From Deseret News archives:
Utah Jazz: Accept it! The Bulls deserved the series
Referee Dick Bavetta and his crew will plead guilty to a couple of blown calls in Game 6 in exchange for Jazz Nation dismissing charges of aiding and abetting Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in stealing the 1998 NBA title.
Jazz fans have long embraced the notion of a conspiracy. Maybe you've spent the last 3,717 days believing Jordan shoved off Bryon Russell, with the clock winding down enabling His Airness to hit the game-winning shot, turning the Chicago Bulls into champs and the Utah Jazz into chumps. Or that on the preceding play when Jordan swats the ball from Karl Malone's clutches you remain adamant that Bavetta & Co. swallowed a whistle, or two, or three.
Certainly recent court proceedings on felony gambling charges involving former NBA referee Tim Donaghy, who claimed that the NBA wanted certain teams to win and that officials sometimes (wink, wink) helped make that happen, raised eyebrows and piqued interest here in Jazzland. Could it actually be that Stockton-to-Malone wasn't denied its rightful glory by a superhero donning No. 23, but instead was jobbed by a Grinch in stripes?
And the Grinch, it turns out, has an airtight alibi.
"I don't see a Dick Bavetta conspiracy at all," one official said with the others agreeing. If anything, their unbiased consensus is that Game 6's officiating actually favored the Jazz and with a few notable and highly publicized exceptions, the game was called consistently from start to finish.
Now let's go to the tape ....
We'll start off with a call that even a kindergartner could have made, but three skilled NBA officials didn't. Howard Eisley's 3-pointer with just under 10 minutes to play in the second half, which Bavetta incorrectly waved off, and is the root of many of the conspiratorial overtones haunting memories of that game.
Recent comments
No, Justice is Blind, your reference to the Holocaust isn't just...
Just A Game! | Aug. 21, 2008 at 5:01 a.m.
What a couple of gasbags! I sat at the first Jazz game that Bavetta...
Justice is Blind | Aug. 20, 2008 at 6:40 p.m.
For those of you who keep commenting on not believing the article was...
Ashamed | Aug. 20, 2008 at 8:10 a.m.
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