Fixated on the loss

SACRAMENTO -- In this town that bleeds Kings purple and black, it was the sort of news that hurts and heals all at once, proof of what the collective basketball fan-base has believed for half a dozen years.

We was robbed.

Game 6 of the 2002 NBA Western Conference finals between the Lakers and Kings long has been considered an officiating debacle in these parts.

But allegations from a disgraced former referee that the officials essentially threw the game to Los Angeles -- by sending the Lakers to the free-throw line 27 times in the fourth quarter -- has hit a nerve in this government town where folks go unabashedly loopy over their beloved basketball team.

Fans have smothered sports talk radio shows with an avalanche of angry phone calls. They've compared NBA officiating to the artifice of big-time wrestling. They've talked trash about the Lakers, the league and its referees.

And they've bemoaned what might have been. In the collected opinion of the majority, a fairly officiated Game 6 (won by the Lakers, 106-102) would have ended with the Kings -- not the cursed Lakers -- going on to the NBA Finals and presumably throttling the New Jersey Nets to become NBA champions. The Lakers, after beating the Kings in Game 7 in Sacramento, 112-106, in overtime, swept the Nets in four.

"This is validation that what we were witnessing was a travesty," said Greg Miller, a fan since attending the Kings' first game in Sacramento nearly a quarter century ago. "My feeling back in 2002 was one of disgust. Now to be dragged back and have to relive that stuff is pretty difficult."

Grant Napear, the Kings' radio and TV play-by-play man the last two decades, still labels Game 6 "arguably the worst officiated playoff game in NBA history."

During his afternoon sports-talk show on KHTK-AM 1140, Napear fielded call after call from disgusted fans itching to vent after he broke the news: Former referee Tim Donaghy, facing prison for gambling on the NBA, had insinuated that the pivotal Kings-Lakers game had been fixed.

"It has opened up an old wound that just had started to heal a bit," Napear said. "A lot of fans believe the outcome of that game was all preplanned. That's got to be a concern for the league. Perception can become reality."

But the broadcast veteran doesn't buy into conspiracy theories about NBA officiating.