Suns Fans Aren’t Crazy…The Fix May Have Been In
Yesterday news broke that an NBA referee Tim Donaghy was a suspect in an FBI investigation. The FBI is investigating Tim Donaghy on suspicion of point shaving. Well guess what Suns fans….Donaghy was one of the refs in game 3 of the Suns Spurs series. Remember the game where Amare played a total of 21 minutes due to foul trouble? The game where the Suns lost 108-101? Suns fans were screaming conspiracy and at the time it was a completely crazy claim but it may have been more sane then we realized.
Even the national media thinks there may be something to the conspiracy clams now. Kevin Hench of Foxsports.com had this to say:
The Spurs were favored by four in Game 3 and won by seven, 108-101. They shot nine more free throws than the Suns, a perfectly reasonable gap between an interior-scoring team and a jump-shooting team. While the risk of fixing a playoff game is increased by the closer scrutiny of the game, it is easier to place large bets without setting off red flags because there’s much more money being wagered on a playoff game than a regular season game.
If Donaghy is convicted of fixing any games over the last two seasons — during which the FBI was monitoring his games — how will Stern, who must have precious little credibility in Phoenix, ever convince Suns fans that they weren’t the victims of a fix? I mean, besides the one he himself sanctioned after Game 4. (And if it turns out Donaghy did conspire to fix Game 3, how happy will Suns fans be with the FBI for allowing their team to be an unwitting victim in a two-year-old sting operation?)
Guess Suns fans will have to wait and see how things turn out in this case but if it’s proven that Donaghy did fix Game 3 it makes one wonder how things could have been different. If the Suns didn’t have bad luck they wouldn’t have any luck at all.
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Posted by Greg Esposito
Co-founder of AzSportsHub.com. Greg provides the sometimes serious, sometimes sarcastic and always interesting takes on Arizona sports (at least we hope). Whether it’s on In The Zona with Matt or in his column Greg reports, rants and raves about whatever is in the news for Arizona Sports.
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