In 2002, consumer advocate and current presidential candidate Ralph Nader quickly criticized the NBA referees who worked the Lakers' controversial Game 6 Western Conference finals victory over the Sacramento Kings.
Now that former referee Tim Donaghy has claimed in a court filing this week that two of the game's referees were "company men" who "manipulated" the outcome by calling several questionable fouls on the Kings and provided the Lakers a staggering 27 fourth-quarter free throws to create a revenue-boosting Game 7 won by the Lakers, Nader said he's hopeful a league whistle-blower will affirm the tainted referee's account.
"Incompetence cannot be the sole explanation," Nader said Thursday, six years after firing off a letter to NBA Commissioner David Stern requesting a review of the 2002 game's officiating. "It's sufficiently horrendous to not investigate this claim more closely."
Yet, Nader said any member of Congress will find it politically dicey to request hearings to explore the claims of Donaghy, who pleaded guilty last year to felony charges of assisting professional gamblers and betting on games himself. He is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in New York on July 14 and faces up to 33 months in prison, his attorney said.
"This issue is probative," Nader said. "That game has never been fully explained, and now Donaghy has revived it. I don't expect Congress to look at it. Without good evidence, they'd be subject to colossal ridicule for taking this on. But Donaghy may provoke whistle-blowers.
"Let's say these guys were company refs and they wanted to get David Stern more money. If that's in their mind, David Stern doesn't even have to wink at them. They know how to do it. These claims have aroused that critical opinion, and the NBA should be concerned by that. If people say they don't trust this game anymore, that could be the beginning of the end."
Nader said he was weighing whether to bring a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission because "engaging in deceptive practices like what these referees have been accused of is consumer fraud."
ESPN.com reported Thursday that two former NBA referees, including Hue Hollins, were questioned by federal investigators about referee Dick Bavetta, who worked the Lakers-Kings' Game 6. "They wanted to know what I knew about Dick Bavetta in terms of holding calls, making sure this team wins, that team wins," Hollins told ESPN.com. " . . . I never heard of that."
