PROTECT THE PAINT

Why can’t Tim Donaghy’s “Blowing the Whistle: The Culture of Fraud in the NBA” not be published? I think we all have the right to hear what he has to say.

I believe that if congressional hearings can be occur to indict athletes who use illegal drugs to gain a competitive yet unfair advantage,   shouldn’t we adhere to protecting  the sanctity of fairness by investigating the officials as well?

The only one with somethign to lose is David Stern.

What affects a game more? A player who can hit a few more homers of a full season, or the person who calls a travel instead of a charge?

The official decides the outcome of every single play. It is not like Alex Rodriguez can cal balls and strikes.

We listen to every professional athlete who becomes a whistle blower after they have been busted for performance enhancing drugs. Jose Canseco’s book “Juiced” was published, afterall.

Athletes seem to get a pass by apologizing, and then we all seem to move on.

Why not put Donaghy’s book under the microscope as well? Just sit him down with a lie detector, and go through the book, page by page.

With all the millions of dollars that are spent by us, the consumer,  on NBA products and entertainment, we deserve to have absolute truth.

If Donaghy wasn’t the only referee participating in illegal activities,  we deserve the right to know. Just use tax dollars to have congressional hearings.

The fact of the matter is we celebrate our heroes on the court, and if the success or failure is derailed by the referees playing games or placing bets on who will call what foul first, in order to avoid having to tip the ballboy $20 after the game,  the entire honor of the NBA is defaced:

We had another variation of this gag simply referred to as the “first foul of the game” bet. While still in the locker room before tip-off, we would make a wager on which of us would call the game’s first foul. That referee would either have to pay the ball boy or pick up the dinner tab for the other two referees. Sometimes, the ante would be $50 a guy. Like the technical foul bet, it was hilarious — only this time we were testing each other’s nerves to see who had the guts to hold out the longest before calling a personal foul. There were occasions when we would hold back for two or three minutes — an eternity in an NBA game — before blowing the whistle. It didn’t matter if bodies were flying all over the place; no fouls were called because no one wanted to lose the bet.

In closing I ask this: If a murder like Charles Manson can have a book published, why can’t a crooked referee have his published?

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