This pretty much comes down to one thing:

Whom do you trust?

Tim Donaghy?

Or David Stern?

Do you put your faith, in other words, in a convicted weasel who's facing hard time for betting on games and providing information to gamblers while salaried as an NBA ref? Or do you swear by a sharp-dressed, sharp-tongued corporate big shot who traffics in image and bottom lines?

(Yeah, it'd be simpler if the choice were between Al Capone and Mother Teresa, but these block/charge calls are stickier than that.)

Me, I lean toward the suit -- Stern -- in this case. That doesn't mean I'm a management guy or a David Stern guy (we've never, like, done lunch) or that I think he's necessarily as pure as the driven snow jobs he uses in an attempt to shape media coverage and public opinion. It's just that I find it tough to believe he and his product are inherently corrupt

Which is what Donaghy would have you believe.

Weasels, understand, occasionally spout nuggets of truth. Jose Canseco is a weasel (and a money-grubbing weasel at that), but he shined the first spotlight on baseball's steroids era. Brian McNamee is a weasel, but he defrocked Roger Clemens. John Dean was a weasel, but he helped unmask Nixon.

So it's possible Donaghy is reciting fact via the letter his lawyer filed Tuesday in court. The letter that states dishonesty and the rigging of games reached into the NBA's executive hierarchy. The letter that says refs -- in collusion with league honchos -- conspired to fix playoff games.

The letter that implicitly suggests he, Donaghy, was not alone in sin and that he's willing to sing for fewer suppers in the slammer if the feds care to listen.

This is all very juicy stuff, of course, but it's also stuff Donaghy laid on the feds months ago, and there's been no repercussions or makeup calls since then. The absence of additional fallout prompted Stern's Tuesday comment that Donaghy's accusations are "baseless" and an observation from the league's general counsel that all the allegations "have previously been made to the FBI and the U.S. attorney" and that "the only criminal conduct uncovered is Mr. Donaghy's."

Satisfied? No, probably not. We're a cynical sort -- and we've got reason. From the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to Watergate to hanging chads to those WMDs in Iraq to Enron to management's see-no-evil complicity in baseball's pharmaceutical heist of the record book, we're sadly accustomed to being deceived and manipulated by the rich and powerful.

And, yeah, that 2002 playoff game between the Lakers and Kings -- the one Donaghy alleges two refs fixed so there'd be a Game 7 to satisfy the league's craving for ratings -- was a head-scratcher, the Lakers being awarded 27 foul shots in the fourth quarter alone.

But that doesn't mean the outcome was fraudulent -- or that other conspiracy-theory filings (Duke gets all the calls, and NASCAR bends the rules for Little E.) have more substance than cotton candy. Poor officiating isn't by definition crooked officiating. And does it not seem that if systemic fraud had leeched into our sports landscape, informants and disgruntled castaways would've disclosed said nefarious activities?

Not that Stern can afford to be smug or dissembling here. Perception is reality, and every whistle toot of these NBA Finals is now shadowed by Tim Donaghy and a public's willingness to buy into his charges. There's danger for Stern and his league in that alone. Anything more -- more revelations, more slime -- would be devastating.
Contact Bob Lipper at (804) 649-6555 or blipper@timesdispatch.com