Ailene Voisin: After probe, we all wonder
By Ailene Voisin - Bee Columnist
Last Updated 6:13 am PDT Sunday, July 29, 2007
Story appeared in S****TS section, Page C1
http://www.sacbee.com/kings/story/297829.html
I was in the building five years ago, seated behind the baseline,
chronicling
every rebound, turnover, field goal, assist, missed free throw, blown
whistle.
It was the game everyone remembers -- Game 6 of the 2002 Western
Conference
finals between the Kings and Lakers at Staples Center -- the one that
infuriated many and mystified others, the officiating so one-sided
that
consumer advocate Ralph Nader demanded an investigation.
At the time, I merely considered it a travesty, and the worst-
officiated NBA
playoff game ever. My column that night was a rip job on the refs -- a
first
in my 21 years of covering the NBA. I thought Kings coach Rick Adelman
was
remarkably composed while providing a biting postgame critique. I
recorded
Lakers coach Phil Jackson's too-coy comments and watched him struggle
to keep
a straight face. I rolled my eyes at Kobe Bryant and was greeted with
knowing
laughter.
But what did we really know?
We know the refs stunk.
We know the Kings were the better team, that Vlade Divac, Scot Pollard
and
Mike Bibby were victimized by a series of phantom fouls, and that the
free-throw disparity in the fourth quarter was indefensible. The
numbers still
don't add up: The Lakers attempted 27 free throws in the deciding
period while
the Kings, the aggressors throughout the best-of-seven series, were
rewarded
with an underwhelming nine.
Upon reflection and further review, and two recent evenings spent
viewing the
game tape, not much has changed.
The refs still stunk.
The Kings were still the better team.
There are still no excuses for not winning the seventh game at Arco
Arena, for
allowing the horrific officiating by Bob Delaney and Ted Bernhardt
(and very
few of the mistakes in Game 6 are attributable to crew chief Dick
Bavetta, by
the way) to mess with their minds. There is no ignoring Adelman's
failure to
recapture his players' focus, channeling their anger at the Lakers,
beginning
with the opening tip. There is no forgetting the mental hangover in
the locker
room before the final game, the whining and what-ifs.
Tim Donaghy, the veteran ref under investigation for allegedly betting
on
games he officiated, was nowhere near the premises for Games 6 or 7 --
and
isn't NBA Commissioner David Stern relieved about that?
Except that now, whenever placing a game tape in the VCR, Donaghy is
the ghost
in the machine. Every questionable call becomes suspicious. Fan
interest could
well reach record highs next season for all the wrong (scandalous)
reasons.
Convincing the public that the competition is legitimate will take
years, not
months -- and that's assuming Donaghy's actions indeed were those of a
rogue
ref.
Sacramento fans might prove to be the league's 2007-08 litmus test, in
this
sense: Since the Donaghy scandal broke, Game 6 has been a featured
segment of
the national discussion. It won't go away. Maybe, it shouldn't.
"When that stuff started coming out about (Donaghy), the first thing I
heard
from people down here was: 'Oh, my goodness. I wonder what they're
saying
today in Sacramento?' " related Los Angeles Times columnist Bill
Plaschke.
"Everybody knows the Lakers weren't the best team that series. Die-
hard Lakers
fans won't admit it publicly, but deep down, they know something was
very
wrong with that game."
Outside the L.A. area, the *****sment of the officiating that night is
almost
universal. As Jack McCallum of S****ts Illustrated wrote on June 5,
2002:
"League officials do not gather refs in a room and instruct them about
which
team they want to win. ... The league has more integrity than that.
However,
Game 6 of the Kings-Lakers series was one of the worst officiated
games I've
ever seen."
During that night's network telecast, announcers Marv Albert, Steve
Jones and
Bill Walton repeatedly referenced the questionable officiating. Jones
noted
that the Kings were "going to have to work through tough officiating,"
and at
one point early in the fourth, after Pollard had been called for
consecutive
fouls -- one for an alleged moving screen, the other for breathing on
Shaquille O'Neal as the Lakers center spun into the lane -- an
exasperated
Walton blurted, "That's not a foul, I'm sorry."
With both Divac and Pollard on the bench with six fouls, the all-too-
fitting
finale featured a sequence in which Bryant, while trying to free
himself for
the inbound pass, shoved and elbowed Bibby, knocking him to the
ground.
Delaney, who was positioned on the baseline in front of the play,
called the
astonished Bibby for the foul, denying the Kings an op****tunity for
the tying
basket.
So I'll say it again. The refs stunk. The officiating was a travesty.
The
Kings wuz robbed. Until further notice, that's what I believe.
But this Donaghy character makes you wonder. He makes us all wonder.
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