So Deadspin got a copy of ousted NBA ref Tim Donaghy’s tell-all about the league and its willingness to fix games.The excerpts are pretty magical.

Certainly there are reasons to doubt a guy writing from jail, and a guy already judged to have compromised his integrity for money. But the excerpts from Donaghy’s book mostly just corroborate something fans of the sport have been suggesting for years: That the league and its officials favor stars and work to manipulate playoff series.

And if that’s true, it’s pretty damning.

I remember hearing from someone who worked for the league that Major League Baseball was still more concerned with keeping gambling out of the game than steroids, even when it was clear that steroids had become a major problem. I thought it was weird and dumb at the time, but the more I think about it, the more I realize otherwise.

Steroids are against the rules, and so steroid users are cheaters, for sure. And that’s bad, no doubt. But they’re still trying to win, and that’s what matters most.

In fact, as far as we know, everyone on the baseball field — the players, the coaches, the umpires — is always trying his hardest. Sure, the umps blow calls, but they usually express remorse afterwards, and there’s really little evidence to show they’re consistently blowing calls to favor specific teams or players. Even when players cheat, they cheat to gain a competitive advantage, and so the overarching integrity of the game remains intact.

If the NBA is really fixing outcomes, though, the league is on a slippery slope toward becoming the WWE. Sports are predicated on the idea that everyone is trying to win, and that officials are working to make sure the team that plays best wins.

Once it’s clear that’s not the case — especially when it’s done at the league’s discretion — it becomes pageantry, a dog-and-pony show. And hey, maybe that would work for the NBA; it certainly hasn’t hurt the WWE. But those of us who actually enjoy the sport of basketball, not just the show, will have to continue focusing on the college game.

What I wonder, especially, is if stars like Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson — two of the names Donaghy mentions — even want the league working on their behalf? They’re competitive guys, I assume, and I would guess they’d want to play to the same rules as everyone else on the court lest it become clear that they’re being handed points on a silver platter. Isn’t the desire to be the best a big part of what makes someone become a professional athlete? And how could anyone really be called the best if he’s not held to the same standards as his peers?