I won’t say I immediately dismissed everything disgraced NBA ref Tim Donaghy said the other day about league attempts to “fix” this or that NBA playoffs game.

I would say I considered what he said for about 60 seconds … and then dismissed it.

Thing is, I don’t believe in conspiracies. Of any sort. Humans are not capable of pulling off a conspiracy in any society that is even vaguely open.

Though I concede … there is a dark place in most of us that wants to explain away unpleasant events with the idea of “conspiracy.”

That yearning for some organized plot against “us” … sure. Thing is, it doesn’t happen, real-world.

I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I strongly doubt Jack Ruby was put up to killing Oswald.

I believe Marilyn Monroe died by accident. I believe Sirhan Sirhan is a crazy little man who didn’t consult with a bunch of folks (if any) before shooting Bobby Kennedy.

Conspiracies are just too difficult to pull off … and essentially impossible to maintain.

Think of real life.

If you tell one person your darkest secret, you’ve just put yourself at major risk of that secret being passed on.

If you tell more than one person, and swear two, three, four (10?) people to secrecy, what chance do you think there is that everyone involved will hold their tongue?

Right. Zero. You know that from personal experience, and on a really silly level. Like, “I really like Bitsy, but you can’t tell her!”

OK, the NBA. We are to believe that the NBA told three referees to make sure the Lakers won Game 6 of the 2002 NBA Western Conference playoffs? And it’s just now getting out? Word never leaked out of the NBA office, where X number of people would have been involved. Nor from the three refs? Really?

That doesn’t happen. The only thing more ridiculous than the idea of a conspiracy is a multiple-person conspiracy. If it’s more than two people … forget it. Somebody is going to yak.

So, let’s just stop talking about Donaghy’s desperation-fueled mudslinging. Because it’s ridiculous.

This is what I believe happens when NBA games get into a foul discrepancy:

One team is getting to the rim, and the other is shooting jump shots.

The pattern is established early, so that even a seemingly close 6-3 foul spread, after a quarter, projects out to a “lopsided” 24-12 after four quarters.

The free throws probably are tweaked by the losing team 1) getting into foul trouble early in a quarter, leading to free throws on non-shooting fouls and 2) the losing team fouling out of desperation late, trying to get the ball back but giving up 6-8 free throws that otherwise would not have been taken.

I would be really interested to see the fourth quarter of Game 6, 2002 … and watch every foul that led to those 27 Lakers free throws. Without looking at it, I’ll bet not more than 2-3 calls are shaky, let alone bad. I bet the rest are legit, or arguably so.

And there is this: NBA refs are human. They are calling an imprecise game. What constitutes a foul? We’re not quite sure, and neither are they. They have an idea. They enforce that idea. They may have their view of the game colored by how the home crowd reacts or who is shooting the ball … or whether somebody just spouted obscenities at them. It happens.

But a conspiracy? A plan? Nope. Don’t believe it. Never will.

Nothing in life is sure but death, taxes and our inability to keep a secret.