NBA officials do not work for a separate organization which is removed from the league. It says here that they need to. That's what plenty of experts believe officials need -- a separation from their entity and the league. NBA fans will never feel the game will be cleaned up until the league has done much more to raise its integrity.

  One of Tim's earmark games was Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals when the Lakers attempted 27 fourth-quarter free throws to Sacramento's nine. Donaghy believed the game was fixed. The Lakers won Game 6 (106-102), went on to win Game 7 and become NBA champions.

  Those games tend to stay in a person's memory bank for years. They remained in the mind of Sacramento's Scot Pollard who fouled out of that game.

  "My first thought (upon hearing Donaghy's allegation) was: I knew it," Pollard was quoted as saying. "I'm not going to say there was a conspiracy. I just think something wasn't right. It was unfair. We didn't have a chance to win that game."

  Sacramento's head coach in that game happened to be a guy named Rick Adelman. When it comes to getting a fair shake from NBA officials, Adelman and Yao Ming know exactly why the public is upset. The league would love right now for this hurricane to blow away... for a harsh sentence to make Donaghy the ultimate villain.

  Donaghy will get tagged hard, to be sure. But there's more culprits out there than Tim. It's just difficult to always prove it.

  Tom Halliburton is a Port Arthur News sports columnist