NBA rigged?

This may be my first "real" blog post. Not incredibly deep, but I'll just write what I feel.

When I was a kid, I used to follow NBA basketball. I grew up watching Michael Jordan in his prime, so I was exposed to the very best at an early age. The man's skill, athleticism, sportsmanship...at 8 years old, it was like watching a superhero. After Jordan's retirement, I quickly became a Lakers fan after hearing about a supposed basketball prodigy named Kobe Bryant. I spent three years of my life seeing that team completely dominate the playoffs and the Finals, and I was less than pleased when the Pistons slaughtered them a couple of years later.

Being somewhat young and stubborn, the downfall of my favorite team after the departure of Shaquille O'Neal turned me off the sport completely, and I only got back into watching the NBA earlier this season. Being a freshman in college, I was surrounded by guys who did nothing but watch sports, so the exposure helped get me back into it. Knowing that Kobe was still a Laker, I continued to root for that team, despite injuries and multiple setbacks. Right now, they're in the finals against the Celtics. It's kind of nostalgic, even though I wasn't even alive during the two teams' last face-off.

Unfortunately, having watched almost the entire playoffs this season, reading some forums, watching YouTube videos of recent and not-so-recent games, my doubts that the entire NBA is rigged are only increasing. I used to be able to shrug off such comments, thinking that most of these accusations were solely out of anger of their favorite team losing, but as I watch more games with a more objective eye, I can't help but see some truth in the claims. For those of you who follow NBA, you'll agree that the Derek Fisher foul against Brent Barry was pretty obvious when first committed, but ignored by all three refs. Whether they didn't see the foul, the NBA admitted that there should have been a foul called, possibly sending Barry to the line and sending the Spurs to win that game. And then the post game comments along the lines of "That foul deserved to be ignored because Barry didn't sell the contact enough" had me kind of enraged AND disappointed. Of course I agree that over-acting is sometimes necessary to get the refs to notice a foul, Fisher basically landed on top of the man, and nothing was done. Perhaps the refs really are on the Lakers' side after all.... It's sad to think that your favorite team's achievements may not be entirely deserved.

And now the Finals. While I'm less than pleased that the Lakers are behind the Celtics, I guess it may be an indication that the league's not entirely rigged. Save for that foul-ish steal by Kobe in the 4th quarter of Game 5, the officiating that game seemed pretty solid.

But overall, the realization that the NBA may be fixed is incredibly disappointing to me. I grew up watching NBA basketball. It was one of my childhood joys, and it quickly became one of my college joys. But to find out that the professional sport may not be played and broadcast with the integrity I thought is a major blow to my faith in a league I once had a lot of respect for. But I'll continue to watch it, and come next season, I'll view these games as objectively as possible and discern for myself whether these refs are either flawed humans or corrupt puppets... =/