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The truth is every fan thinks the NBA is rigged against their team.
But since the Spurs have the most Championships in the last 9 years: Yeah, pretty hard to argue the league is rigged AGAINST us.
With these accusations coming out about the Lakers/Kings playoff series, it's easy to let your mind wander and imagine how many games/series have been rigged these past few years.
Fans have theories on both sides...and I might be in the minority, but i have a problem believing anything that comes from Donaghy's mouth.
I just don't see how small market teams like the Spurs and Pistons could be so successful in a "rigged" NBA system. After ten years (while Spurs stars age) the NBA is just now considering the best financial option?? Why not do this after the first Spurs le?
If Manu's healthy and the Spurs manage to pull out a series victory over the Lakers, is the NBA still rigged? Kobe Shot eleven freethrows the entire series. In the Spurs game 3 win, Kobe shot one freethrow. In the Lakers game 4 win, Kobe didn't shoot a single freethrow. How are the refs rigging games if they aren't even making calls?
As far as the Kings/Lakers series, why would the NBA tamper with a series that already had great ratings? Why not tamper with one of the three most recent series between the Spurs and Suns? If you remember correctly, the NBA cares so much about the ratings that they suspended Amare and Diaw from a very capable Suns team, just last year.
The NBA would rig a single game in a series (with high ratings) to get high ratings, but would allow a team with terrible ratings and a small market to win 4 les in 9 years? And how has another small market (low ratings) team like the Pistons been allowed to see the conference finals for the past 6 years in a row?
Spurs fans should be the least critical of the NBA.
The truth is every fan thinks the NBA is rigged against their team.
But since the Spurs have the most Championships in the last 9 years: Yeah, pretty hard to argue the league is rigged AGAINST us.
As much as Stern apparently doesn't care for the Spurs ratings-killing, intrusive appearances in the NBA Finals or for Pop's anti-establishment at ude, the Spurs dynasty run is his best counter claim as to why the league ISN'T rigged.
The answer is simple. The NBA only rigs games against the Spurs in even-numbered years.
Except that the Spurs probably have the largest International fanbase in the entire NBA. The games are rigged!!
if there's any rigging to be made, i doubt it would come from the league office. the nba is a great product. why would they destroy it?
Stern loves the big markets and the revenue they bring so much that:
-The Spurs got the #1 pick in the draft - got Duncan
-The Blazers and the Sonics got the #1/#2 picks in the draft - Oden and Durant
-Since 2000 the Celts have been in the Draft Lottery 5 times and have never recieved anything better than the 5th pick in the draft.
#1 pick in the draft since 2000:
Nets
Wizards
Rockets
Cavs - Who were able to draft the most hyped HS player of all time
Magic
Bucks
Raptors
Blazers
You put the "Spurs" but i know you meant to put "Rockets"...and they couldnt buy their way out of the first round if every one of Yao's billion fans gave a dollar to David Stern. So this "international revenue" theory is weak.
yao ming alone gives the rockets 1 billion potential fans.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. This claim coming from a Rockets fan?
free throw discrepencies has to be the dopiest measurement of officiating.
A TV idiot commented on the NBA and said, "It isn't rigged. If it were rigged the Knicks would be the best team."
Such is the logic of the uninformed. I guess that guy didn't know of Isiah Thomas and the damage he caused which no one (including Stern) could bail him out.
People point to the lottery as proof the lottery isn't rigged, which I agree with.
But there is just so much either bad or crooked officiating can do. While the league would like a Boston/LA 7 game finals every year, that just isn't possible. What is possible is trying to extend any series to 7 games. And what is possible is calling a lot of fouls in a critical game that helps one team and hurts the other. We saw that against the Mavs in the 2006 playoffs.
Stern walked on to the floor and grabbed Manu's arm, thereby initiating the contact which resulted in a foul?
I vector lane violations, delays of game, and defensive 3-second calls. My formula indicates biased officiating with 63% accuracy.
you expect them to fix EVERYTHING?!?! jesus some of you people are so ing dense
"either they are fixing EVERYTHING or they are fixing NOTHING!"
This is why they get away with it ... because they are fooling idiots
Get away with what?? They've "fixed" the NBA so the Spurs could win every other year?
They've fixed the NBA so that the Pistons could make the conference finals every year?
I never stated nor implied that if the league didn't tamper with everything then they've tampered with nothing. I was simply addressing the differen't accusations i've seen tossed around this board, many of which have no logic behind them...kind of like your previous two posts.
If you run a business you're not going to illegally tamper with different aspects of the business without using some type of logic. So what's the logic behind the various things that have transpired over the past 10 years?
I'm not even sure how to respond to your childlike derision due to the fact that you didn't even present an argument.
