The refs: The Lakers sixth man? - 2008 Western Conference Semifinals (NBA Officiating Corruption)

I hate conspiracy theories. For every true conspiracy theory there's countless manufactured wacky conspiracy theories.

But it's hard to be too trusting of the NBA's administration of Lakers playoff games in light of Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals. In that game, the worst officiated game in league history, the refs single handedly snatched the series out of the Kings hands and handed it to the higher television rated Lakers. In the aftermath, there were credible reports that the referees received incentives for their overall performance in the series.

So in the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the 2008 Western Conference Semifinals between the Lakers and Jazz when I saw Kobe get the benefit of an unlikely foul (not to be confused with the many ghost fouls he often gets), I thought here we go again. My feeling was confirmed by bad call after bad call.

Here are the MANY BAD CALLS I WITNESSED IN THE FOURTH QUARTER ALONE:

• Lamar Odom took a back door pass and dunked it in. A ghost foul was called on the trailing Boozer.

• Jordan Farmar drove to the basket for a layup over AK-47. A Jazz player reached at the passing Farmar, modestly getting all ball. The ref called it giving Jordan a free continuation shot that he would have otherwise not taken. It went in and he consequently got the and one.

• With two seconds left on the shot clock, Walton was forced into a turnaround fade away shot. Harpring did not defend conservatively, but still got all ball on a shot that was not close and would have had a very high degree of difficulty. It was a classic bail-out by the refs.

• Carlos Boozer got an offensive rebound and went back up with the shot with two Lakers draped on him. There was no call. On the transition the other way, Sasha Vujacic who has terrible ball handling skills, sloppily ran it up court and then kicked it out of bounds. The ref next to the play called no foul (as there wasn't one). A ref from the other side of the court called a foul on Kirilenko. Instead of the Jazz taking the ball, Vujacic made two bonus free throws.

• On a play away from the ball, Derrick Fisher did his typical flop on a AK-47 hand check. Fisher went flying about seven feet and was rewarded with two more bonus shots.

• With just under two minutes to go Pau Gasol got away with a push-off on Okur on a long offensive rebound. Gasol turned a 50-50 ball into a 100-0 ball. After getting the board, he then passed off to Odom for a dunk and a 103-100 lead.
  

• Emboldened by the refs non-calls icing the game, Gasol got an even bigger push-off on Okur and went back up for a the back breaking dunk to make the game 107-102 with 20.7 seconds left.

I'd love to believe that the conspiracy theory is not true. I'd love to believe the Lakers just got the benefit of home court calls. I even feel a little silly strongly considering it without any tangible proof besides the terrible officiating. Still, I can't help but think that the check's in the mail.




NBA Officiating Corruption Articles:

The refs: The Lakers sixth man? - 2008 Western Conference Semifinals (NBA Officiating Corruption)

Crawford's boys and the Lakers beat the Spurs - 2008 NBA Western Conference Finals (NBA officiating corruption)

Six Part Series: Consider the reality, not the source - Part 1: It doesn't take a convicted felon... (Link connects to other six parts)