Government and Sports: Where Integrity Stops and Control Begins

Anyone who watched that series could call it the worst officiating ever in all of professional sports. The integrity of the NBA was put into question after that series was over, and the fans and the Sacramento Kings demanded Stern's investigation into the matter.

It eventually died down and was basically forgotten for years until Donaghey revealed to the public of the officials intent to give phantom calls and try to throw games into seven games.

Donaghey may be a felon and probably just wants to lighten his sentence as much as he can, but the fact still remains that he has become specific on certain series and occurences in which the head office "intentionally" wanted to throw games towards other teams.

David Stern has came out and said that this is nothing new to the league and the FBI and Congress along with the league will investigate anything else that Donaghey says.

But fans are now asking, is the NBA really looking out for the best interest of the fans? Is the NBA really that corrupt? I say no.

But the FBI and Congress are already looking into the matter, which brings back my point that government involvement will weaken the sport.

What if the FBI or Congress calls for a "Mitchell Report" on the NBA? Do they start throwing out policies and regulations the entire league must follow? Government control over the situation is not needed for any of this.

David Stern and the head offices of the NBA has proven that they have handled any situation thrown at them before. What if the entire league is regulated by the government and the commissioner becomes just a pawn?

I know this is mainly speculation and exaggeration, but if a league cannot regulate itself, it shouldn't exist.

The only people who really lose in this situation is the fans. The integrity of each sport is lost and the love of the sport dies with it.

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