Sweet, sweet justification.

[kellinator]

Wow. I'm checking out David Stern's press conference on ESPN.com and he looks ROUGH. He's also not making a whole lot of sense in my opinion; he just brought up 9/11, for heaven's sake. Wow, I might actually feel bad for him if he hadn't insisted on acting like such a complete and total power-mad douchebag. 

For those of you who don't pay attention to the NBA, which is 99.5% of my friendslist, what I'm going on about is the fact that late last week, the FBI alleged that a NBA referee, Tim Donaghy, had been betting on the games he officiated and was linked to a points-shaving Mob operation. And the overwhelming reaction from NBA watchers was not "I can't believe this!", but "I figured. Which ref was that again?" I'm not even going to both posting all the links to the commentary saying just that. I will invite you to imagine what happened to my blood pressure when I found out that Donaghy called game 3 of the Suns-Spurs series this spring that had me swearing the fix was in. 

OMG is he now trying to claim that even though a ref was on the take from the mob there really wasn't that much of a difference? I think he's trying to put everyone to sleep before they can ask any hard questions. 

Anyway, the best part so far has been David Stern claiming that "This was an ISOLATED INCIDENT involving ONE INDIVIDUAL" at the same time that Donaghy is offering to name names. 

Oh, now he's trying to blame the FBI for all of this. Don't ask me how. 

So what I'm really trying to figure out is, why would the Mob be rooting for the Spurs? At least until this postseason, the Spurs were supposed to be "classy." Maybe Bruce Bowen reminds them of Luca Brazi.

Comments

[godessillyria.livejournal.com]

Oy, oy, oy...Stern looked jaundiced and those bags under his eyes!!!??? Looks like baby hasn't had any sleep in days. I couldn't believe the spinning this guy did. You'd think he was in the Bush administration. When the news broke last week, I thought to myself--one guy? pfft--this is the tip of the iceberg. Only time and Donaghy and the FBI will tell.

One thing we can be sure of...Michael Vick is doing a jig right as we speak. Limelight off of him for a bit.

[alladinsane.livejournal.com]

At least Stern knows that no NBA referees worked a dogfighting match ;)

[unknownbinaries.livejournal.com]

I done added you.

And stuff.

[alladinsane.livejournal.com]

Really happy news here in Oklahoma City, which seems more and more likely to be the home of the Sonics next season...finally their own major league team...right when the league takes it in the teeth...

and Stern still talks wistfully of putting a team in Las Vegas...

[alladinsane.livejournal.com]

So what I'm really trying to figure out is, why would the Mob be rooting for the Spurs? At least until this postseason, the Spurs were supposed to be "classy."

Maybe ABC wanted the Spurs to go far so there would be more shots of Eva Longoria in the stands and more free Desperate Housewives promotion?

[chicating.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of surprised...what was that about? Somebody in Texas plays poker with Tony Soprano?!

[ariedana.livejournal.com]

It's a lot easier to make sure the favored team wins by a lot (thus beating the spread) than to make sure the underdog wins. And he had to do his best to not be blatant about it, although he obviously did a bangup job with that.

Thus said, I'd almost say that the NBA should do what the NCAA would do in this case -- vacate the results. Sure, the Spurs didn't do anything wrong, but is it fair to punish the Suns by default?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvkKdXLwt0U

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

I love you. And stuff.

Also, have you seen this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvJGghOuFlQ