Subscribe to Stathead Basketball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Basketball Reference Database. The Kings were up three to two in the series and needed just one more win to advance to the NBA Finals. We present them here for purely educational purposes. A Bryant elbow on Bibby with 12 seconds left and the Kings down just one point that resulted in a bloody nose but not a foul call. Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were suspended. Kobe answered in the affirmative, but also noted another crucial fact for the context: Well, Tim Donaghy definitely had money on it. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. Data Provided By The Shaquille ONeal and Kobe Bryant-led Lakers were the defending NBA champions, while the Kings, with star Chris Webber and a superb supporting cast, seemed poised for a breakthrough. Kobe is a bigger star than Boston's entire big three combined. The images: Divacs fifth foul call. In 2008, during his sentencing, Donaghys allegations regarding the NBA and the 2002 Western Conference Finals were released through his lawyers in a filing. Even what happened between the Lakers and Kings can be excused (slightly) by saying that it's only one game, the Kings had another chance to win the series. 3. Join us for a March Madness Webinar on Tuesday, March 7 at 8pm ET. Rumors of the dispute first surfaced during the fourth quarter. We just wanted to get back to our Cow Palace even. Then came a statement he repeated like a mantra throughout his interview. He ended up shooting 6-of-24 from the field, but I believe at one point he was something like 2-of-17. The New Orleans Hornets had just lost a superstar in Chris Paul, and the league knew that it had interfered in that transaction and had to make it up to the Hornets in some way or fashion. This video shows every bad call of that game. "Tim Donaghy has had honesty and credibility issues from the get-go," he said in a statement. In 2014, the Milwaukee Bucks had the leagues worst record and the Philadelphia 76ers were in the first year of their drastic tanking strategy that was employed by Sam Hinkie. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Often analogized to a bulldozer, Shaq was the most difficult guard of my career, Pollard said. It felt like the arena was completely alive. The Bulls weren't losing in 1997. Kurt Thomas was able to contain Tim Duncan enough to keep him from destroying them. We had a chance and we blew it.. . The Bogus Hue Hollins call in the 1994 Eastern Conferance Semi Final, 10. Game 1. And honestly? I'm willing to look at this as just a bad call, but an asterisk should always be next to this moment. A former referee at the center of a gambling scandal has alleged that NBA referees rigged a 2002 playoff series to force it to seven games. Web2003 NBA Western Conference Finals Mavericks vs. Spurs League Champion: San Antonio Spurs. A bench player named Leon Powe shot more free throws (13) than the entire Lakers team. After being arrested in 2007, Donaghywho now writes for the gambling picks site Sports Connection Winspled guilty to two felony charges of conspiracy. What people don't remember are the bad calls that led to it. Maybe that particular ref just has a loose definition of the word "tie," but I think there was some bias against Laimbeer involved here. Web2002 West Finals - LA Lakers vs Sacramento Kings Game 4 Highlights HD - Famous Buzzer. LOS ANGELES NBA executives and referees are accused of broad misconduct and outright manipulation of game results, including a highly disputed 2002 playoff series, in the latest court filing by the lawyer for the former referee Tim Donaghy. I have been doing that for all my career.. In 1985 all lottery teams had the same odds of getting the number one selection, and this system was put in place to stop the wide spread practice of tanking around the NBA. "The referees followed the league instructions and Team 3 came back from behind to win the series," the letter said. Meanwhile, Donaghy alleges, the NBA was preparing to do just that. With a slim 1.5% of winning the 1993 draft lottery the Magic won it, and selected Chris Webber first overall who they later traded away for Penny Hardaway. According to Lauro's letter: "Tim learned from Referee A that Referees A and F wanted to extend the series to seven games. LeBron has to shoulder just as much of the blame, as his ridiculous acting caused this in the first place. This means that the more successful the big market teams are, the better off the NBA is in terms of revenue. He will also be around a lot longer. The Lakers attempted 18 more free throws in the quarter. He never struck me as someone particularly worried about competitive balance and fairness. I think that there is a blatant star system involved in the NBA. Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. Would he have called the foul on Fisher at 1:27 that helped bring the Kings back within a point with plenty of time left? This is probably the only call in NBA history to definitively swing a title, which is why it's so high on this list. The 2002 Lakers (as well as the team from our next slide) are one of two teams whose championships I adamantly refuse to validate. When one team shoots 28 more free throws than the other, you have to look into it. Many believe that the Kings should've won the series. Let's look at the 10 worst officiating moments in NBA history and what they mean in the grand scheme of things. It's believed this week's allegations are a way to show Donaghy is being cooperative with investigators. They'd never dealt with such a situation before, and even though they robbed fans of a Knicks-Bulls bloodbath in the Eastern Conference Finals, they probably didn't change the course of history too much. They got lucky on a fluke. NBA Finals 2000. WebLOS ANGELES NBA executives and referees are accused of broad misconduct and outright manipulation of game results, including a highly disputed 2002 playoff series, in From my college team at Kansas to the Kings. The Lakers eventually prevailed 106-102 to force a decisive Game 7. It claimed two of the three officials of Game 6 intentionally altered its outcome, which became a national frenzy respected Washington Post columnist and ESPN commentator Michael Wilbon wrote that I still consider [Game 6] the single worst-officiated game in the 28 years Ive been covering professional basketball. The free-throw advantage is one thing. Seconds after the miss a whistle blew. The Lakers were back-to-back defending champions at that point. David Stern stepped in and vetoed the trade, and the main reason the deal was off was so that the league could keep more of a competitive balance. Still, a convincing case could be made for the other side here. 1988 NBA finals: The Detroit Pistons cheated out of a championship, 13. And he's going to be sentenced for that crime, regardless of these desperate attempts to implicate as many people as he can." The other notable non-call which I rated an "all refs" situation was on the inbounds at 0:12 where Kobe knocked Bibby to the floor with an elbow to the face, but Bibby was also grabbing Kobe at the time it happened so both were really guilty of infractions to some extent. He broke the record for most games worked by an NBA official in 2006. In his book Personal Foul, Donaghy wrote that As soon as the referees for the game were chosen, the rest of us [other NBA refs] knew immediately there would be a Game 7. Asked to elaborate, Donaghy wrote me that Bavetta would always say he was the NBAs go to guy and he would always help make the series go another game he said [this] to me before the game in L.A.. You can look at one play over the course of a seven-game series and say, you know what, that might have been it. Then the Clippers pick became the first pick in the draft against all odds, and the NBA had again made basketball relevant in the state of Ohio. While Webber returned to the court for the Kings after microfracture surgery and nearly a year after his injury, the team never recovered. Instead, basketballs most notorious quarter transpired. No, there's nowhere near enough evidence to support that claim. No call was more egregious than a foul call made on Mike Bibby. Now Bernhardt did have the arguable turning point call of the game as it turns out at the 3:06 mark when Webber moved into the paint and made a basket only to have the shot wiped out with an offensive foul call. Here are 15 times the NBA seemed fixed. Do you have a blog? Or this. The Lakers shot 27 free throws in the fourth quarter of Game 6 and made 21 of them. A decade later, questionable officiating still haunts what might be the greatest playoff series ever played, writes Matt Gallagher. The ball went straight to Lakers forward Robert Big Shot Horry, one of the games all-time clutch-shooting role players, who calmly sank a wide-open three. The Pistons led the Lakers by one point in the final moments of Game 6 of the 1988 Finals. Jordan was wide open because of an illegal move. This years playoffs added a dubious and crucial non-call benefitting the Miami Heat in their Eastern Conference matchup against the Boston Celtics to the conspiracy canon. This was where the Laker dynasty should have organically ended. I called it the worst officiated game in NBA history. To promote parity the league allowed Paul to be traded to the Los Angeles Clippers instead. You know the game has turned into a joke when at halftime "and the Oscar goes to" is trending on Twitter. That free throw turned a tie into a one-point Knicks lead and victory. He fouled out, committing six personal fouls in only 11 minutes of play. Tim knew Referees A and F to be 'company men,' always acting in the interest of the NBA, and that night, it was in the NBA's interest to add another game to the series." All of the information revealed Tuesday was previously conveyed by Donaghy to federal investigators last July. But still, I don't think there's any real chance that the NBA is actually rigged. And they did, carried by ONeal and a strong performance on the offensive boards. 25 free throws for the Kings over the course of the game two less than the Lakers shot in the last quarter alone. The Celtics had 28 more opportunities to score free points. After a back-and-forth Game 5 at Arco Arena that saw multiple lead changes and superb performances by both ONeal (28 points on 14 of 18 shooting) and Webber (29 points and 13 rebounds), the Lakers led 91-90 with 11 seconds to go. WebFor more info on the BBALLBREAKDOWN Online Membership: http://bit.ly/BballMemberWhen the Kings and Lakers clashed in the 2002 Western L.A. converted only five field goals for the entire quarter. It happens fairly often, but in Game 7 of the finals? When the Kings and the Lakers met in the 2003 preseason, the drama picked up right where it left off. One of those had to do with whether or not the 2002 NBA Western Conference Finals were rigged. 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