In a Few Years

In a few years, when we look back at the week that was in professional sports, we may realize that this week has had a profound impact on the sporting world more than we do today. In a stunning allegation, gambling's favourite son, former NBA referee Tim Donaghy, claimed that the outcomes of past playoff games were fixed by "company-men" refs who called the games in order to see the series extend to a game 7, and therefore, give the league the extra ratings it needed.

Many writers who covered one of the series in question, the West Final between the Kings and Lakers in 2002, said at the time that the calls in Game 6 were "offensively bad". Whether one believes the disgraced referee now or not, revelations like this, when tied to recent history, are too much of a coincidence to ignore.

If, in the next few weeks and months, more revelations of this sort come out against the NBA, the NFL's SpyGate will seem like minor shoplifting when compared to the game fixing the NBA will be accused of. How can we know it's not going on now? The league already admitted they wanted a Celtics-Lakers Final before the playoffs began; now we have one. Coincidence? When so much circumstancial evidence is presented, it's difficult to give the league a free pass. Let's hope the league steps up and tries to clean up after itself like baseball did after allegations of steroids.

In other (seemingly) more important news, CBC did not renew the famous "Hockey Theme" song, leaving the door open for rival CTV to purchase it for TSN and for its Olympic coverage in 2010. Besides my obvious joy from this (being an intern at TSN this fall), I can't help but wonder if this is the beginning of the end for hockey on Canada's public broadcaster. Will CTV go after Don Cherry next? Bob Cole? And when will the next eventual bid for full broadcasting rights be? One year, two tops?

In a few years, we may look back at June 2008 and pinpoint this week as the time that the NBA hit rock bottom and the death of hockey on CBC. And if not, it's just another week in sports.