It wasn’t so much the words David Stern used as the tone in which he delivered them.

The NBA’s normally ebullient commissioner was reduced to a dull monotone yesterday, as he gave his first press conference regarding allegations that referee Tim Donaghy was under the influence of mob-related gamblers. Stern was so downtrodden that he didn’t even manage to squeeze in his usual enthusiastic sound bite about the league’s international growth, an occurrence that I believe last happened during the Reagan administration.

Certainly the commissioner didn’t seem to have much doubt regarding Donaghy’s guilt. We here at newspapers use the word “alleged” in cases like this, but you’ll notice the commissioner — a lawyer, mind you — used no such language in his press conference.

In fact, he indicated the only reason the league didn’t immediately fire Donaghy on June 20, when the FBI told the league about its ongoing investigation, was because it didn’t want to hinder the feds. Clearly, the league knows more about the situation than it has thus far been able to relay to the public.

Donaghy, who officiated 63 regular-season games this season, is accused of betting on NBA games — reportedly including ones that he was working. He also allegedly tipped off gamblers to other officials’ schedules, which is vital info considering some refs’ tendencies to call more or less fouls than others.

As our Martin Johnson noted yesterday, Donaghy’s primary impact seemed not to be on winners and losers but rather on “overs” and “unders.” A report on Slate.com notes that of the 12 games Dongahy officiated with an “over” of 184.5 or lower, it went “over’ in 10 of them — the type of thing a corrupt ref could pull off fairly easily with a couple of extra whistles for each side.

Nonetheless, it’s a huge black eye for the Velcro League — so named because everything sticks to it. It’s one that Stern described as “the most serious situation and worst situation that I have ever experienced either as a fan of the NBA, a lawyer for the NBA, or a commissioner of the NBA.”

What Donaghy did not do only went straight to the integrity of the game. It also played into a belief already held by thousands of conspiracy theorists around the country — that NBA games, and especially playoff games, are somehow fixed by the league, or the mob, or some greater power, and that refs are instructed to make certain outcomes occur.

This is perhaps a natural, though irrational, reaction to the heavy influence that officials have in basketball compared with other sports. With countless opportunities to call (or ignore) a violation on nearly every play, fans of the losing team invariably feel as though the zebras hosed them. Thus, a scandal with the officials goes to the game’s core in a way that would be hard to do in, say, golf.

With all that said, I can’t help but believe that most folks are overstating how much this scandal will affect the league.

Donaghy was one guy acting alone, as far as we know. There was no vast conspiracy, no complicity by the league, and no cover-ups. As long as that remains the case, the impact on the league is going to be minimal. (Of course, if that’s not the case, scratch everything I said and immediately proceed to DEFCON 5.)

In fact, here’s what one of commissioner Stern’s biggest problems is right now, and it’s one he couldn’t mention Tuesday without coming across as defensive or dismissive: There’s no other news right now.

Zippo. Nada. Barry Bonds can’t break that home run record soon enough as far as the commish is concerned. For five solid days, the sports world has had Tim Donaghy to discuss … and nothing else. The paucity of water-cooler-worthy discussion topics isn’t limited to the sports pages either — at least one national newscast led with the Donaghy story last night.

But once we get back to our regular routine, and we have games to watch and trades to discuss — not to mention elections and wars and what not — I’m just not sure how much impact one wayward official will have on the big picture. In the same way we’ve long ago forgotten the legal quandaries that faced Kobe Bryant or Marv Albert, the NBA may find the path to forgiveness relatively short once it can reacquaint fans with its product.

Gambling scandals are nothing new to sports, sadly. From the Black Sox in 1919 to the University of Toledo football team in more recent times, events such as these have popped up in major American sports … yet they’ve survived. It’s happened even more often in overseas soccer leagues, which nonetheless have maintained an insanely rabid fan base.

In fact, it’s not even the first time an NBA ref turned out to be dirty. Half a century ago, an official named Sol Levy was busted for shaving points in six games in the 1949–50 season.

As former CBS sports president Neal Pilson told the New York Times earlier this week, “In terms of affecting the ultimate value of the NBA., I think this will be treated as an aberration, a lone-wolf situation that will be dealt with. It’s a nightmare, but not one that goes to the integrity of the game.”

So why was the commish so down? Perhaps because this latest blow to the league was the icing on the cake of the worst season in memory. It’s clearer than ever that the league has plenty of work to do to regain its Jordan-era perch in the sports hierarchy.

But assuming Stern can accomplish those other tasks — fixing the playoff system and eliminating tanking, for starters — I see no reason that the Donaghy fiasco will inflict any long-term damage.

So while the commissioner’s somber tone was appropriate given the situation, I’m not sure this is really the biggest problem the league has faced in recent years … as many keep insisting. For my money, the fight at the Palace in 2004, for instance, hurt the league much more than anything Donaghy could have done.

Don’t get me wrong — it’s terrible for the league, and it will have to take Draconian measures to make sure it doesn’t happen again. But time heals all wounds, as they say, and I have a feeling this one might heal pretty quickly once the press has moved on to the next big story.

jhollinger@nysun.com