FanNation

There was once a Lily Tomlin played telephone operator character on the old school "Laugh In," where she'd famously utter the phrase, "One ringy-dingy," upon placing a call. Today I read that former NBA official, Tim Donaghy placed 134 "ringy-dingies" to a fellow referee during the time he was giving and taking with the 411 to givers and takers of off the books money during his tenure running jive up and down the court for the NBA power brokers. And if I have to hear David Stern, erstwhile greatest commissioner, read: money launderer, one more time exhort his now tiresome tirade that Donaghy was a "rogue" referee (what's this some sort of bad Nick Adams role Donaghy was reprising?), I'm going to scream. I can't take it anymore!

There's no way in Hades that I can be convinced that the fix wasn't in here and elsewhere when it comes to what used to be a legitimate sports league. The NBA is a joke. It's a step removed from professional wrestling as far as I'm concerned and I find it lol funny to watch and listen to all of the league's apologists (mostly league related, I might add) talk about how healthy the NBA is.

Said it before and I'll say it again: in professional (and "big time" college sports), the end justifies the means. If you're going to break the rules, do it big. Do it huge. Sure there'll be some short term damage. But the long term benefits always outweigh the risk. As an astute (and shrewd) businessman, that's a business model followed to the tee by Stern.