Stern's statement said the FBI is investigating allegations a "single" referee bet on basketball. But the law enforcement official said other arrests are expected.
I remember all the I took from people who said that "no NBA ref would intentionally fix a game"... or that they "couldn't affect the outcome of a game" with a few bad calls here or there... or that "the bad calls go equally both ways, so quit talking about the refs." And the people with those opinions get almost violent about it. Why? Because they need to believe it so badly. If the outcome of NBA games is not being determined by the players, it turns into the same thing as the WWF - entertainment, but not a sport.
When Stern suspended Joey Crawford, it got so much attention that most people completely missed the fact that there were at least two different Boston Celtics players talking about how they had tanked games last season in an attempt to get the top lottery pick in the draft. Stern managed to get them silenced about that subject, and it basically went under the radar - which he desperately needed to happen. Considering the "character" of a lot of the cretins playing in the NBA, he didn't want anyone even considering the possibility of them fixing the outcome of a game. Because if they would tank a game to help get a better lottery pick (when they might not even be on the team next year) why wouldn't they fix a game for a chunk of cash?
Joey Crawford's little stunt of kicking Duncan out for laughing on the bench was enough to send the message that an NBA ref could, and would, take over the outcome of a game. It didn't mean that Crawford did it for money, but it didn't have to. Just the appearance that the game might not be determined by the players is a death sentence to a sport. The fans will forgive legitimate bad calls. But if they ever start believing, "We lost that game because the ref wanted us to," it's all over. Whether it is due to a personal vendetta, or a payoff, is immaterial. Because if one exists, the other can exist. And if it can, it probably does.
I have seen calls in NBA games over the past several years that were beyond inexplicable. (And no, not just against the Spurs.) Calls that were so egregious that I said, "There is no way that a referee at that level could possibly make that call." Not just "poor vision", but calls that go completely opposite the rules. And very often those calls come right in the middle of a "miracle" comeback, by a team that was getting blown out of the game all night. At times, it has borne entirely too much resemblence to the WWF, where one guy gets beaten senseless for most of the match, and then suddenly comes alive to win.
Anyone who believes that a ref cannot directly change the outcome of an NBA game is an idiot. (And there were several of them on this forum.) A few well-placed fouls can totally chage the momentum of a game. Making it impossible for one team to play defense, while handing out offensive fouls on the other end? A ref can create a 10-12 point swing in a matter of a minute or two. I'm not going to debate whether it did happen in this game or that game. But I don't see how anyone could deny that it could happen.
I don't think they would make this kind of arrest unless they were damned sure the guy helped fix games. And when they say "more arrests are likely", it makes me think that other refs have been involved, whether they can absolutely prove it or not.
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