An Oral History of the 2002 Lakers-Kings Series (Grantland)

I thought this was a pretty good read. Not the least of which because game 6 has always been etched in my mind as the most suspicious sporting event I've ever seen. I still remember Scott Pollard standing stock still, hands in the air, while Shaq barreled into him and somehow drew blocking calls. The whole thing totally felt like "Stern desperately needs to replace Jordan, he's not going to let this Laker dynasty fail no matter what." It was the most completely fucked up game I've ever seen, in terms of calls.

But after reading this, and the 82Games.com breakdown of the calls in that game, I don't feel as strongly about it. The most interesting part is that they spoke to the refs involved with the game, and they were pretty candid about it:

Bob Delaney (NBA referee, Game 6): As a referee, you go into every locker room hoping to have a perfect game. When you leave the locker room to go out on the floor, while that’s your hope, there’s a reality that whether it was this game or the other 1,800-plus games I worked, you come in and there’s some calls you wish you made and some you wish you didn’t make.

http://grantland.com/features/2002-western-conference-oral-history-los-angeles-lakers-sacramento-kings/?erd