The league really tried hard to make Lakers-Cavs happen last year.
I just remember watching the Eastern finals and just my mind being blown at the amount of bad calls over every single game. One that stuck out in my mind was a 100% clean block on James by Howard, which got called, and happened to be his 6th foul, letting James have 3 free throws.
Of course, James is the anti-clutch and manages to blow his ridiculous amount of free throw opportunities, and the Magic fought through it and won.
That's just one example of a team that managed to fight through the league trying to fix it. Pistons and Spurs did it too because they really were that solid and that good.
2002 between Sac and LA, I'm not quite that convinced, because I remember that Sacramento went something like 55% from the FT line in game 7 while having almost 2x the opportunities as the lakers. That's what cost them the series, not the reffing.
I think that the book is over-exaggerated, but I would not be surprised if it was true.
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