Personally there's no point in watching if you think it's rigged. So I have to tell myself that it's not rigged =) ps. I really don't think it's rigged... bias to star players yes but not rigged.
I love the game of basketball, and sports in general. But I still think it's a rigged at times for certain teams to win. I honestly think the elite players are aware of the rigging and help. I believe Steph threw game 7 last year, and KD threw that game against GS. With that said I'll still be watching this year
Of course it is. 1- It's a players league, they can form super teams. 2- Theres money to be made in Tv revenue for the league therefore games are made competitive by allowing opposing teams to go on runs. (keeping us hooked on the product) Not everything is controlled but some areas are, therefore altering the product. But since we love the ups and downs of the emotions we feel we continue to watch.
I feel like the opportunities for one ref in football to really change a game are isolated. In basketball, it often feels like a ref is a participant in every possession! Calling something on one team they don't call on another. Not calling something they call on another. Free throw disparities that just make no sense. I feel like the refs are a force to reckon with almost equal the other team sometimes.
Mainstream media investments BILLIONS into NBA etc. So They will turn a blind eye to certain activities, and not jeopardize the investment. 0. Revenue sharing - Profits from a games are POOLED and then split between the two teams playing. We all want the superstar to win, even if it means our team will loose. 0. ANTI-TRUST EXEMPTIONs - Anti trust laws exist so that large businesses don't become too powerful, for a monopoly, aND ADJUST THE MARKET PRICE FOR A GOOD. There is more than just the obvious reason why LeBron is valued so highly. 1. The schedule is fixed. 2. The NBA is an ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS. The league wants TV ratings to be high, so they do whatever necessary to "give the people what they want." - GSW gets away with illegal screens all year n wins 73. - Kobe Bryant can NOT be left out of the playoffs, so UTAH is forced out of the playoffs race via terrible officiating and Lakers cover an 8 game defect just before the start of playoffs. - Dremond Green convinently gets ejected, sends series to game 7 and LeBron finally brings championship to cleaveland. 3. NO LAW PREVENTING THE FIX. Fouls are Arbitrary. Officiating is NOT consistent across the board. - LeBron James traveling is not the same as Corey brewer traveling. - A foul in the regular season is not the same as a foul in playoffs. - Foul in 1st quarter is not the same as a foul in 4th quarter. 4. Not a free market. - David stern and Silver rejects trades which they think are not in the best interest of the league. 5. Point Shaving... NO LAW PREVENTING THIS. - Damn near impossible to prove but if you are a gambling man, you know it's real. Nothing is ever just coincidence. 6. Michael Jordan didn't retire to go play baseball, he was suspended by NBA. 7. The Draft is fixed. - It should NOT be a lottery system. 8. After winning the finals in against GSW, LeBron James himself said: "we ran out of tallent...We had 14 assists and I had 9 of them. I don't enjoy that. That's not winning basketball. It seems after all NBA is corrupt and rigged." 9. REFS MAKE CALLS TO CHANGE/ALTER A TEAMS MOMENTUM. 10. Too much money to be made from betting on fixed games, and TOO LITTLE RESTRICTION/OVERSIGHT to regulate this possibility.
The people who say that it's a players league are not seeing the bigger picture. It's an owners league.
There is no grand conspiracy. You can have a handful of people keep a secret, but to pretend the players are in on it too is ridiculous. However the NBA is not about winning, its about revenue. As another poster put it, its an owners league, not a players league. More viewers = bigger television deals = more money for everyone. Poor officiating and team stacking be damned. Is it a coincidence Silver dealt with the intentional fouling issue so quickly?
You have to read bw the lines, but if you pay attention Bill Worrell often addressed this FIX with his favorite quote: "Boy, they are really letting them play tonight." There are RULES in place, and REFs should be expected to FOLLOW THE RULES. So allowing anything outside those bounds of the rule is in fact cheating. Small things accumulate, and result in a significantly different outcome. The flap of a butterfly's wings in China can cause a Hurricane in the US.
The NBA is not as rigged as the WWE, but it's definitely the least legitimate of the major sports. The lack of randomization in outcome proves that. Narratives are propped up by the officiating, and public sentiment dictates who the NBA will support. Sometimes this happens even on the turn of a dime, such as when Lebron suddenly became the underdog in the finals and the officiating suddenly shifted from favoring GSW to Cleveland instead. We really shouldn't be watching the NBA or patronizing it in any major fashion. Except if you understand that it's just entertainment, and that the Rockets will never win the NBA championship until we sway the public to get behind us also. (Something that will probably never happen again due to how much the media has demonized us.) Thankfully, NBA League Pass is the worst of all the sports streaming services, so it's not hard to say no to their absurd fees, poor feeds, and embarrassing service. Down with the NBA.
In the NBA, we know the refs by name. How many refs can you name in the other major sports? NBA refs are part of the show. That said, I don't think it is rigged in the sense of predetermined outcomes. It is a sport that has rules with lots of leeway for subjective interpretations. Officiating bias is a way of life in basketball. What pisses me off is not that bias exists, but that the NBA almost always turns a blind eye and never seriously deals with some very obvious problems.
If little sissy weaklings like steven curry succeed in the nba and are called the first and only "unanimous mvp" when he's not even the mvp of his own team let alone the league let alone of all time of course it's fking rigged. He's not even the 5th best player on his own team.
