We all know that sports are a big business, especially a big business for the television networks. They would much rather have a California team, like the Los Angeles Lakers, playing a New York team than, for instance, a team from Indiana playing a team from North Carolina.
All the preceding is a preface to my belief, and the belief of others, that the referees at the Professional Basketball games sometimes influence the outcome of a championship game.
Long ago I was an avid, an obsessed basketball fan. I watched the Detroit Pistons team that earned the label the bad boys. One of my favorite players was Vinnie Johnson, an unbelievable player. He was not a regular on the team, he was a substitute, a role player. He was, at times, a scoring machine. When he was scoring he was unconscious. He would dribble the length of the basketball court, shoot & score. Everyone knew what he was going to do and the whole of the opposing team surrounded him. But he was unbelievable. I have never seen anyone even close to him in scoring ability -- when he was, as the saying goes, in the zone, he would score & score & score.
In one of the championship games when it was clear that the media & the fans were tired of the bad boys, the way the bad boys almost bullied their way into the championship, Vinnie was suddenly on a roll. He got the ball, scored; got the ball, scored. He was unstoppable. Suddenly he ran the length of the court, elevated, shot, scored & was called for a foul. They replayed the move, in slow motion, & it was clear no one was within ten feet of Vinnie. Vinnie fouled no one. Next time he got the ball he was again called for a foul, and the coach had to pull Vinnie out.
A fixed game? Biased referees? I think so. Others think so. Ralph Nader called for an investigation of the refereeing in the sixth game of the championship game between Sacramento & Los Angeles. I was watching that game. Once again I saw fouls called that were not fouls. Twice Vlade Divac, the Sacramento Center, barely touched Shaquille O’Neal the Los Angeles Lakers star, & twice he was called for a foul. These were crucial fouls. They cost Sacramento the game & eventually Los Angeles won the series.
I am writing this while watching game four of the finals between Los Angeles & the New Jersey Nets. Los Angeles took the first three games. The referees are trying to give the Nets game four. Again, they’ve called fouls that never happened & now they are calling them against the Los Angeles Lakers players. Los Angeles is going to win the championship. The referees can afford to lean slightly in favor of the Nets. Because slow motion replays would show us how silly some of the fouls they are calling are there have been very few replays of the fouls.
I have lost all faith in the refereeing at the professional level in Basketball. It is only mildly fixed. The teams are so close in ability level that it only takes one or two false fouls to give one team the game & eventually the championship.
In some sense this is sickening, as sickening as the deliberately fixed games we sometimes hear about. But why get excited: this is just a game & we stupid viewers are still vastly entertained by these highly skillful giants. But it is fixed, it is a business. I am absolutely sure of that.
Copyright © 2004 Henry Morgenstein