How do you know Stern is lying? His lips are moving.

With everyday that passes, and with the news cycles keeping the story alive, the more I am convinced that there might be something to this Tim Donaghy story about the NBA being fixed. Here is why.

As I tuned in the last couple of days to my usual mindless commute talk radio, ESPN Radio 710, I was greeted to NBA mouthpiece Colin Cowherd going on about how it was impossible the league was rigged, how there was nothing to the Donaghy allegations, and how people who believed the league was rigged was a kin to tin foil on the head guy.

We take the example set forth by talk radio, mainly Rush Limbaugh, who made it his mission to sell the company line behind the weapons of mass destruction line of reasoning that led this country into a war. As history has show, there were no weapons, and there was no real threat posed by the Iraqi regime, who ultimately was conquered in record time and, well you know the rest.

Now, I bring up this parallel because it mirrors the current NBA situation. I am an empirical data type of guy. If you show me proof, I'll believe you, if you don't then I won't, however I will at least give you the forum to explain your position and make a case for your statements. I think the majority of people are willing to do that. Why won't certain talk show hosts and spin masters?

Well, as we have seen by the Fox news approach to politics, ESPN hosts are trying to spin the company line and, what is even more offensive, is that they are trying to discredit anyone who might have some compelling evidence or observation to make by simply labeling them "conspiracy theorists." Why the hard line tactics? Why the smear campaigns and misdirection? Is it because you simply don't want to waste air time by simply putting all these "believers" in a bucket and label them whack jobs? Or, is it because they are afraid that there may be an ounce of truth to the matter and have to hit the spin cycle to keep the crap that will eventually hit the fan off of their pressed shirts and nice ties?

Taking a look simply at what Doneghy stated in his letter to the judge handling his sentencing, it may have the tone of a desperate man who is looking to slice a few years off his time for giving up the goods to the feds. Hey, a sexy bombshell like, "NBA playoff series are rigged" is a perfect way to throw a guy, in this case David Stern, under a bus. And sure, this may all be part of some made up fantasy that Donaghy concocted while sitting in his cell. However why not address it logically and with facts and figures proving his points wrong? This would seem like the most effective way to downplay the allegations and move on to the next item that will dominate the news cycle.

Stern, however, comes back with name calling and judgmental speak about the rouge ref and uses a PR machine crafted smear campaign to distance the league from the allegations. Ah, memo to David Stern, this is what the Bush Administration tried doing to the American public and look at how that has turned out. Wake up Stern, you can't just use the "he's a criminal, scumbag" card to get rid of all this garbage. You can't just go around throwing your stones and pull the "nothing to see over here" act ah la Kevin Bacon in Animal House.

I would have let he allegations go as well, and just seen the letter to the judge by Donaghy for what it was, an attempt by a degenerate to take down as many people as he could on his way to the can. However the fact that people are still talking about it, and the fact that David Stern is still talking about, and the fact that NBA mouth piece ESPN, who has a lucrative television deal with the association, is still talking about, leads me to believe that there is something behind this mess. I mean, just deny and move on, no need to drill into our heads how this is so obviously fake and how Donaghy is such a scumbag and anyone who believes him also believes that 9/11 was a inside job. The more they say, the more I take them as that little boy trying to lie about ditching school and going on and on about a fictional story that occurred at school.

A footnote to all this is the NBA's peculiar actions throughout these playoffs. If you recall, back in game 4 of the Western Conference finals, Brent Barry of the San Antonio Spurs caught the ball with 2.1 seconds on the clock. He head faked Derek Fisher, who left his feet and made contact with Barry. Barry ended up dribbling to the side and making an off target shot and the Spurs later lost the game. When asked during the post game, all the Spurs players said that was not a foul, and Coach Gregg Popovich said it was not a foul as well. A couple days later, the NBA released a statement saying that the refs had made an error, and that a foul should have been called. That decision was questioned be many and the non-call was the talk of the rest of the playoff series.

A preemptive strike for all the criticism the league would be receiving for the bad officiating in the finals? Maybe a "cut off at the pass" for the series fixing allegations that would come a couple weeks later. As with other parallels, history will eventually reveal the truth. As far as I'm concerned, let Ralph Nader and the Maloof brothers have their investigations and let Stern have a fire lit under his ass. All I care about is that this damn series and season be over so I can get my baseball highlights and football training camp news in a timely manner without all this ESPN analysis of a silly game.