Part 3 (kings vs. lakers)
Revisionist history does come up in regards to the Lakers 3-peat from 2000-2002. They look at those teams as dominant, forgetting they played 4 elimination games including being down by 15 points with 13 minutes left in game 7 of the west finals during their first title run. What people conveniently seem to not meditate about is the horrible free throw percentage Shaquille O’Neal shot. Shaq shot about 53 percent, ironically shooting 57 percent front field (we’ll get to this in a moment). Mike Dunleavy in the aforementioned 2002 west finals series invented what is known as the “Hack-a-Shaq” strategy. The idea is since Shaq shoots better from the field, if you foul him and put him on the line, your chances of winning increase. This could be one way to explain the amount of free throws the Lakers show in the 4th. If the refs got together and said hey lets fix this game for the Lakers, probably the last thing they would do is put Shaquille O’Neal on the line. By the way, for the record Shaq shot 17 of the Lakers’ 40 free throws. Part of the reason why Shaq shooting 17 free throws did not hurt the Lakers as much as it should have, is Shaq shot 13 of 17 from the line. 53 percent would have been 9 out of 17, but 13 out of 17 got the Lakers 4 more points. The Lakers won the game by 4 points. The propagandist youtube video “the greatest tragedy in sports” explains a reason for Shaq’s improvement in the free throw shooting department. By the way, for those who think the video is not propagandist, let me point out to you they claim Phil Jackson put a hiter mustache on a picture of Kings’ coach Rick Edelman to get often feuding stars Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant to unite to defeat Adelamn and his predominantly white roster. In any case, the video states Shaq shot well from the line because his foot crossed the line before the ball hit the rim, which is against the rules of free throw shooting. However, Shaq generally broke the foot over the line rule (as most N.B.A. players do) and still shot only 53 percent from the field. It wasn’t as if the referees went to Shaq and said okay diesel, were gonna fix this game for you guys and here’s how were going to do it. Were going to put you on the line 17 times, Shaq then says, wait wait don’t do that, I’m only a 53 percent free throw shooter. Oh don’t worry Shaq, when you’re foot crosses the line (like it does all the time) we won’t call it and this realization will relax you and you’ll make 13 of 17 instead of 9 of 17. Okay, the reason what I said did not make sense, is because it doesn’t make sense, on paper or in real life. Also I would argue the league fixing game 6 for the Lakers was not good for the league overall. Yes the initial outcome was beneficial to the league, as in a game two days later was better, as Game 7 brought in such high ratings. However, overall I would argue it would have been better for the League had the Kings won Game 6. Remember after the Lakers beat the Kings, they went on to sweep the Nets, due in large part to the Nets throwing out Todd MacCulloch as their starting center. MacCulloch was only in Shaq’s league on paper but not on the court. Even Byron Scott said in a press conference during the Series the only way to stop Shaq would be to go to Mr. and Mrs. O’Neal and ask them to make him a new one. The Kings were able to throw out Scott Pollard and Vlade Divac, who deserved an Oscar for some of the acting he did to get calls. These centers were able to keep Shaq in check and thus they were within a point of defeating Shaq and the Lakers. Now keep in mind just because the Lakers and Kings were so even and the Lakers swept the Nets does not mean the Kings would have swept the Nets, had the Kings played the Nets in the Finals. Pollard and Divac were pretty good defenders but they weren’t exactly all-stars when it came to scoring and the Nets fast break style lead by Jason Kidd (who was second place in the M.V.P. voting to Tim Duncan) would have matched up well with the Kings. Eventually the Kings’ bench was too deep for the Nets and they would have beaten them in 6 games, but guess what, this means 2 more Finals’ games for the league. Two more games in the N.B.A. Finals including a home game 6 would have been worth more than a game 7 of a conference finals’ series. Also, keep in mind the aftermath. Had the Kings gone on to win the N.B.A. title then they would have been legitimate rivals with the Lakers, rather than the team who played a few hours away and played the Lakers well in two playoff series (2000 and 2002). The Lakers would have won two titles, with the Kings having one and looking to even the Lakers at two. Keep in mind the Lakers and Kings are in the same division, which means they play against each other FIVE times during the regular season. How intense would those FIVE regular season games had been had the Kings came in holding a trophy the Lakers felt was their birthright. Keep in mind, no one gave or gives a rats’ you know what about the regular season but had the Kings won the 2002 N.B.A. title there would have been 5 must watch regular season games for the 02-03 season. Also, they would have most likely met AGAIN in the playoffs. After the Kings lost in 2002, they were never the same. The last time the Kings got any success in the 8 years since the 02 series was a trip to the west semis in which they lost to K.G.’s Minnesota Timberwolves in 2004. Now, with the exception of the Dallas Mavericks in 2006, the West has only been represented by the Lakers or the Spurs in the N.B.A. Finals. I think the league would have preferred the Kings, with their fast paced, behind the back passing, high scoring style over the Spurs, who are also known as ratings poison.
My conclusion is Game 6 was not fixed, but rather the referring was so bad it looked like it was fixed. Now I’m not here to rag on David Stern. All David Stern has done since he took over the league in 1984; is turn the N.B.A. from a league which used to have its championship series on taped-delay into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Yes he was helped by some guy named Mike, but guess what, stars were in the league before Stern took over as commish, but it wasn’t until Stern came around did the league utilize the potential of superstars. Stern has been criticized of everything, from poor N.B.A. playoff scheduling, to being too tough on its players, to being too soft on its players while simply smiling and doing a great job with the association. Outside of the N.F.L., the N.B.A. is the most popular sports league in the United States and hey, no one is beating the N.F.L. anytime soon. Nevertheless, instead of ragging on Stern I will state my idea. Add one or two refs to every game, especially playoff games. Yes their salaries could add up to a few million dollars a year, but it’s a necessity. You can not ask 3 middle aged guys to run up and down the court with professional athletes in their 20’s and 30’s and expect them to be in the correct position to make the correct call. Bring in a few referees and topics like these will be obsolete.
