I mean...I didn't watch too many Lakers games last year...but I'd imagine Bynum, Gasol, and Kobe drew a pretty good amount of fouls as well. Once again...not saying the Lakers don't get some pretty questionable calls go their way a little too frequently... I'm just saying it's grossly exaggerated.
If you are going to conclude that free throw differential is proof that the NBA biases the Lakers. Then why don't you take a look at the postseason numbers too. The Lakers for the last decade are never in the top 5 and are normally below average for the free throw differential. In fact even in the rigged 2001/2002 year, the Lakers had a measly +1.4 free throw differential. This is surprising considering they had Shaq. So are you saying that the NBA stops favoring the Lakers once they reach the Playoffs?
If you get one free point per game, that can be the difference between making the playoffs or missing it. Look at the avg. margin of victory for the borderline playoff teams. They are around -1 to 1. So if there is an inbalance in officiating that favors one team, it is a big deal.
I am not saying it's rigged, but if it were I'm sure the league would do just enough to influence the desired result. This is why I feel that rigging wouldn't be overt but would be through deliberate ref assignments based on their officiating tendencies (eg, loosely or tightly called games, home vs away spread records, and the like). If that Laker team was winning on its own, there would be no need for more FTs. This year's team clearly can t win without an extravagant FT differential so perhaps that is the motivation. We can only speculate. What we do know is that the are getting a FTA advantage that is historically large. Maybe it's legit?
The Lakers most of the time don't need the help since they have premier talent almost every year. It's the close games they need help with during the normal dominant years and during years like this one it's clearly biased reffing going on in their favor.
You say that now as if every year during the Playoffs the same people aren't saying that the Lakers are getting biased calls in their favor. Simply not true.
I don't think the league is specifically ordering refs to throw games, but I bet they are carefully deciding which refs will officiate the important games to best influence Laker wins. Each ref has tendencies in home and away games, and one can look at these to make some connections. Donaghy basically said as much in his 60 min interview. So I guess that is rigging but not as dramatic as people think when they hear the term.
that year was all sorts of bull****, game 5 was pretty crap for the lakers, but game 6 was historically bad for the kings, it seemed like the league was doing everything in its power to create a game 7.
