Is The Next Big Sports Scandal – Game Fixing by NBA Executives

Or my alternate title –> Has the NBA turned into Professional Wrestling

According to an article in the NY Daily News, former NBA referee Tim Donaghy has thrown some of his coworkers and NBA Executives under the big bus of professional sports scandals. Donaghy who has previously plead guilty to felony gambling fraud charges is making claims that the 2002 NBA playoffs were guided to a more exciting finish by NBA officials that were directing the referees on how to influence the games outcome through creative refereeing policies. He also stated that it was not uncommon for NBA Executives to have referees manipulate games. Oops! Now The NBA commish is denying the league has ever employed any such achievement. Still one thing about a bad boy is when they are being punished; they hate to bear the full brunt of the discipline, especially if squealing on compatriots might get them a lighter sentence. That can work both ways: he might be throwing up some false decoys hoping that the Feds will lighten his sentence without any real meat to serve on their conviction table (fat chance on that idea) or he might just be thinking hey these guys put me in this position and are leaving me high and dry so they should play with the Feds also. I am sure there will be film at 11. I can hardly wait for another government legislator setting out to clean up professional sports (perhaps they should try plucking the logs from their own eyes before trying to remove the specks from the sports industry’s eyes) to start convening commissions to study the NBA. It is not like the legislators have anything really important to do like work on like fixing the energy crisis, winning the war in Iraq or any other challenging responsibilities to work on. I want to see professional sports cleaned up myself but having the Congress and Senate to oversee the cleanup in expensive commission studies will end up being nothing more than a political show put on by pandering politicians looking for positive imaging opportunities. I have an idea why not just let the legal systems deal with it. I wonder though, how are the gamblers going to place a claim on personal funds lost to illegal booking operations because some referees and the NBA intentionally directed the path of the game.

It kind of sounds like the NBA is taking a page out of Professional Wrestlings book of operation. Can you say Kayfabe!!! I wonder which basket scoring plays were a work and which ones were a shoot? So tell me was Kobe the heel and Shaq the face or was it the other way around in the Lakers ego clash? Are the Lakers doing a job or are they being setup by the NBA executives as they work an angle to give the Celtics a push? Inquiring minds want to know?

The Extreme Sporting Life

Looking for exhilarating activities? However has bungee jumping off bridges lost its thrill? Maybe shooting the river rapids, climbing tall mountains and normal skydiving for your thrill-seeking adventures has left your blood tepid instead of burning with the passion of excitement! Well no need to fear, because coming to thrill-seekers around the world (where expense is not an issue) in the near future will be the ultimate adventure of taking skydiving to the next level! According to an article by Michael Hanlon in the Daily Mail, a group of thrill-seekers are working on an attempt to duplicate the 1960 feat of former US Air Force Capt./Col. Joseph Kittinger. In 1960, Kittinger was part of a study in high altitude parachute jumps called Project Excelsior. The third jump of the project involved Kittinger jumping from a helium balloon platform over twenty miles above the Earth’s surface. According to the article that is over three times the cruising height of commercial jet airliners. (I wouldn’t know – and yes you can just call me B.A. Baracus, because the only way they are gonna drag me on a plane is doping me out of my mind.) Kittinger was estimated to have reached speeds up to 714 mph as he traveled the twenty-mile distance, before parachuting safely to the ground in thirteen minutes and forty-five seconds . Hanlon’s article goes on to state that the group of entrepreneurs planning on chasing and breaking Kittinger’s 1960 record are planning to attempt to expand the record jump to as far as sixty miles above the earths surface. I am assuming they will use totally equipped space suits, if not, then hopefully they will supply “Depends” to wear inside the suit! Hmm, sounds like fun but I think I will wait for the video game version! Story link below.

I highly recommend reading: Hanlon’s article on Kittenger’s jump and the newly planned adventure to break his forty-year old record!