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NBA Shakedown
18 years ago
http://cbs3.com/topstories/local_st.....201150722.html
This is why I don't like the NBA.
I love watching a good basketball, and I love watching an EXCELLENT game of basketball (like that insane first game of the Warriors / Jazz series this past NBA finals when both teams were on fire).
I never find myself able to watch any games with the Lakers or the NBA finals though. Honestly, I've known for the longest time that they're rigged. I could go on a rant about it, but refs have a fairly regulated system to keep people off their backs (including make-up calls, police escorts, and ref-protection policies in the NBA).
Admittedly, I thought it was something on a grander scale though. Gambling makes more sense than a big conspiracy theory at any rate.
... but ANY sort of gambling in the NBA is actually old-hat news. During the last game of the Rockets / Jazz series this year, Jazz pulled away from the Rockets (fairly big time) at the end. Thing is, this upset pretty much ALL of the commentators at TNT. On the last play, Houstan (strategically) should have fouled the Jazz, but didn't for whatever reason ... to which the main commentator (forgot the idiot's name) started screaming out "HE'S NOT FOULING! HE'S NOT FOULING!" And the jazz won.
The had one of the interviewers at the end talking to one of the Houston players. (This being the biggest obvious evidence of people in the NBA industry gambling on the games.) He went as far as to say "Well, several people along with myself who had invested interests in the game extend our sincerest sympathies to you and your team." ... if that's not an admission to betting on the game, I don't know what is.
Oddly, like the FBI statement said, several more arrests would be made shortly. I wonder whether or not this means Stern is going to go under fire ... owing to a comment he made a few years back when Detroit won the Lakers. He gave a similar type of kiss-up comment of praise to the Lakers: "And despite a valiant effort made by the Lakers [crowd boos overpower his speech at this point and I couldn't hear anything else]." While I'm skeptical he'd actually get arrested ... I definately would not be surprised.
Something that irritates me is the quotes from the gambling barons in Vegas. ... of course they wouldn't know anything about it. These guys would be pretty stupid to allow an obvious criminal activity to go on underneath their belts, especially when they're trying to get the NBA into Vegas.
... on the other hand, to think that these bets were going on in a perfectly legalized fashion is pretty naive. There are several illegal bookies across the country who deal in the thousands of dollars when it comes to bets.
So yeah, what does this mean?
The FBI will bust the ref's ass. Feds are notorious for not caving in to monetary interests, especially since they've trashed a good number of people from other leagues.
The NBA is going to get slammed once the FBI busts one ref's ass. When you bust a coach for gambling, you clean him out, along with his supporting staff, and the franchise goes on. When you bust a player, he gets canned. When you bust a ref though? The same rule of cleaning out that entire level of the system applies. That basically means that the entire NBA is subject to question, since the only people that the refs answer to is the head commission David Stern.
After the first ref goes down ... pretty much EVERY team in the NBA (save for the Lakers) are going to start pointing fingers. Every sports analysist is going to start talking it up to get the ratings boost. The NBA will basically earn the same reputation for being a legit sport as the WWE. This will more than likely result in a massive ratings drop ... meaning that more people will tune into next year's Dancing with the Stars than the NBA finals.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19872430/
this guy says it better than I did.
So yeah ... I kind of figured that the only way that the NBA would change the way their refs threw games would be if they were exposed ... I just wasn't banking on the Feds to do the job.
... contest results up in 15 minutes. ^^;
This is why I don't like the NBA.
I love watching a good basketball, and I love watching an EXCELLENT game of basketball (like that insane first game of the Warriors / Jazz series this past NBA finals when both teams were on fire).
I never find myself able to watch any games with the Lakers or the NBA finals though. Honestly, I've known for the longest time that they're rigged. I could go on a rant about it, but refs have a fairly regulated system to keep people off their backs (including make-up calls, police escorts, and ref-protection policies in the NBA).
Admittedly, I thought it was something on a grander scale though. Gambling makes more sense than a big conspiracy theory at any rate.
... but ANY sort of gambling in the NBA is actually old-hat news. During the last game of the Rockets / Jazz series this year, Jazz pulled away from the Rockets (fairly big time) at the end. Thing is, this upset pretty much ALL of the commentators at TNT. On the last play, Houstan (strategically) should have fouled the Jazz, but didn't for whatever reason ... to which the main commentator (forgot the idiot's name) started screaming out "HE'S NOT FOULING! HE'S NOT FOULING!" And the jazz won.
The had one of the interviewers at the end talking to one of the Houston players. (This being the biggest obvious evidence of people in the NBA industry gambling on the games.) He went as far as to say "Well, several people along with myself who had invested interests in the game extend our sincerest sympathies to you and your team." ... if that's not an admission to betting on the game, I don't know what is.
Oddly, like the FBI statement said, several more arrests would be made shortly. I wonder whether or not this means Stern is going to go under fire ... owing to a comment he made a few years back when Detroit won the Lakers. He gave a similar type of kiss-up comment of praise to the Lakers: "And despite a valiant effort made by the Lakers [crowd boos overpower his speech at this point and I couldn't hear anything else]." While I'm skeptical he'd actually get arrested ... I definately would not be surprised.
Something that irritates me is the quotes from the gambling barons in Vegas. ... of course they wouldn't know anything about it. These guys would be pretty stupid to allow an obvious criminal activity to go on underneath their belts, especially when they're trying to get the NBA into Vegas.
... on the other hand, to think that these bets were going on in a perfectly legalized fashion is pretty naive. There are several illegal bookies across the country who deal in the thousands of dollars when it comes to bets.
So yeah, what does this mean?
The FBI will bust the ref's ass. Feds are notorious for not caving in to monetary interests, especially since they've trashed a good number of people from other leagues.
The NBA is going to get slammed once the FBI busts one ref's ass. When you bust a coach for gambling, you clean him out, along with his supporting staff, and the franchise goes on. When you bust a player, he gets canned. When you bust a ref though? The same rule of cleaning out that entire level of the system applies. That basically means that the entire NBA is subject to question, since the only people that the refs answer to is the head commission David Stern.
After the first ref goes down ... pretty much EVERY team in the NBA (save for the Lakers) are going to start pointing fingers. Every sports analysist is going to start talking it up to get the ratings boost. The NBA will basically earn the same reputation for being a legit sport as the WWE. This will more than likely result in a massive ratings drop ... meaning that more people will tune into next year's Dancing with the Stars than the NBA finals.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19872430/
this guy says it better than I did.
So yeah ... I kind of figured that the only way that the NBA would change the way their refs threw games would be if they were exposed ... I just wasn't banking on the Feds to do the job.
... contest results up in 15 minutes. ^^;
