The draft drawing is done behind close doors. NOP get sold by fhe NBA, a few days later they "beat the odds" and get to draft A Davis. "Aliens"
The draft drawing is done behind close doors. NOP get sold by fhe NBA, a few days later they "beat the odds" and get to draft A Davis. "Aliens"
It's only rigged because the refs have zero accountability. How many times have we seen horrible calls that affect the game and the NBA coming out the next day with the "missed call" notification and leave it at that? Every time! If they got suspended or punished for continual missed calls or calling for flops, etc. then the NBA would be so much better.
I don't think it's rigged, but the accountability for poor officiating is nonexistent, and that reflects very poorly on the league. If refs cannot competently do their job, they should not be allowed to ref NBA games. Like any job, if you can't perform, you should be let go, yet dudes like Tony Brothers and Joey Crawford stick around despite mountains of evidence that they aren't good at their job.
If you want to know the answer to this...just ask bookies and professional gamblers. I'm neither so I don't know. Having said this, I have my own suspicions. I think the majority of games are not fixed because they don't need to be. But I'm pretty sure that some of them are. There's just too much money to be made and almost zero accountability/investigation around officiating and players for it NOT to happen. Asking people to believe that Tim Donaghy was a lone rogue ref is a stretch. Believing that no players would risk point shaving is also a stretch. Just my humble opinion.
I've reffed a small company tournament once... and that ish is hard. I don't think I knew what I was doing, everything happened so quickly. And this is with players 10x slower than the NBA pace.
the NBA has its own agenda and refs are used to manipulate games to make that happen. i'm also inclined to think that betting lines influence ref's behavior. the way the lottery is decided behind closed doors is just too suspicious to ignore. especially considering cleveland got the #1 pick multiple times after losing lebron with dan gilbert crying and the NO hornets getting the #1 pick after they sold. it's clear they told the buyer that they would sweeten the deal with the #1 pick after going so long without finding a buyer. if you want to go with this analogy it would make more sense to say the teacher was caught manipulating grades, as it would make sense that the students would be the players. so yes, it shows that the school's system is rigged, as they manipulate their star athlete's grades.
I remember how the refs blew da first playoff game against Portland then the Hawks game two weeks ago in Houston and now last night against Bulls.
It has been a lot better after Donaghy scandal. But NBA officiating still has too much a impact on the outcome of the game, more than any other sports.
As far as lines... if I was orchestrating a rig-job I'd focus on the over/under, not which team wins. I don't think it's rigged but you get Cuban working with officials in a backroom to alter the way a series is called, have someone whistleblow, have a guy like JVG call the league out on it (Yao illegal screens), then somehow JVG gets fined for it? Had the tables been turned and someone did that to Cuban he'd probably try to sue or something.
This assumes that bad calls are intentional and somehow "fixable" if only refs were incentivized to make the right calls. Refs miss calls like players miss shots - it's a nature of a sport where virtually every foul call is, to some extent, a judgment call of "how much contact is too much".
