The Pedowitz Report, a comprehensive review of the NBA's officiating program that was prompted by the Tim Donaghy gambling allegations breaking more than 14 months ago, was released on Thursday.

• John Schuhmann: Report shows officiating can improve
• Larry Pedowitz releases findings from investigation
• Text of NBA Official Release | Offical Report (.pdf)
• Full Transcript of Larry Pedowitz Conference Call
• Full Transcript of David Stern Conference Call
• AUDIO: David Stern | Larry Pedowitz

The Cliff's Notes version of the key findings in the 133-page document are that Donaghy acted alone in gambling on games he officiated and providing sensitive information regarding referee assignments and injury reports to bookies. However Pedowitz and his associates analyzed 17 games that Donaghy officiated and concluded that the disgraced referee did not affect the outcome of any game he was gambling on by the calls he made.

The report also claims that accusations made by Donaghy of the NBA trying to fix the outcome of playoff games by favoring teams in more lucrative television markets were completely false. The report also made several recommendations of how the league can prevent something like this from happening in the future, including having a hotline to anonymously voice concern regarding gambling suspicions and making the officials more accessible to the media.

NBA Commissioner David Stern says that the league plans to implement all of those recommendations.

The question is now: Who cares?

Aren't NBA fans done with this mess? Donaghy is in jail, right? General Ron Johnson has been hired to lead the league's referee operations out of the shadow of scandal.

Don't we watch sports to escape from legalese and corporate constraints and unfair outcomes? As long as we have the assurance that the only thing that's being fixed when we sit down to watch a game are the rabbit ears above our TV set to get a clearer picture, then aren't we happy?

Think back to when you were young and what first got you hooked on the NBA. It was the game, first and foremost. You played in your local biddy team and had to put in hours after practice just to be able to make a left-handed layup or swish a free throw. Then you got home and turned on the TV and saw these incredible athletes soaring through the air for left-handed dunks and swishing 25-footers and you thought, "I want to be able to do that."

If it wasn't the game, it was the players and their personalities. You knew their nicknames, recognized them from commercials and read about their likes and dislikes on the back of your basketball cards.

My Saturday morning ritual as a kid was a rec basketball game at 9 a.m. followed by X-Men at 11 and NBA Inside Stuff at noon.

Back then, "Rogue" was the name of one of the characters on the X-Men animated series. Now I hear that word and think of David Stern's description of crooked referee, Tim Donaghy, rather than a hot cartoon chick.

The public first heard about the Donaghy scandal in July of 2007. Ever since then, fans have tuned into SportsCenter or opened up their local paper hoping to see coverage of their favorite team and they've been bombarded with stories about a guy in his early 40s who makes a home in sunny Florida, hauls in close to a quarter million dollars a year, travels the country as part of the greatest game in the world and greedily wanted to make thousands of extra bucks by gambling on games.

The release of the Pedowitz Report finally puts it all to rest. Let's get back to the basketball.

I texted five of my friends on Thursday who are just as obsessed with the NBA as I am, but aren't paid to do so. These are true fans, diehards, the type of guys who spend inordinate amounts of time arguing things like, "Which player had the better soap opera appearance, Luke Walton in The Young and the Restless or Detlef Schrempf in the German soap, Gute Zeiten?"

In a completely unscientific survey, I wanted to get their answer to one question:

"In light of the NBA's investigation into its referees and gambling activities being released today, do you even care about Tim Donaghy anymore?"

Botto in New York replied first: "No. The NBA has been fixing games since the Jordan era. Maybe now the league will be more transparent."

Despite what the Pedowitz Report found, Botto is still going to believe what he wants to believe. But he has hope that transparency will be a good thing.

Next my phone buzzed from my little brother Jeff, in Philly: "Yes, I care about what he did, but I couldn't care less about hearing his name in the news."

Jeff is sick of Donaghy the same way sports fans tire from the inundating coverage of stories involving Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Terrell Owens, Michael Vick, Kobe Bryant and Brett Favre. At least they all were players, though.

Collin and Vince in New York were next to respond. Collin wrote, "No, because the NBA is a joke ... especially after the Suns series two years ago," and Vince replied, "No, the report said that the rest of the referees were clean so that's all I care about coming into the season."

Collin holds a grudge over another league decision that has nothing to do with Donaghy at all and Vince is just satisfied that he can move forward and watch his Sixers without wondering if the games are legitimate.

My man T-Berg in D.C. was the last to chime in: "Not at all. Why? There's nothing intriguing about it. I only care about player or coach gossip and stories."

David Stern had a conference call in response to the Pedowitz Report and said transparency is a goal for the league because he is "determined to demystify the process and share with the media and therefore the fans the rules and the ins and outs" of the NBA's officiating program moving forward.

When asked about the fans, he confidently quipped, "we'll win them back," before noting that fan enthusiasm is so great right now that they seem to be back already.

"Every indication is that the viewership, interest, attendance, internet blogging is all up," Stern said.

Now if the Commissioner would kindly fashion a committee to find out some steamy rumors so I can get them to T-Berg, the fans will be back and then some.