Refs and the NBA: Will They Get It Right?

With the playoffs fast approaching, how far off is the Tim Donaghy scandal in your mind?

How many times have you thought "Wow, the NBA must want [insert team name here] to win it all this year"?

How will that affect the Cleveland Cavaliers from winning their first NBA championship?

Or the famed Celtics-Lakers rivalry?

Can a five-man team beat an eight-man team?

This year is shaping up to be one of the biggest and best times for the NBA to really shine. The competitiveness and anticipated match-ups, not to mention the eventual upsets that are bound to happen, can, in my opinion, dispel all these suspicions that the NBA chooses whom they'd like to see as champions.

It could wash away the Tim Donaghys, the non-fourth-quarter-calls of obvious fouls, the non-technicals to keep the star players in the game just for ticket sales.

Or can it?

Is it that we are just blinded by our devotion to our teams, or are these things really happening? If it is really happening, how can it be stopped? What can we, as fans, do?

I, for one, will be watching this years playoff matches very closely, possibly even getting video clips of obvious non-calls that throw the games. I will be making my opinions known far and wide on every blog I possibly can. And I will try to be as unbiased as is humanly possible by accepting the intelligent opinions of others.

This is my goal for this playoff season. This is the year I either stay a fan, or give up entirely.

This will be the final test—until I need another basketball fix next season.