None of this surprises me. Not in the least. I've always stated that most refs are either crooked or incompetent. This just makes the case. It probably won't get much traction however as the avg. Joe (not Dumars) who has many personal flaws is typically only willing to believe the word of a person that they personally perceive to have no personal flaws. The NBA knows this and will launch an all out Palace of Auburn Hills style assault on his character. ....did I win for have the most versions of the word 'person?'
I checked the stats and Dick Bavetta was the one of the refs in game 7 of the 2005 finals which the Pistons loss to the Spurs 81-74. (He was assisted by Joe Crawford and Ed F Rush) In that game Sheed was saddled with 5 fouls and limited to 25 mins and had 11 pts and 1 board. I cannot recall or find any stats on if he had a techical foul in the last game but you have to wonder what occured in that game since part of the other excerpts indicate there was no love loss between Sheed & Bavetta........ Detroit Pistons at San Antonio Spurs Box Score, June 23, 2005 | Basketball-Reference.com
There was the phantom foul on Kareem in 1988 also. So yeah, maybe even TWO titles. This is sickening if true (and I for one buy it). Why even bother watching? Then you have to wonder what is going on in other sports too.
Uggh. This is how I feel like. Yes, I love the Pistons. Yes, I love the sport of basketball. But c'mon, is it worth it to continue on watching it? I mean watching basketball at the pro level is just watching a bunch of people along with the league doing corruption and fraud in front of our eyes. Unless your "team" is lucky to get that "magic whistle/touch" that will be given by David Stern. I feel like watching the NBA is just supporting David Stern and his corruption. I try to watch basketball; instead I'm given written scripts and story lines from the NBA league.
Bavetta did not work game 5, but he may have been sitting in the second row at the Palace and distracted Sheed when he left Horry wide open for his game winning 3 ball...
That goes on in any sport. I recall years ago when a baseball player spit on an Umpire and did not calls for the rest of the season. There is a certain human aspect to everything we do. We see it on our jobs, when we go out for dinner, whatever. If you are nice to people then you will get better service. If someone like Sheed chooses to act like a jerk and belittle the refs then it's going to effect the way they treat him. He would encounter this in any sport he played in or in any job he had. Main things that concerns me is if the league was actually telling refs to favor one team over another. Now refs are fired every year and no one has ever come out with this besides Donaghy. Donaghy unfortunately has some serious character flaws so I don't know how much we can believe him. He essentially lied and deceived everyone for years so I don't know. Whatever is going on I would like to see it addressed and disclosed one way or the other. Sweeping it under the carpet and not addressing the publics concerns is only going to flame this issue.
The problem with Sheed and the refs, is that Sheed and the refs refuse to back down from each other, and so nothing can improve in that relationship until one party is willing to offer respect first. Lots of players have had run ins with the refs, but they don't develop career long battles. In the long run, opposing the refs is a bad strategy. A player has little to gain and everything to lose. I could probably have been into Sheed even more if his issues with the refs didnt become an alabatross for the Pistons. I could have handled some of the other things we criticize him for.
I'm not sure what to think about it all... but maybe some of these ref's like the one in the article are just jerks.... He thinks he knows what the league wants and decides all on his lonesome to do it... he thinks because he's the ref put to a certain game there has to be a reason? like roscoe stated i can't believe nobody has come forward to say anything... if there is dirt... but at the same i think lots of refs are dirty, just a question of how far up the chain knowledge goes...
We're socialized to believe that conspiracies are crazy, and conspiracy theorists are nuts. But the thing is, we've all watched the games, and I believe my lying eyes over the last 25 years, more than I believe the dog and pony show of NBA accountability. Do these specific claims from Donaghy have any truth value? I can't possibly know. But they do reinforce what I already believe. The NBA refs are a joke, and their poor performance, with malicious intent or incompetence, undermines the quality of the sport. I was just thinking how redeeming this must be for Mark Cuban, who the NBA fought tooth and nail to silence on accountability from the refs.
Does other professional sports leagues really have this many skeletons in their closet?? Does the offices of their respective professional league, "suggest" that one team should win the championship? MLB? MLS? NHL? NFL? I've yet to see as much complaining about refs on a constantly basis in another sport professional league. Meanwhile; The NBA? Has it constantly, in my honest opinion. I'm sorry, but one player in another sport not getting "calls" isn't enough to justify that all sports are now corrupt. Sheed gets mad because some receive that star treatment. The NBA doesn't make mad profit from Sheed, like Kobe and Lebron does. However, it's not always about being nice. Look back at excerpts and the case of Allen Iverson and Steve Javie. AI moved on, but Steve just wouldn't drop it. Steve went as far as making it fun to blow the whistle on AI. While AI knew he should have shut his mouth, but I mean really? Should that really be on the back of a basketball player's mind? Should I really argue the call or accept it, because this ref might or might not be a jerk. And if you do know, should there be this grudge? It obviously ruins the game. +1 Or that the FBI or someone went undercover and finally got to the truth.
