a la LA vs Sac

Good points, although everyone sees that LeBron still gets every call!

MVE85 wrote: When he talks about inside bets with the refs on who would make the first personal foul call or who would get the first T on the "bad guy" where the loser would tip the ball boy....all makes sense. The free throw discrepancies you see, especially in that 2002 WCF game where LA took 20 more....

Did you even watch that game, or better yet did you watch that series?
I bet you anything you didnt. If you did then you wont sit here and believe what this D-bag was saying seriously.

Tricky Ricky wrote:

chakdaddy wrote:It seemed pretty tame until the Bavetta section.

I think that, as Celtics fans, we can really thank Donaghy for scaring the refs straight in the 2008 finals.

I agree I always say thank god this Donaghy stuff came up before the finals and not after, that way our title is legit and nobody can say we had the refs in our pockets a la LA vs Sac

Come on man. Look at how many of you guys keep mentioning the LA vs Sac game?
Donaghy is a piece of ish who basically screwed everyone over his own greed. Yet he never reffed game 6 that so many of you guys like to keep brining up. Bob Delaney was the head reff and he happens to be one of the best referees because of his competence, his ability to explain to players why a call was called in a specific situation, not to mention he is an ex cop which happened to helped convict 29 "made" mob members and even testified before Congress in 1981. Im sure he was reffing a fixed game.

I was at game 6, true there was some jacked up calls, but the Sac queens were playing aggressive and at times dirty like they always do against the Lakers in any series. If the reffs bailed out the Lakers in game 6 then they bailed out the queens in game 5. Yet noobody mentions game 5 they focus on game 6. which in fact only tied the series. The queens still had a chance to comeback in game 7. No compalint about that game now is there.

Donaghy's credibility is as good as a crack dealer that just got busted with bags of crack in his pockets, Donaghy is a convicted felon who was trying to avoid a prison sentence so he came up with everything he possibly could to save his arse from going to prison or a lighter sentence, so of course he's going to claim foul play and blaim other reffs. Why not, he's going down why not tarnish others so that it doesnt look like he was in this all by himself which he was. This matter was investigated by FBI and congress, was there anyone else other than Donaghy that was convicted? NO

Also I find it amuzing how nobody mention the Heat finals against the Mavs 05, or the Phx against the Spurs playoffs in 07. Or the Rockets against the Mavs when JVG was fined 100k dollars for complaining against the reffs. Its all about the Lakers and Kings 2002. And the other things that I find funny is that everyone keeps blaiming the Lakers as if the Lakers were the ones that fixed game 6. Were they? Was there any proof that the Lakers had anything to do with fixing game 6?

I can see how some of you Cs fans are rolling with this since there is always someone out there trying to discredit the Lakers achievements. I mean we only have 10 titles since the Lakers have relocated from Minny to LA right? Or better yet we won last year cause it was a gift, and Pau Gasol was a gift. Peps will go to great lenghts to discredit the Lakers for everything they possibly can, let this be just another weak arse excuse to serve your purpose.

^Tony, I *did* watch that Sac-LA series and I don't know how anyone can say with a straight face that the reffing didn't get the Lakers to game 7. Same with the game 7 win over Portland in 2000...

MyInsatiableOne wrote:^Tony, I *did* watch that Sac-LA series and I don't know how anyone can say with a straight face that the reffing didn't get the Lakers to game 7. Same with the game 7 win over Portland in 2000...

MI come on brah, I watched that series both in LA and Sac town, take my word for it. I saw game 5 the Lakers got screwed over in that game. Everyone knew that the calls went to the Lakers in game 6 in 4th qt, but there was a lot of good calls as well as bad calls. We all know the group of drama queens the Sac Kings were. Players like Vlad, Bibby, and D. Chrisite. Every call was a floop every calls was a foul. Every call they argued about. If you watch that the fouls Scott Pollard got in a matter of minutes was because he couldnt stop Shaq, hell he played for you guys, how many times did he pickup stupid fouls in a matter of minutes???

And then you want to add insult to injury by saying that the Portland series was fixed too???

You know I got love for you brah, but werent you one of those guys who claimed that the Lakers only had 10 titles and they titles won in Minny didnt belong to LA?? Come on brah, its onething to say that a Convicted Felon who tarnished this game makes false accusations and its another to sit here and make your own. So now the Portland series was fixed too?? WOW Im speechless.

I watched the series and the "famous" game with my brother and I said to him at that time that the game was fixed. I wasn`t at all surprised when the truth came out. I guess no one was really surprised because that was just too obvious...

anyone who saw that game 6 (as i did) knows something was up. it was too bloody obvious.
i doubt it was the lakers themselves. as donaghy said i think it was the league. they had a great marketing cash cow in the kobe/shaq lakers. there pretty much wasnt anyone marketable on the kings. in fact they were a bunch of whiners and floppers who didnt play the kind of physical, athletic ball that the nba likes. i had no love for that kings team but man they got screwed.

ordinarily i wouldn't pay no nevermind to what some convicted felon says. but in this case it really only confirms the obvious.

and the lakers are hardly the only ones who've benefitted. the miami salvatores did as well, as have various other teams.