Crawford was one of the referees of the ‘01 Finals between the Lakers and 76ers in Game 5 when the Lakers thrashed the Sixers 108-96 (hint: the Sixers didn’t cover!). It was the game that ended the Sixers season and as a Sixers’ fan it sticks in my head because of how often the whistle was blown on Philly that game and how little Iverson got to the line. Looking at the past boxscore, the Lakers went to the line 45 times compared to just 26 for the Sixers and Iverson who usually averaged double digits in free throws went just 8 times.

For an official in the NBA, the easiest way to control the game is through the calling (or not calling) of fouls. I guess Crawford’s grandson wasn’t that important that night since the Sixers were barely in the game for most of the night, largely due to the 32 free points the Lakers got at the foul line compared to 18 for the Sixers. Just think it’s odd Crawford would have a chance to influence a game that would keep his grandson’s idol’s season alive and that night the man chose to not. Don’t you?

While I understand the outrage toward what a person like Donaghy did to the game, I think it’s a little careless to call the NBA fake. Don’t you think Pete Rose was affected in his daily decision making by which bets he was going to place on his team and which ones he was not?

Same in MLB where, in the end, it might turn out that most players were juicing and the irony of it all is that for the most part, the game might have actually had a more level playing field than we assume.

I already shelled out $$$ for the Selena Roberts book this year, I’m not getting sucked into this Tim Donaghy garbage but I wonder how often refs were stuck competing with each other when their preferred players were on the court at the same time… or could it be that such a concept is too complicated for Donaghy to address since it probably didn’t happen and trashing Crawford would do enough to sell a few more copies.