OH....MY.....GOD!

[AnDrOiDKing4]

Arghhh more frustration.

[KingInExile]

The Bee will be running a story tomorrow on this and have already posted part of the story (including an excerpt from Donaghy's letter):

"Referees A, F, and G were officiating a playoff series between the Team 5 and Team 6 in May of 2002," the letter states, using placeholders instead of names. "It was the sixth game of a seven-game series, and a Team 5 victory that night would have ended the series. However, Tim learned from Referee A that Referees A and F wanted to extend the series to seven games. Tim knew Referees A and F to be 'company men,' always acting in the interest of the NBA, and that night, it was in the NBA's best interest to add another game to the series."

The letter goes on to say the two referees heavily favored Team 6, ignoring blatant fouls committed by its players and calling "made-up" fouls against Team 5, giving Team 6 more free-throw chances.

http://www.sacbee.com/kings/story/1003807.html

And if you would like to see the actual letter, they have a link to that as well:

http://media.sacbee.com/smedia/2008/06/ ... iate.4.pdf

[SacTown Kings]

I am suprised everyone is so suprise. I thought it was well known at least in Kings land that game 6 was fixed. I remember watching that game saying "this has got to be fixed" and then it just got worse and worse. It was the most ridiculous game I ever saw. All my Laker fan friends just said I was complaining and that every game has some bad calls, but that game was just obvious. Sure we lost game and had nobody to blame except ourselves but it should of never got to a game 7.

Stern needs to go, I feel he is behind the majority of the corruption in this league. We need to do something to get Stern to step down, he needs to look for a new job.

[Wolfay]

Omg, I'm on the verge of tears right now. We spent so many years at the bottom of the league and when we finally rose to the top, it was literally robbed from us.

[Smills91]

Finally proof?

Donaghy claims he was told that two refs who were

[slaman]

NBA...spelled with an asterisk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWf4JZWi0sY
Funny how the media-assimilated Jeff Van Gundy now has a drastically different opinion about NBA officiating in light of the League's biggest scandal.

David Stern's continued denial of any fixing or manipulation is insulting to fans, players and this now-'tainted' game. Sure, Donaghy was wrong, but the NBA doesn't want to be right.

Time for fans to take off the blindfold and demand the truth.

[BMiller52]

NBA...spelled with an asterisk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWf4JZWi0sY
Funny how the media-assimilated Jeff Van Gundy now has a drastically different opinion about NBA officiating in light of the League's biggest scandal.

David Stern's continued denial of any fixing or manipulation is insulting to fans, players and this now-'tainted' game. Sure, Donaghy was wrong, but the NBA doesn't want to be right.

Time for fans to take off the blindfold and demand the truth.

LOL I said the same thing when JVG tried to feed all the viewers that crap.

I agree 100%.

Man it pisses me off so badly.

[KM44]

well, all kings fans are pissed, all nba fans are pissed, I'm pissed. But we can't just sit around bitching saying "i told you so." I want proof and answers to why and how this stuff happened. Now that someone on the interior admitted the fault, this will never go away. Hopefully, we can get some truth out of this with time. I think that game six was rigged, we all do, but I don't care what people are feeling, I want to know the truth and what we can do to get some justice for C-webb.

[pillwenney]

A part of me has always thought it was rigged, but another part of me just thought that was the biased fan in me talking.

The main thing that I think is important to note in this thread in particular is that this has nothing to do with being a small market team. As Donaghy suggests, it has to do with Stern having wanted a game 7. As we all remember, that was seen as one of the greatest series of all time, and Stern wanted it to go 7 games. The Kings don't have a ton of diehard fans (at least in comparison to a big market team) but at the time they had a ton of bandwagoners that became fans because the team was so fun to watch. So ratings were the issue, but not in the way you guys are thinking IMO. And for the record, this has been my theory on the whole thing for 6 years (*pats self on back*).

