Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

6/7/2010 at 10:19am

I can't wait until Deadspin puts up Tim Donaghy's comments on Game 2 of the NBA Finals. While he's not detailing the X's and O's and why the Lakers managed to handle the Celtics with relative ease, his post on Game 1 from late last week was the best analysis of the series you're going to get in terms of why officiating calls are made when they're made.

He should know. Tim Donaghy was the former NBA official who was sentenced to 11 months in prison for providing inside information on NBA games to gamblers. Deadspin managed to land Donaghy for regular commentary on NBA officiating this year, and it's been quite revealing.

Which brings us to another question: Is Kobe Bryant the player he is because he manages to get most of the calls, such as his regular palming of the ball and the cheap fouls he draws? Was Michael Jordan also afforded such leeway by the refs? Why is there such a discrepacy between the way the game is called for various "stars"?

Isn't it interesting to learn, at least in Donaghy's opinion, that the refs will change the way they are calling the game depending on the score? The ex-official noted how calls that would not have been made against Kobe or other Lakers earlier in the game were being made late when it didn't matter, and it cosmetically made the game closer on the scoreboard than it actually was. We see this in the college game as well.

The stripes definitely missed that fifth foul call on Ray Allen -- we knew that the second it happened. And Little Rock's Derek Fisher learned how to flop with the best of them under Wimp Sanderson at UALR back in the mid 1990s. He's still the best at it.

Now, elsewhere Deadspin addresses officiating from Sunday night, with complaints that are coming from Flyers fans for Philadelphia's Game 6 loss in Chicago (bloody missed calls, in fact) and in L.A. for Game 2, where even the Majestic Kobe was whistled for five fouls. Lakers Coach Phil Jackson didn't like it. L.A. still shot 15 more free throws than did the Celtics, but Boston evened the series, pulling away in the fourth quarter. On the road. With Commish David Stern watching, then getting booed by the Staples Center rowdies.

We can't wait for the take on World Cup officiating.