Until further notice, the de facto championship series between San Antonio and Phoenix is tantamount to tainted.

Donaghy made one of the worst calls of the playoffs (a phantom, delayed foul on Manu Ginobili in a key late third-quarter run that awarded the Spurs three free throws), and he was part of an officiating crew that sent Suns star Amare Stoudemire to the bench with foul trouble, leaving him available for only 21 minutes in the game. Beyond that, there were plenty of missed calls, and dubious whistles. That game hangs over the league like an anvil now.

San Antonio was giving four points on the betting line and won 108-101. Those three Ginobili free throws pushed the Spurs to a six-point lead late in the third, and Phoenix never recovered. As it turns out, that is the last game Donaghy will ever officiate in the NBA.
Looking back, you wonder how that end didn’t come sooner for Donaghy. But then again, the league always seemed to be cutting breaks to its refs, forever fostering a sense of entitlement. One of Michael Jordan’s women targeted official Eddie Rush as the matchmaker who introduced her to him. Bob Delaney had real-life NBA stars appearing at his summer referees academy in Florida, a favor that you would think a player would realistically figure could curry him favor later.

So yes, when Donaghy saw that he could survive charges of terrorizing neighbors and chasing a mailman down the street in his car while making wild threats, he probably started out figuring that a few bets on the golf course with buddies, and then, a few on, say, football games, couldn’t come back to hurt him. Maybe the league called him on that gambling, and still, he survived again.

Listen, people aren’t perfect. They’re flawed. They make mistakes. No one is asking an official to live an unblemished existence. But is it too much to ask that they don’t put themselves in positions where there could be the appearance of impropriety?

Perhaps the talent pool of quality officials made the league less likely to cast those considered competent aside. “If the NBA was charted on the refs it’s bringing into the league, you’d see a bunch of two-star-rated recruits,” an NBA coach told me last season. “I haven’t seen many blue chippers coming through the door. If they were a college program, they’d get fired for bringing in all these bad classes.”

For the longest time, the NBA had suffered crises of credibility with its officials. Much of the public, including people within the league, believed the games were controlled on some levels, that officials on the floor carried out agendas beyond making the right calls. The refs have been seen as league pawns so that big-market teams could stay alive in the playoffs for television purposes, or used to keep superstars on the floor. There have long been conspiracy theories and that’s so much of the reason the NBA will struggle to overcome this scandal. Truth be told, everyone wanted to believe there was a Tim Donaghy out there.
And always, Stern delivered a smug dismissal, challenging you to bring him proof. Those are wild accusations, he would say. Bring me evidence. Now, Stern has lost the moral authority to talk that way ever again. His arrogance about the league’s officials always bothered people, and now, it comes back to haunt him.

This isn’t the time for defiance out of the commissioner on Monday in New York, nor cocksure promises about the future that he can’t keep anyway. For the good of the league now, and maybe for his own ultimate survival, he needs to deliver a humbled concession that the NBA could’ve done more to stop Tim Donaghy. He’s the CEO, the emperor of the sport. Above all else, Stern needs to say that, “This one’s on me.”

All you guys are wasting your time.The NBA has been exposed.The NBA has always been FIXED!!!!It is all about FAVORITISM and PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT.A bunch of CROOKS!!!!!