NBA referees manipulated Game 6 of a 2002 playoff series to favor the Lakers and bring about a seventh game against the Sacramento Kings, disgraced former referee Tim Donaghy has alleged.

Describing two former referee peers as “ company men ,” Donaghy claims in a letter filed by his lawyer that “it was in the NBA’s interest to add another game to the series.”

Without naming the teams involved, the letter to U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon in Brooklyn describes a playoff series in 2002 that went seven games. The Lakers trailed Sacramento in the Western Conference finals, three games to two, before winning Games 6 and 7 — the only series that year that lasted seven games.

In Game 6, Sacramento’s Vlade Divac and Scot Pollard fouled out trying to guard Los Angeles’ Shaquille O’Neal, and the Lakers shot 40 free throws — 15 more than the Kings — including 27 in the final quarter.