This past week has turned into a perfect storm for sports
pundits. During a time of year that is usually considered dead in
sports
– where baseball has a stranglehold – we have a rather
all-of-a-sudden chaos that is, in a way, seeping from sport to
sport.
This past week has turned into a perfect storm for sports pundits. During a time of year that is usually considered dead in sports – where baseball has a stranglehold – we have a rather all-of-a-sudden chaos that is, in a way, seeping from sport to sport.
The stories of steroids and dogfighting and gambling have opened up a vault that could be characterized as the seedy underbelly of the sports world.
In baseball, and now golf, we have the steroids issue, that even when it goes away, won’t actually go away. Whether people are talking about it or not, it will always be a story line.
As soon as Ginormous Player X eclipses 500 home runs, we’ll be talking about it. There will always be a small-time minor leaguer looking to get an edge, and there will be, in about a week or so, the mental asterisk that will pop up when Barry Bonds’ name is mentioned.
In football, we have the spare time enterprises of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick. Vick was indicted Tuesday on dogfighting charges, and has since stirred a debate between just about everybody that has an opinion.
Whether you’re a dog-person or not, the details in the indictment are disgusting, and involve a level of animal cruelty that is unfathomable.
I’ve heard many reasons as to why someone like Vick or of Vick’s stature would do something like this, and I’ve come to the conclusion that there are no reasons. Please, if you’re trying to justify dogfighting, just stop right now.
Amazingly, though, stories of steroids and indictments were topped Friday when it was reported in the New York Post that the FBI was investigating an unnamed NBA referee for betting on games, including games he officiated.
The referee was later identified as 13-year veteran Tim Donaghy, and suddenly, surprisingly, steroids and dogfighting rings seem so small.
Not to say that those stories aren’t important, but the sudden case involving Donaghy has put the NBA, as a league, into question.
While MLB Commissioner Bud Selig can “remedy” the steroids problem with a weak drug-testing policy, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell can simply suspend Vick, or even kick him out of the league, NBA Commissioner David Stern has the unenviable task of convincing an entire fan base that the league is still legit.
All sports fans have to do is remember the betting scandal surrounding baseball’s Pete Rose, and the debates that have raged for almost 20 years, to understand the job the NBA commish has before him; a job that will be far more difficult than the national pastime’s betting scandal, especially since the NBA, for all the good that it has done across the globe, never gets a free pass.
Adding to it are conspiracy theorists that say for years, referees altered games anyway, a notion that stems even to the league’s most supportive fans.
When a call here and a call there can have great influence on the bottom line, pitting large market teams against one another in a championship final, or having a series stretch the full seven games, theories can sometimes get the best of you.
Of course, they’re theories that are accompanied with zero evidence, but it shows, especially today, the task at hand for the NBA, and the thought process of some of its fans that has existed for years.
On its face, this is a dark time for sports, almost across the board. But for the NBA, depending on the outcome of the investigation, it could be a time they may never fully rebound from.
Contact Andrew Matheson at
am*******@fr***********.com
.
