As Barry Bonds approaches the all-time home run record many people have argued that his exploits are invalid due to the steroid speculation swirling around him, and as such his exploits should have an asterisk affixed to them.
Sadly, the news of the past few days has revealed that there is an even greater need for an asterisk in the world of sports;
2007 NBA Champions: San Antonio Spurs*
Don't get me wrong, the Spurs had no control over the actions of rogue ref Tim Donaghy. Their entire playoff run is however, tainted by the fact that Donaghy was one of the officials in the notoriously poorly officiated Game 3 of the Spurs-Suns series. For those of you that would like to believe that Donaghy did not have an effect on the game, suit yourselves. At least watch the video at the end of this post though, and see if you still hold the same opinion. The video evidence clearly shows Donaghy standing directly in front of a number of obvious Spurs fouls and blatantly ignoring them. The video also shows this foul mentioned by Bill Simmons in his excellent column on the Donaghy situation;
Other than the latest call in NBA history (a shooting foul for Manu Ginobili whistled three seconds after the play, when everyone was already running in the other direction)...
I'll save you the suspense; it was indeed Donaghy that made that particular call.
When the news about Donaghy first broke the initial thought that ran through my mind was "Please, please, please don't let it be a playoff game". As important as the NBA regular season is, there is a sort of insulated illegitimacy involved with a random game in the middle of February. Theoretically the outcome of that game being altered by a crooked ref could have some ultimate bearing on playoff seedings and by extension the path of the playoffs, but such ripples are far offset from the epicenter of the incident in question.
A playoff game though? In a tied series? Between arguably the two best teams remaining in the playoffs at that point? Other than a pivotal Finals game, the fact that Donaghy was involved with Game 3 of the Spurs-Suns series is as big of a nightmare as could have come out of this mess. The saddest part is that the Spurs have no fault in the fact that some hack ref gave them a helping hand in Game 3. (Again, if you still don't believe it just watch the video) The dark legacy of this scandal will always come back to that Game 3 though, along with two words; "What if?" What if the Spurs hadn't shot 9 more free throws than the Suns in a 7 point game? What if Amare Stoudemire had been able to play more than 21 minutes due to foul trouble? What if the Suns had been up 2-1 after Game 3 instead of down 2-1? Would the Amare suspension have mattered after Game 4 if the Suns were up 3-1 instead of tied 2-2? The questions are endless, but the root always comes back to the fact that the Donaghy scandal has forever tainted the 2007 NBA Playoffs. Who knows, had the Suns been given a fair shake in Game 3 maybe they would have gone on to win the title. Or maybe they would have failed to match up well against Carlos Boozer and the Jazz, and the Jazz may have gone on to win the title. Or perhaps the Cavs would have defeated a weary Phoenix squad. Or maybe it wouldn't have mattered at all, and the Spurs would have still won the title. The sad truth is that the Suns, the NBA, and basketball fans everywhere will never get the chance to truly know what would have happened. All we do know is one thing;
2007 NBA Champions: San Antonio Spurs*
(And here is the video I kept referencing)
