My Theory: (if proven true, I will never have any faith in David Stern ever again.)

[FromWayDowntown]

The 01-02 Lakers got handed a Championship by the refs. (The infamous Tim Donaghy series.) It was in the WCF, but the Lakers went on to win. And the Kings would have destroyed the Nets in the finals, just like LA did.

Just to set the record straight:

There was no "Tim Donaghy series" in 2002. Donaghy only called one Lakers playoff game in 2002: their game 3 win in Portland in Round 1. Donaghy didn't call any games after the First Round that year (he only had 2 games in the First Round) and certainly didn't call any Lakers games in the WCSF, WCF, or NBA Finals.

In an effort to save his ass before sentencing, Donaghy pointed to Game 6 of the '02 WCF as having been manipulated by the officials who called that game ( Bavetta, Ted Bernhardt, and Bob Delaney), but he did so several years after the fact, pointing to a game that many others before him had alleged to be fixed, offering no new facts concerning that game, and producing no specific evidence beyond his own conjecture in support of his allegations. His claims were understandably unsuccessful, since anyone who follows the NBA even marginally would likely have known all that Donaghy alleged.

I'm not saying that Game 6 of the 2002 WCF was fair or not. But the sensationalism of Donaghy's story has led to him becoming a far more potent force in the discussion of past NBA games than he ever was when he was actually calling games. In his career, Donaghy only ever called 20 playoff games and 17 of those were in the First Round (the other 3 were in conference semifinals).

[romain.star]

That's not exactly true, either. Much as I hate to say it, the 05-06 Mavs got solidly screwed out of an NBA Championship by one sided ref decisions.

The 01-02 Lakers got handed a Championship by the refs. (The infamous Tim Donaghy series.) It was in the WCF, but the Lakers went on to win. And the Kings would have destroyed the Nets in the finals, just like LA did.

People may argue about others, but those two are pretty hard to argue with. I still don't think it's a conspiracy by the league, but the refs determined the champions each of those years with inconsistent/biased calls.

Refs are part of the game dude... it can be fair, it can be unfair... point is their decisions are part of the game and it adds more drama to the whole thing.

[TampaDude]

yeah, grizzlies were just better than the spurs. keep your head up, OP. we'll get them next year.

^ this

[TE]

crofl at the GNSF take of refs favoring Memphis over the Spurs.

[z0sa]

For once, I don't think the calls had anything to do with our first round loss. They were good, maybe even spur-favored.

ZBo is a beast, and they have huge size and much defensive awareness. That's why we lost.