Sports always face adversity and they always find a way to bounce back. Baseball bounced back from the 1992 lockout and the recent steroid scandal, and the NHL seems to have bounced back from its 2004-2005 season lockout.

So it is only right that the NBA now faces its own scandal, the scandal in question? Betting on NBA games by a professional referee.

Tim Donaghy, a former professional basketball referee, was jailed for 15 months after pleading guilty to a federal wire charge, after an investigation by the FBI. The charges relate to Donaghy’s betting on NBA games while he was an official in the NBA, from November 2003 to July 2007.

Now the disgraced referee, who officiated in the NBA for 13 seasons, has served his time and has released a book called Personal Foul. In it he makes some very serious allegations about referees and players.

He accuses Hall of Famer and former league MVP Charles Barkley of dumping a container full of Gatorade on him in the referee’s locker room. It’s quite a serious allegation and one to which Barkley replied that he had no recollection of occurring. But however serious this allegation is, the following accusations are even more worrying.

Donaghy claims he started betting on NBA games because he had inside information about referees’ biases towards and against certain players. According to Donaghy, referees have so many issues with players, coaches and owners that it is easy to predict a game when those officials with axes to grind officiate at a game which includes one of the above.

Donaghy says he won roughly $100,000 betting on the NBA, claims he won 70-80% of his picks and once went on a 15 out of 16 streak.

What he is saying is extremely worrying as it points out that the NBA does not have a level playing field and teams and players are being punished as a result of personal vendettas.

The NBA has consistently denied Donaghy’s accusations, pointing out that he has no credibility with Commissioner David Stern calling him a “rogue referee”, but Donaghy still sticks to his story. The common consensus is that the ex-official fixed matches to suit his betting, but this is something he strictly denies. He calls it “manipulation” and says he never made calls that were not there, using an FBI report to back up his claims.

“The FBI and the NBA did a thorough investigation and they both concluded that I did not fix games in the NBA,” he said.

Stern might want to take a leaf out of baseball’s book and not try brush this problem under the carpet. When Jose Canseco released his book Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big he was widely discredited by everyone around baseball and the media, but the fallout from the book was eventually massive. No one wanted to believe Canseco was telling the truth in his book when he named players who used steroids, but when the steroid scandal broke, Canseco was the only one who was not surprised, having warned MLB publicly about what was going on.

That fact that Donaghy says he did not fix games makes the situation much worse for the NBA because it means the outcome to games could and can still be manipulated, and one NBA executive fears the revelations could change basketball forever.

“This is not going to be good. This goes way beyond one guy with a grudge. Some of the things in this book, I can remember them! And then I look back at a lot of other things I have seen, and I have to wonder. I’m scared this book will change forever how I see the game.”

If Stern thinks this problem is confined just to “one rogue referee” he might want to reconsider his opinion. Just recently Ron Artest came out and criticised NBA referee Joey Crawford.

“Joey Crawford basically said, ‘Who cares about the Houston Rockets? Kobe Bryant is on the floor,’” Artest said, according to the Sporting News.

If what Artest says is true, then the claims of referees’ biases influencing games that Donaghy makes in his book start to look a lot more genuine. If that’s the case, not only are the officials affecting the way the league is played out but their biases also influence the individual awards.

Being league MVP is not just some award you put in your attic and let sit there to collect dust, it is a coveted award rewarding a player for an outstanding season, and if you think otherwise just take a look at some of the previous winners. The NBA’s all time leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has six awards to his name, Michael Jordan has five, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson both have three and Tim Duncan has two.

In the past decade Kobe Bryant has arguably been the best player in the league and has won four championships in his career, but has only won one MVP award. Have the referee’s cost him an additional award by calling extra fouls on him? Or even an extra championship by calling fouls in the play-offs? No one will know for sure but let’s see who might be unfairly rising up the leader board this week.

1- Kobe Bryant, 28.8 PPG, 3.9 assists, 5.5 rebounds, .327 3pt%, 2.3 steals

Kobe just keeps rolling along. He’s averaging nearly 29 points a game to go along with more than two steals. The Lakers are on a nine game winning streak thanks to the amazing game winning three pointer he drained against the Miami Heat, if that doesn’t make you the MVP it’s not clear what does.

2- LeBron James, 28 PPG, 8.2 assists, 7 rebounds, .337 3pt%, 1.14 steals

In his last five games James has failed to score more than 20 points twice but did reach double figures in other categories. On Tuesday night he scored 43 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and handed out six assists but Cleveland still took the loss. LeBron continues to do everything for the Cavs but Kobe still takes the slight edge in this race. Maybe if he stopped dancing around on the sidelines he would be top of the list.

3- Carmelo Anthony, 29.8 PPG, 3.2 assists, 5.9 rebounds, .327 3pt%, 1.23 steals

For the first time this season Melo didn’t score over 20 points in game, scoring just 14 against the Philadelphia 76’ers but did that faze him? No, the following night he dropped 34 in a loss to the Charlotte Bobcats. He has helped Denver to a 3 ½ game lead over Utah and Portland and looks set to continue his attack on the top two in the race.

4- Dirk Nowitzki, 27 PPG, 2.9 assists, 8.5 rebounds, .327 3pt%, 1.5 blocks

Dirk is still playing phenomenally scoring 30+ points in his last two games. He’s averaging 38.5 minutes a game this season and in his last five games has only missed two free throws, still not missing a free throw in the fourth quarter. It’s hard to see why Dirk isn’t higher on this list but maybe the other three have just been better.

5- Steve Nash, 17.5 PPG, 11 assists, 2.6 rebounds, .474pt%, .524 FG%

The Suns have lost four of their last five games and Nash has only averaged 7.4 assists in that stretch. However he averaged 21 points in that time, scoring 32 against the Sacramento Kings and 27 in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks, he also hasn’t missed a single free throw in those games. If Nash’s importance to the Suns was ever highlighted it was against the Mavs. Nash only sat for seven minutes during that game but it was enough time to let Dallas back in the game who eventually won the game 102-101.

6- Dwight Howard, 18.4 PPG,  1.7 assists, 12 rebounds, .648 FG%, 2.05 blocks

For some reason Howard had a slow start to the season but he’s finally starting to figure it out. The early season foul trouble seems to have gone away and in the past five games has averaged 36.5 minutes, 3.5 more than his season average.  He is second only to Gerald Wallace in rebounding, and is second in double-doubles. His seven block game against the Clippers on Tuesday night moved him up three places to eighth on the blocks list but still has a long way to go to reach Josh Smith, who is averaging 2.6 a game. If Howard has another big week then he will be moving up at least one place on the list.

7- Josh Smith, 15.5 PPG, 3.7 assists, 8.5 rebounds, .531 FG% , 2.6 blocks

Smith had a horrible week and as a result drops down to seventh place in the race. He was ejected from the game against New York for twice arguing with officials and in the game against Dallas he has four turnovers and five personal fouls with just 12 points. To win the MVP you can rarely afford to have such performances and if he continues this way he will drop out of the race altogether.

8- Kevin Durant, 28.1, 3.2 assists, 7.1 rebounds, .289 3PT%, 1.75 steals

Figures of 31 points, 3.4 assists, 8 rebounds, 1 block and 2.6 rebounds in the last five games, welcome to the world of NBA superstar Kevin Durant. If the season was to finish today the Thunder would be in the play-offs and Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs would stay at home. For a team that had a lottery pick last year that is a huge turnaround. It is a case of when, not if, Durant wins an MVP award in the future.