Suspicious reaction to Wallace interview: Stern (NBA) hiding something?

The NBA has fined Rasheed Wallace twenty big ones for saying:

“We gonna win Game 6…there won’t even be a Game 7. There’s no other series…If y’all can’t see that, y’all crazy.”

Apparently, he implied that the Pistons had “extra help” from the referees.

Discussion? Doesn’t it seem suspicious that after an athlete expresses confidence in his team, the league reacts like this? The only people I know who show these kinds of reactions to insignificant statements are people who have something to hide.

In other news, Sparks, Monarchs, Sting, Lynx, Sun, Fever, Storm, Shock, Mercury and Comets are the worst team names ever.

Just as bad, in a different way, are NBA team names that are a legacy of a previous location, where the name had been much more appropriate.

I can’t think of a less jazzy city than Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles is conspicuously short on lakes.

Responding to your main point:
I can see why the NBA would want to keep a lid on players and coaches expressing their lack of confidence in the impartiality of the referees. It’s a tough sport to referee, and everyone benefits if they’re allowed to do their job without too much flak. While the NBA and their television partners are at least as happy as any fan about an extended, exciting series, I doubt there is overt pressure on the refs to try to swing a game one way or another. In the last Pistons-Heat game, I tried to keep track of what seemed to be (from TV replays) as (arguably) truly bad calls. I counted 3 against Detroit in the first quarter, 3 against Miami in the second, and one against each team in the second half. (Interesting – as one might suspect, the refs know when they might have blown a call, and try to call close ones the other way for the next part of the game). In this case, anyway, it seems that Rasheed Wallace was remembering only the first quarter, and not the second. Which is his MO – to get worked up about something, and mentally miss much of, or the rest of, the gamewhile stewing over it. (But when he’s on, what talent! But what about that Amare Stoudamire – a young 'Sheed without the 'tude…)

That is, when he complained (during the game, if not in an interview) that more calls were going against Detroit on Thursday.

Au contraire, I think they’re great names in that they carry some of the league’s history in them. You can tell your grandkids in LA that the Lakers are called that because they were once in Minnesota, which had a lot more lakes. Maybe they’ll learn something.

That’s not really what I’m addressing. What I’m addressing is that Rasheed’s comment had absolutely nothing to do with refereeing whatsoever. Yes, he has made comments about refereeing during this and other series. But he was fined $20K specifically for implying in the comments in the OP that the Pistons would win because they were going to be helped out by the refs.

I just don’t see the connection. What I do see is analogous to the following conversation:

Mark: “I see you’ve switched to a new brand of dog food. You know, I really like the other brand better for my dog.”
Joe: “Damnit! I DON’T kill other peoples’ dogs and steal their food, OK?”
Mark: “Huh? I never said you did.”
Joe: “Shit. I…er…uh…gimme $20,000 dollars.”

Actually, from what I’ve read, his comments were a little more damning than the one quoted in the OP.

“Had to put up with extra help they had out there,” and, “They want there to be a Game 7.”

That implies that there was a deliberate effort from the officials to help Miami. Saying the refs are crooked seems a little more fine-worthy.

You must’ve missed the memo: the NBA always fines people who complain about the refs, and has done so for some time. Usually this is applied to coaches and not players, but it’s universal and is done to reduce gamesmanship and to discourage people from influencing the refs with their comments to the press.

The league is especially touchy about implications of fixing because of the Jeff Van Gundy controversy last month. It hurts their credibility as a league when people say those kinds of things.