You're point is the NBA would not want Detroit and SA to win if it is was rigged. First Detroit is not small market and has a history of being a physical team. If not Chicago then Detroit. That is the way it is to attract the midwest.
SA is another story. The rise of the Spurs coincides with the need to get rid of the thug appearance. The Spurs were clean and free of trouble. Next, the world stage appears. The Spurs draw 5 times more fans worldwide to watch their finals than ever has been before with the USA ratings.
Finally, the USA TV market cries foul because they are not drawing enough fans. So, back we go to the big market teams.
Rig - fix - star treatment - bias = all the same
How to fix it? If it's a foul on the playground its a foul in the NBA. Maybe we should let players call their own fouls. It would be just as effective.
as a business owner, this struck a chord, because ultimately you are held responsible for any monkey business in your company, even if an employee was the one screwing around. see you are arguing on the premise that the tampering is necessarily coming from a top-down directive, presumably to increase/decrease ratings. however, tampering can come in many forms, and the more likely motive to tamper is to manipulate the gambling market, not the ratings market. of course, this view shifts responsibility back from stern to donaghy and the like- mid level guys who can get away with crap precisely because they arent at the top.
i dont think the league is rigged outright, but i do think that games have their outcomes affected by crooked refs, greedy execs (league or team), personal vendettas, etc. its almost inevitable. and i think good teams play through that. still, its pretty damning to hear that refs play tennis with GM's or that owners complaints affect how calls are being made. the league has rules and regulations for a reason, and the fact that jackson and nunn are incapable of enforcing them is really pathetic. i cant believe those two still have jobs. (crawford too. how many bad calls does he have to make to lose his job?) like big dog said, if you can fine the players and coaches for screwing up, start fining the refs, the calls will improve. i dont think that is too much to ask for.
in your mind unless it is Boston/New York & Los Angeles/Los Angeles in every conference finals then there is no way that the league is fixing games or series'.
The NBA lets the league run its course without interfering until they see an opporunity to pounce on a money-making situation. i.e. boston loading up in the east and all of a sudden the Lakers acquire franchise bigman Pau Gasol for peanuts. i.e. in order to solidify kobe and shaq as alltime superstars they force a game 7 for them to advance in 2002 so they can get their threepeat
LMAO okay well you're the minority and don't change your mind when this and more facts emerge. Not so much against the Spurs but just NBA rigging games in general.
I'm sorry, but I hate when people use # of free throws as some kind of indication that there's suspect officating. The Spurs foul the least of any NBA team and Bruce made a concerted effort NOT to foul Kobe.
I really can't say that the Spurs have been on the -end of any rigging, but that Kings-Lakers WCF was a travesty.
Also, the Mavs pretty much got hosed in the 2006 Finals, IMO.
as did the spurs in the West semis
I've already stated that this is not the case. The league officials could/can tamper with the league in a countless number of ways. This is not an argument about what you think is in my mind, let's not make it one.
If someone is in the position to control every aspect of a business, and that person is willing to use underhanded methods to achieve financial benefit... then at any time, during any year, that person (or persons) could use their influence to acheive said benefit. That person (or persons) would not need to wait 10 years to do so...nor would they allow certain (financially detrimental) events to take place so frequently.
It's not logical that the NBA would continually "battle itself" by "slightly" determining either the outcome of games, the balance of power among the east or west, or player personnel per team...only to allow a ten year power shift to the west, small market superiority in both conferences over a ten year period, and abysmal finals ratings over the past 5 years. The NBA wouldn't need to wait for an "opportunity" to act unethically if they are an unethical corporation.
After 15 years of being terrible, the Celtics aquire talent and it was the league who orchestrated this? Same with the Gasol trade, the league doesn't need to wait 6 years through terrible ratings to "allow" a quality player to play alongside Kobe. Was there collusion between the teams involved in those trades? Maybe, but why is the league all the sudden the ones behind those deals? I could argue that there was collusion between the Sonics and the Spurs in the KT deal...and i'd probably be right. There was collusion between the Nets and the Mavs when Stackhouse was involved in the trade...and the league stepped in.
No one robs a bank at noon...the NBA isn't going to fix games when everyone is atching during the highest rated playoff series that postseason, only to "solidify" Kobe and Shaq as stars. And if the NBA wanted them to advance (to get a threepeat) then why risk pushing the series to a game 7?
There's no logic behind any of these arguments...just a lot of accusations. I could give a damn about defending the NBA, but you're not going to convince me it's "fixed" with the information that's available right now.
If there's a larger conspiracy, it probably has more to do with gambling than with promoting big-market teams.
How about the recent flurry of teams coming back from 2-0 down to win seven-game series? You could collect a pretty good payday betting on the team down 0-2.
- .4 = fixed
- mavs vs. spurs 2006 = fixed
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