After that 2018 playoffs, i learn to accept that the nba is rigged and just hope our team doesnt get screwed over in any future event. Mavs did the stupidest trade in sport history and somehow got the first pick of the draft with 1.8% in the same year. What a coincidence.
Of course it is rigged to a certain extent. We live in a capitalistic society and the NBA is a business at the end of the day. Team owners are worried about their profit margins and Adam Silver's responsibility is to make teams money and keep the league profitable. In order to do that Slimy Adam has to keep large market teams like the Lakers or Celtics relevant no matter what. That Luka trade literally made 0 sense for the Mavs unless they were forced to do it and were guaranteed compensation afterwards. Thats also why he is trying to add in mid season tournaments and giving high draft picks to teams with strong fanbases. Adam knows that NBA viewership is at an all time low compared to the NFL and MLB. This years draft was just a complete slap to the face of the fans. The Sixers, Spurs and Mavs don't deserve their picks at all. They are awful organizations who made awful management decisions but are being gifted by the league so that they don't become bottom teams. Nba doesn't care about actual teams who are struggling like the Jazz, Hornets, Bulls .... etc.
The last two teams to save the Lakers with a generational player via trade was New Orleans who got generational consensus Duke #1 overall Zion Williamson against impossible odds and the Dallas Mavericks who got generational consensus Duke #1 overall Cooper Flagg against impossible odds. It's not rigged it's just highly, incredibly, suspiciously, ridiculously coincidental.
it’s a business. The only way Luka was going to the Lakers (because they could not compete with other team offers) was a rigging like this this makes the NBA more money makes owners more money. It’s all about the money the fact that the Spurs got wemby with the French connection and then now move up and get the number two pick so that they can trade for Giannis and be Europe’s team at the same time the NBA trying to actively expand their reach in Europe…
ridiculous, everything's a conspiracy. when i was a kid i use to watch wrestling, when i found it was fake i stopped. if i believed for a second a sport i was watching was fake i would have no reason to watch. that's a lot of time freed up.
Gambling is fully entangled in the league office and team’s basketball operations so of course it is.
No. The NBA is not rigged, not even close, in order to rig games you'd need so many players to be compliant to it to some degree that it just isn't realisitc. So, then, how do I explain the reffing? Simple, they are fallible humans and their whistles are real time reactions, nothing more than that. Jimmy Butler is the PERFECT example of this, dude gets whistles more than Antman, how is this possible when the latter is infinitely more popular, in numerous commercials, very charismatic, exciting player to watch, etc etc, so how? Simple. Jimmy foul baits and it fools the officials to REACT on instinct to blow the whistle. Then you see the replay and it is the usual trick of Jimmy initiating contact, getting it back, then flailing, flopping or 'HEY'ing and it fools the refs. Harden was also a master foul baiter. Jalen doesn't get calls because he shies away from contact and Sengun DOES get them usually because he also foul baits, let's be honest there. NOW, I say all this to say that it is very possible, nay likely, that some officials are betting on games, profiting off games, because we've seen it happen before and so now that betting on games is even EASIER now than ever before, it is rational to conclude that it's very possible that some refs or even players (as already happened with that one toronto player) are betting on games, but I do not think Silver or the NBA encourages this directly. They do indirectly with the deals they've made with companies like Fan Duel and Draft Kings etc etc.... AS FOR THE LOTTERY....yeah, it certainly feels rigged. There have been a lot of coincidences over the years that makes it feel like it is definitely so. The argument against this being that they take steps to ensure it is not and also that it is easy to craft a narrative for ANY team outside of the bottom 5 that it is rigged. Some teams are extremely lucky like the Spurs have an incredible record of never dropping in the draft for whatever reason but I also think luck is created by well run organizations. Like are OKC lucky? No, they just manage their assets well and make moves so that they are usually benefitting from other teams mistakes. So no, I don't think it is rigged. Besides, people need to remember that the #1 pick doesn't guarantee anything, Flagg could bust and then what would all of this have been for any ways?
I'm not conspiracy-mind and 1.8/100 aren't long odds (If I had those odds of winning the Powerball I'd play every week). But, the timing of this plus the fact that there are rumors that the Mavs want to move the team Las Vegas, I can't think it would've played out any different if it wasn't rigged. There have supposedly been two generational talents in the last 3 drafts and both of them have ended up in our division. I can't believe I'm saying this but Utah deserves better.
