Donaghy and Canseco: Dirt bags separated at birth

Call it the Jose Canseco factor.

I believe game-fixer and former NBA referee Tim Donaghy when he said that the NBA pressured on-court officials to give select players the star treatment in playoff games to influence the outcome. And that “top executives of the NBA sought to manipulate games using referees to boost ticket sales and television ratings.”

I believe Donaghy for all the reasons I didn't believe Jose Canseco when he said 85 percent of Major League Baseball players were using steroids and had been for years. Everyone called the admitted steroid user a moron, which of course he is, but it turns out he was right.

In fact, you could make the argument that the percentage was probably higher. These days, an MLB record can’t be broken without the media and fans casting a jaundice eye toward the player.

NBA Imperial Overlord David Stern remains defiant and aloof. His arrogance is breathtaking, but we Seattle SuperSonics fans have had a front row seat for that behavior for the last year. The FBI doesn't believe Stern either. They've been grilling refs for a while now and were more interested in the worst referee of all time Dick Bavetta than Donaghy. Seems the FBI too couldn't believe a referee would be that bad without being on the take.

There’s no doubt that Donaghy is trying to minimize the time he has to spend in federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison, but like most rats we've seen take the stand, there is usually shades of truth in what they are saying. I don’t believe Donaghy acted alone, he was just the one guy who got caught.

Hopefully, there will be one enterprising reporter who is willing to get off the NBA teat and break this thing wide open. I don’t know who that would be since most of them seem don’t want to cross David Stern for fear that their access will be cut off. God knows we've seen this in the Sonics case. The national media doesn't want to touch the Sonics relocation story because Stern will have them cut off at the knees.

Maybe this is something for the blogosphere to uncover.