[Lefty Noob]

Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy claims that past NBA playoff series were fixed.

According to the Associated Press, "NBA referees, influenced by cozy relationships with league officials, rigged a 2002 playoff series to force it to a revenue-boosting seven games, a former referee at the center of a gambling scandal alleged Tuesday... Donaghy also claimed the NBA routinely encouraged refs to ring up bogus fouls to manipulate results but discouraged them from calling technical fouls on star players to keep them in games and protect ticket sales and television ratings."

Ex-NBA referee: playoff series manipulated - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

[Bryan88]

Well, it wouldn't surprise me if this kind of stuff was happening. However, Stern pretty much dismissed it yesterday as the attempts of a desperate man to show he wasn't the only responsible person in hopes of reducing or getting out of his sentence. Apparently the FBI and attorney general investigated this and they didn't find it to be true.

[ncrdbl1]

The NBA also had to fire 8 officials back in the 90s who were charged with income tax evasion. All but two pleaded guilty and were given house arrest. After a time when the whole deal had time to quiet down the NBA rehired the officials who pleaded guilty. You had officials who took part in illegal activites and are convicxted felons and the NBA goes around under the cover of night and rehires them. And some people think they can trust anything the league office says. BTW the FBI still has an open investigation going on. With several game officials rumored to have been asked a lot of questions about another current official.