In other news, it was a tough day yesterday for conspiracy theorists, at least if you put any stock in the newly released report from the NBA on the results of their internal investigation of referee misconduct.  Headed by former federal prosecutor Lawrence Pedowitz, the report concluded that Tim Donaghy was in fact the only crook in the bunch.  The interesting part for Laker fans comes in the dissection of the very controversial Game 6 against Sacramento in the Western Conference Finals back in 2002. 

Scott Howard-Cooper of the Sacramento Bee has a great breakdown of those pages in the report dealing with that game.  The conclusion?  Don't confuse bad officiating with in-the-tank officiating:

"...There were new, mostly minor, sometimes-gossipy details regarding Game 6. Just no smoking gun.

*Several former colleagues believe Donaghy was referring to Bavetta and Delaney when he said two of the three refs were "company men" who would manipulate an outcome to please Stern. Donaghy was purposely vague and let the dark cloud hang over all three.

*An NBA review found 15 incorrect calls or non-calls those fateful hours at Staples Center, eight favoring the Lakers and seven favoring the Kings. In the fourth quarter, the most controversial time of all, the league determined that two favored the Lakers and one favored the Kings.

*Bavetta had nine mistakes in the game, five favoring the Lakers, and none in the fourth quarter. Bernhardt had six errors, four favoring the Lakers, and one in the fourth that favored the Lakers. Delaney had four misses, two for each team, and three in the fourth. Two of those favored the Lakers, including the most heated decision of all: Kobe Bryant not being called for the forearm to Mike Bibby's face.

*After the Bee's Ailene Voisin quoted Bernhardt in June as saying it was a bad game for the three-man crew but that nothing unethical had happened, "Donaghy called him and
said he was disturbed by Bernhardt's press comments," the report stated. "Bernhardt said that Donaghy then proceeded to try to lead him and put words in his mouth. He said that Donaghy was incredibly persistent and sounded like a conspiracy theorist. Bernhardt told us that Donaghy was pushing him to agree that Dick Bavetta had said Bavetta was happy to have the series go to a seventh game. Bernhardt said he told Donaghy, I'd like to help you if I could, but that's not the way it happened.'

*Ed Rush, the supervisor of officials at the time, "also told us that he thought that it had been a mistake (for which he took some responsibility) to have teamed Delaney with Bavetta in this game. While Delaney and Bavetta once had a close friendship, they had a falling out in connection with a personal matter some years before this game, and Rush felt that the poor chemistry between the two referees contributed to the crew's poor performance in this game."

In discussing the finished product with the media, or at least the finished product for now since the NBA is keeping him on retainer to come back and review the review in future seasons, Pedowitz gave several in-depth answers. Kings-Lakers was among his most exhaustive. He certainly didn't brush over the topic, and that's a good thing..."

And a little more from Howard-Cooper's report:

"...if you go to a game and you try to make calls yourself from the stands, even if you're close in, it depends on what your perspective is, where you are. These are three guys trying to referee a game where these guys are huge, incredibly fast and athletic, and it's very difficult sometimes to get the proper perspective on the calls, to be at the right angle.

Delaney and Bernhardt missed this last call involving Kobe and Mike Bibby. They were poorly positioned in terms of the angles to make that call. When I see the TV view of that, it's perfect. You can see everything. But that's where the TV angle was. It's not where the referees were..."

PJ's reaction to the news that, according to the report, everything was on the up and up?

"It's wonderful to know we still won that series."

BK