But even still, I can't take this as gospel. None of us can. Donaghy is in a desperate situation and while it wouldn't be smart of him, it's possible that he's full of crap. I'm not saying he is, because I don't think he is, but I'm also not completely assuming this is true.

Still, I feel a little vindicated, but I also literally feel robbed too....like I feel like somebody just came in and stole all of my stuff.

[RIPskaterdude]

Funny thing is, there are still Laker fans out there who are trying to defend their 2002 title by saying either..

A) Game 5 was a fix and the refs wanted the Kings to win

or

B) Kings choked in game 7 at home so it doesn't matter that game 6 was a fix.

[Cruel_Ruin]

I

Am

Speechless


I have for YEARS attacked people complaining about conspiracy during those finals... I remember watching and feeling something suspicious, but over the years I just regulated that to fan bias...

I don't know what to believe anymore. The NBA, where collusion happens.

[KingInExile]

Funny thing is, there are still Laker fans out there who are trying to defend their 2002 title by saying either..

A) Game 5 was a fix and the refs wanted the Kings to win

or

B) Kings choked in game 7 at home so it doesn't matter that game 6 was a fix.

Well, we DID choke in game 7.

[tanat-0s]

I honestly can't watch NBA after this.
I started watching the boston-la game tonight and turned it off.
And I'm a die-hard KG and NBA fan, I followed the league for 8 years now, watched games, debated it on the internet and with friends, played fantasy etc.
I don't know if my interest will ever pick up after this.
It's just... damn.
My all-time favorite player is in The Finals and I just can't watch it after this.
It's a shame.

[Blame Rasho]

I honestly can't watch NBA after this.
I started watching the boston-la game tonight and turned it off.
And I'm a die-hard KG and NBA fan, I followed the league for 8 years now, watched games, debated it on the internet and with friends, played fantasy etc.
I don't know if my interest will ever pick up after this.
It's just... damn.
My all-time favorite player is in The Finals and I just can't watch it after this.
It's a shame.

If there was another game to confirm to the whole refs/nba/higher power wanting a team to win look at the Wolves/Laker game in 2003 in LA. I think that was even worse than the year before...

[Dustin5566]

-= original quote snipped =-


Well, we DID choke in game 7.

I agree the refs did not miss all those free throws.

Can the 2002 squad get some cubic zurconia rings made or something.

[tanat-0s]

-= original quote snipped =-



If there was another game to confirm to the whole refs/nba/higher power wanting a team to win look at the Wolves/Laker game in 2003 in LA. I think that was even worse than the year before...

Yes, I remeber that game, KG fouling out, Wally getting fantom calls on Kobe etc. Rod Strickland said that it was the most horrible oficiating he had ever seen in his career.
But Wolves won that game and I had always thought that the refs were just bad and a game was too hard to judge and it's just a biased fan in me speaking.
But after that? How can we be sure after that?
Of course, Donaghy is not a credible sourse by any means, but it's just that last straw for me, I guess.

[UKF]

I've got mixed feelings about this whole thing.

As much as I want to crown us as the champs, Tim Donaghy could be just trying to save his @$$. The NBA would never admit to this, because they would not want this bad pub because they dont want it at a time like this. We will never know if Donaghy is making it up unless he says that he made it up.

We all now that that game was one of the poorest officitated games of all-time, but we did have a game 7, so we had some control of the outcome. Its just to bad that this is how that series will be remembered and that it wasnt the Kings and Lakers that decided the outcome of the WCF, it was the Kings Lakers and NBA Referees.

[UKF]

http://www.nba.com/games/20020531/SACLAL/boxscore.html

Here's the boxscore..

[K-Town King]

Sad sad day I was shocked to hear this today when I got home. Funny thing about it was I just was having a discussion about it with my friend earlier in the day about how that game was completely rigged. I always knew it was and I will always feel the Kings were the champs in 2002 no doubt about it in my mind.

[The Nash Era]

Wow. Awful. Not even a Kings fan, but watching that game was disgusting and how ironic that the outcome was fixed. Figures.