Yao Ming may be slow, but he's gotten quicker. He gets a fair shake from some NBA officials as often as our family snags the Texas Lotto Jackpot.

  Rudy Tomjanovich knew it. Jeff Van Gundy knew it and spoke out about it the other night. Rick Adelman was starting go bananas about it in the winter right before Yao's season-ending stress fracture to his left foot.

  The NBA has its abundant share of officiating problems. Some seem crooked. Some inept. Some simply have physical problems coping with the skills of the athletes.

  But here's one sure thing about commissioner David Stern and the National Basketball Association. The league would love you to believe it only could uncover one and only one crooked official last summer. Donaghy will be sentenced in less than a month (July 14) after pleading guilty to federal felony conspiracy charges alleging that he passed along information on NBA games.

  If the NBA has its way, your head hits the pillow each night believing Donaghy constitutes the one and only one un-American rogue in its betting scandal. All of today's active NBA officials eat their apples, say their prayers, brush their teeth and never give a flying leap about a game's outcome. Yeh... right.

  OK... for starters, let's get basic. What's a foul? Just like in baseball, what's a ball and what's a strike? What is blessed, honest-to-goodness all-American NBA foul... a foul that can be called against Yao or Derek Fisher.... a foul that can be whistled in the opening minute or in a game's last 20 seconds.

  Don't seek your nearest rule book. That's no help. Your self-appointed creator of the current rule book (which is applied) writes to you on this Saturday that a foul, a ball and a strike is whatever mister whistle britches calls a foul, a ball and a strike.

  One time I saw Joey Crawford throw out Tim Duncan for laughing. Rasheed Wallace's face contained a blank stare a year or two ago and he received the heave-ho. Van Gundy told the media once that an NBA ref had said to him that Yao was being scrutinized by the officials. Before Stern got done with Jeff, I thought the league was going to kill the Rockets' coach.

  "We said in July," Stern recently reiterated, "and we'll say it again on the first anniversary: There's only one criminal here."

  Sure, David, and let me respond by uttering to myself the most often-used word in the Cotton-Eyed Joe.

  Let us convey a few thoughts about the NBA's Texas Triangle and its difficulty with officials. Down in San Antonio, there's a strong prevailing attitude that the Spurs can forget it if Crawford is officiating one of their games. That's common knowledge around the league. A national NBA columnist, ESPN's Marc Stein, wrote a few weeks back that anyone in Dallas can tell you the Mavs are 2-14 during the Mark Cuban-era when a certain zebra does their games. Giving Yao a fair shake has been hard for at least three officials to do -- in my opinion -- ever since Yao's body trimmed down and toned himself into NBA playing shape.

  Even if you're trying to play fair, you try to throw up a jump ball when a 7-6 guy is jumping against a 6-8 guy. Now remember, you're not doing the job fairly unless you're being fair to both the 7-6 guy and the 6-8 guy. You should see how defenses can mutilate Yao's body, step on his feet and bang his shoulders. You think he gets a fair shake. You can't be serious.

  There's a reason every team, and every player, has a particular referee that he can't stand. Anyone is capable of having a bias or a prejudice. Anyone is human. Except of course, an NBA official. They had nothing to do with making sure the Lakers and the Celtics reached the finals. They called every minute of every game fairly. Yeh, and every horse reached the Kentucky Derby's winners circle, too.

  When public interest reached its pinnacle midway into this year's NBA Finals, Donaghy unleashed his shots at the league. No doubt Tim's legal team considered its plan at length before choosing its moment. Donaghy alleged that referees helped to alter the outcomes of games during the 2002 and 2005 post-seasons. His attorneys investigated night and day over stories after the NBA tried to demand that Tim pay $1 million in restitution. Of course, Stern labeled Tim a "singing, cooperative witness" after Donaghy fired his shots.

  What is the NBA's easiest quick fix here? For Donaghy to shut up, take his medicine and fade off into the sunset. Stern has indicated that the NBA will reply -- presumably after Donaghy's July 14 sentencing -- with a clearer picture of how it intends to improve its officiating situation. The NBA intends to ease everyone's concerns by releasing a combination of both its internal findings and those of the FBI.

  NBA officials do not work for a separate organization which is removed from the league. It says here that they need to. That's what plenty of experts believe officials need -- a separation from their entity and the league. NBA fans will never feel the game will be cleaned up until the league has done much more to raise its integrity.

  One of Tim's earmark games was Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals when the Lakers attempted 27 fourth-quarter free throws to Sacramento's nine. Donaghy believed the game was fixed. The Lakers won Game 6 (106-102), went on to win Game 7 and become NBA champions.

  Those games tend to stay in a person's memory bank for years. They remained in the mind of Sacramento's Scot Pollard who fouled out of that game.

  "My first thought (upon hearing Donaghy's allegation) was: I knew it," Pollard was quoted as saying. "I'm not going to say there was a conspiracy. I just think something wasn't right. It was unfair. We didn't have a chance to win that game."

  Sacramento's head coach in that game happened to be a guy named Rick Adelman. When it comes to getting a fair shake from NBA officials, Adelman and Yao Ming know exactly why the public is upset. The league would love right now for this hurricane to blow away... for a harsh sentence to make Donaghy the ultimate villain.

  Donaghy will get tagged hard, to be sure. But there's more culprits out there than Tim. It's just difficult to always prove it.

  Tom Halliburton is a Port Arthur News sports columnist