Tim Donaghy May Have Made the Right Call; David Stern, You're in Trouble

Today is a big day for intelligent, responsible sports cynics. It's not often that a responsible amateur or professional journalist can walk down the proverbial street with their tin foil hat on without getting strange looks from the public.

Tim Donaghy has begun to unearth some theories that could represent basketball’s equivalent to the Watergate Scandal.

Donaghy has told the FBI that the NBA has been fixing games for years.

Basketball lexicon, during the mid-90’s, was introduced to the term “Jordan rules.” This wasn’t really a new theory, but an unnamed one.

It is impossible to truly quantify how many fouls and violations star players got away with, but there has always been, throughout all sports, a stigma that seniority rules. Younger players were simply not going to get the calls that veteran stars got.

However, perhaps a greater crime, and one that has gone unspoken within the media, is the NBA’s seemingly blatant attempt to generate buzz and revenue since the 1998 lockout.

Oddly, even since the 1998 lockout, Jordan has dictated a lot of what happens on the court in the post season.

Without Jordan around, the NBA clearly had to do some fundraising, as interest in the NBA dropped considerably.

What would be the easiest way to raise funds? Well, it's hard to make money on games that never happen, so suddenly, NBA playoff series got longer.

Below is a list of series that lasted seven games, and series that lasted six games or longer. They are all outside the first round to maintain consistency with NBA playoff formats.

Each year represents the year in which the playoffs took place.

Year- 7 game series/6+ game series

2008- 2/4*

2007- 1/6

2006- 3/6

2005- 2/5

2004- 2/6

2003- 1/5#$

2002- 1/2+

2001- 3/3

2000- 2/5

1999- 0/2=

--------Lockout-----------

1998- 1/2#

1997- 2/4

1996- 1/3

1995- 3/6+

1994- 5/6

1993- 2/5#

1992- 2/5

1991- 0/2

1990- 2/3

1989- 0/2

* Celtics-Lakers series not factored in

# Jordan retirement

+ Jordan comeback

= Lockout shortened year

$ NBA’s mid-season decision to change first round format to five games, amid concerns that the 3-peat star studded Lakers could lose a five game series.

Some may argue that the NBA’s lockout, and subsequent salary cap has created a level of parity in the NBA; however, there have been only four different champions in those nine years, and if the Lakers win this year that number would remain the same.

The 1998-1999 shortened season, the small market San Antonio Spurs won the championship; however, they conveniently played the finals against the team in the largest market in the NBA, the New York Knicks.

The Knicks that post season played 20 of the possible 26 games they could have played.  

One could argue that the reason why series were shorter during Jordan’s prime were because his Bulls teams were so dominant. However, that has no effect on the Western Conference playoffs.

Also, oddly, when Jordan returned to the NBA as a Wizard bringing some of the intrigue from the mid-90’s with him, NBA playoff series shrunk once again, despite Jordan’s Wizards teams never making the playoffs.

In Jordan’s final year with the Wizards, as he was on his farewell tour, the NBA changed first round format from five games to seven, guaranteeing at least eight more playoff games.

Also, during that year there were concerns that the Lakers could be beaten in a five game series.

In the years since this playoff format has been in place, not including 2008, there has been 45 series of six or more games. In five years, there has been an average of nine series that have gone six games or longer.

So drama filled series have guaranteed the NBA at least twenty more games in that five year period than the NBA had experienced in any other five year period in the 10 years previous to the lockout.

Did the NBA fix games? Are the refs on the take? Has the overall product been hurt or has this actually contributed to the financial stability of the league?

I don’t have the answers to any of that, but I’ll be strapping on my tin foil hat, hunkering down in my proverbial bomb shelter, and watching as the NBA approaches another ugly patch.

Commissioner Stern, I’d like to formally invite you to join me. I have a seat saved for you between Roger Goodell and Bud Selig. You may have to sit on Clayton Bennett’s lap though, that shouldn’t be a problem.