(a) Ernst & Young runs it. That's an independent 3rd party. (b) It makes for horribly boring TV. The second one is the one that is ridiculous to me - how does this fix anything? There are already team reps and independent media members present, and that doesn't convince people it's fair. Why would seeing it on TV make people think it's fair?
Disregarding the lottery malarkey... It's not about "rigging" games per say - it's that the rules and the players have morphed such that the outcome is no longer predicated purely on basketball skill and team cooperation. Tim Donaghy never admitted to directly fixing games - the vast majority of his crime involved simply relating player/referee "relationships" and which refs were going to be at which games. That alone was enough to give Battista and others such a huge advantage in betting that they ended up paying Donaghy $3,000 more than they agreed to per game. Think about that. Simply knowing who is officiating and who is playing gives a better a massive advantage. That's absolutely the opposite of how a game's outcome should be determined. This killed it for me when the scandal broke. No one has to rig the game anymore - it's built in. The subjectivity of NBA rules, coupled with superstar bias has destroyed the game. How often is a travel called? How do the guys on the block get mugged so relentlessly (two hands in the back - that's a foul, right? Nevermind the blatant shoving...) while out at the perimeter "hand checking" is a foul? It's insane and it's beyond recovery.
the only nba game i've watched in the past several months was unfortunately game 3 of the OKC/LA series - which just painfully happened to be a clearly rigged game
Why would the nba want the hornets to win the lotto? As far as the boston pullers against the heat,welcome to pay back! Boston in the 80s were great,but they also got a lot of calls. More than their share. Stop whining and it had nothing with boston blowing that lead.
re: E&Y - my mistake, thanks re: live TV - it would go along ways to taking away the perception (right or wrong) that it's rigged behind closed doors. The more open and transparent they make it, the better. Maybe it never goes away, but the way they run it today all but fosters the conspiracy theories. That the officiating is such a bad joke doesn't help matters at all. Lose integrity one way, folks trust you less in general. @rhadamanthus, I generally agree with that, especially in the regular season. I'm more concerned with specific playoff games. The Heat's championship turnaround to win against the Mavs was carried by inconceivable officiating. There was the infamous Lakers-Kings Game 6. Even this year with the Lakers' sole win against the Thunder. No other league has a homecooking problem like this one does. No other league has (postseason!) outcomes seemingly decided with such frequency - never random regarding who benefits from it.
1. Because it would be boring. 2. Because you wouldn't be able to count down from 14. All the anticipation would be relieved with the first combo to determine who goes #1. 3. Because it would do nothing at all to satisfy conspiracy theorists.
Is this david stern? ... Several sites have already produced polls stating that the viewers 85 to 89 percent of them that voted want the lottery viewed live. So boring tv is about as useless a response as your one on mathematics.
The league is selling the franchise, a little easier to do if you knew you had a number one pick headed your way. I am not convinced that happened. After the trade nullification for basketball reasons this really looks bad. Pulling the logos out of sealed envelopes is really kind of a funny way of making it look as though it is free of any possible corruption.
I really posted this thinking it would be pretty clear that this was possible...but after seeing so many responses from people here ...I at least know how the NBA could pull this off and why fighting it is useless.
1. People are dumb. 2. People are voting emotionally. 3. People don't understand how boring and useless it would be. 4. It's much easier to say you'll do something than to actually do it. If they actually did do it live, I promise the viewing public will not be satisfied with the result, regardless of what they say they want right now.
Yes, even in this time of the day, they are still getting beneficial calls, like in the last two playoff series (Atlanta/Philly).
Anthony davis is not dream,ewing,robinson,duncan or guys like that. In fact, he's not even zo,lj,deke. He's going to be a good player,but he's not that dude. The fact of the matter is #1 pick in this draft doesn't add up to other drafts. So what N.O. got the 1st pick. Portland had it and drafted oden. This isn't shaq in 92. Charlotte will do fine if they pick the right player.
Because that encourages tanking. The incentive for the Bobcats not to tank was that doing so only gave them a 25% chance of getting the #1 pick. If they know they can get a 100% of it, there's every incentive to tank - especially in years where there is a Lebron James type concensus #1. In that scenario, every bad team in the league would gut their roster and try to get the franchise-changing player.
Several sites produced polls? You mean non-scientific internet polls where the people responding are generally (a) the most hardcore fans and (b) the ones most likely to believe in conspiracies?
Teams still tank anyway, the lottery hasn't prevented tanking at all and has only made bad teams bad for longer amounts of time.
But, in a way teams have to get worse to get better. The cavs put out a ****ty team to get rewarded with Irving, Twolves were bad forever and were given multiple top picks. Wizards blew up their team to be gifted John Wall, Hornets rejected a deal that would give them a solid starting lineup for an unprotected pick and a young swingman who may end up leaving.
