The Curse of Phoenix

This is still killing me. The story of Tim Donaghy, the corrupt NBA ref, is old news by now of course, but I still can't get it out of my head. A ref very possibly--even likely--robbed the Phoenix Suns of a Championship. Literally, literally cheated out of one. You want to think the refs are stupid, biased, emotional, whatever, but bought off just seems like a line you can't cross--at least in the NBA. But not anymore, Baby.

If there is a bright spot to all of this it is that David Stern looks like a gargantuan asshole in all this. Fans, owners, players, writers, everybody wanted major overhauls with NBA refereeing and Stern kept saying 'no, my refs are beyond reproach.' Couldn't say a nasty word about them in public, couldn't even question them if you were an owner or a coach.

Stern, of course, took that line because he is a poor leader and wanted an easy way to deal with things. The easiest thing in the world to do is take the tact he did: "refs are always right, I won't discuss it." Reviewing tapes, evaluating performance, listening to owners, all those things that he should do, weren't done. Now a championship is even more tarnished than it was before and, quite frankly, we don't know how many more have been--though probably more than just this one.

So congrats, Stern. Because of your laziness, because of your poor leadership, because of your simple-minded drivel, because you either cannot or will not think, cannot or will not make hard decisions about hard problems, cannot or will not listen to an outraged public (your very phucking fans!), the NBA is set back in ways we can only speculate on now. You need to see this one through. Then, you need to resign.