Ok, if you are the NBA, how do you address this PR nightmare?  You already have an NBA official who has admitted to taking money to throw games.  Now this official is naming other refs and other games that have been fixed – playoff games at that.

Anyone who has ever watched an NBA Playoff game has walked away wondering, "There were some weird calls in that game…"  In fact, I believe Mark Cuban even hired his own stats guys to chart how refs called games, and which ones were more inconsistent than others.

Contrary to opinion, it really would be easy to fix a game.  Consider that each team has the ball about two times per minute.  And you figure almost every player touches the ball at least once per possession.  And maybe 1/2 the touches result in some sort of light contact from the defender.  A couple of quick innocuous foul calls in the 1st quarter put a player on the bench.  A couple more in the second half keep him on the bench.  And most teams can’t compete when they have a starter on the bench all game.

But the question is, how does the NBA respond?  Do you believe the guy who admitted to being guilty?  Or do you believe the guy who is moving a basketball team from Seattle to Oklahoma City for what he says is in the "best interest of the league."   Who really has more to lose at this point? One guy who has no hope at ever getting his job back is trying to cut down the number of years he’ll be in jail.  The other guy is trying to maintain the image and value of his billion dollar enterprise.  Who do you think would be more willing to stretch the truth to protect their interests?

And just a side note – is there a coincidence that this allegation comes as the Lakers play the Celtics, a revival of when the NBA was great, and a chance to showcase the NBA’s heir apparent to Michael Jordan and coach of the century.  Plus, many people wonder how a GM who was vilified by press and fans for being inept, managed to get Kevin Garnett from his buddy Kevin McHale and Ray Allen from an owner who wanted to move his team to Oklahoma City.   Did the league orchestrate the move to bring power back to Boston?  Maybe that’s the next revelation….