I think thats partially right. International play shows how sheltered and spoonfed NBA players are in EVERYTHING not just in foul calls. Its partly why the early 2000 US teams werent as successful, too many superstars wanting superstar treatment and not enough humility to play grind-it-out team ball. Though I did check the stats of the "Redeem Team" and Dwayne Wade still got his free throw attempts in lol. Guess they're finally adjusting.
NBA is rigged. Obviously they will want the bigger markets to win over smaller markets. More fans, more money. Prime example: Kings vs Lakers 2002
well actually, there weren't that many superstars. the 2002 roster was pretty bad, had internal problems, and still thought we were invincible. and the 2004 squad had a lot of people bail that led to a huge compatibility problem as nearly the entire team was slashers and creators with no shooters. since those debacles, when colangelo took over and being on the team was actually considered a big deal and we've had our superstars, i think we're 45-1.
Tell me the Mavs didn't win tonight because of free throws in the fourth quarter. Talk about pathetic.
Yes, the indy-chi game was called fair. I didn't watch enough of the mia-philly game to know for sure about that one.
About attacking the basket, it's chicken and egg. If you are rewarded with foul calls every time you drive no matter what happens, then obviously you are encouraged to do more. If you get mugged without a call for a few times, then you tend to settle for jumpers.
Just like how T Mac drove to the baskets all the time and never settling for that spotty jumper of his? Or are you going to tell me Stern didn't want Team Yao to win?
spurs???? detroit??? cavs??? if the NBA was rigged, tim duncan and the spurs would have zero rings b/c their finals series contributed to the worst ratings of all time.
The NBA is rigged, but not perfectly so. The players certainly aren't in on it, and I doubt all of the refs are either (although I have serious doubts about the "made men" like Joey C. and Dicky B.) The way it is rigged is through tracking ref tendencies and then assigning refs to extend series based on these tendencies. For example, certain refs are more "homer" than others; certain refs don't like certain players and/or teams, and so forth. The league was able to do this transparently for many years because there was no reliable way for an outside person to track these tendencies (and those who did kept it secret as they were able to profit greatly on sports betting). However, nowadays via sites like http://www.covers.com, the general public can get a hint as to how this all works. Once the ref pool is thinned, it is in fact pretty easy to predict who will ref which games (I did this last year in the Finals and was correct except for game 7, because even I couldn't believe that Stern would have the audacity to bring in Joey C. when he had already done two of the six prior games in the series). It is obviously in the league's best interest to have the Lakers go as far as possible, since they have both the most fans and the most anti-fans (heck, I'll admit it, I'm a lot more likely to watch the Lakers in the Finals than the Spurs). And lo and behold, they have been in, on average, one Finals every two years... absolutely staggering. You will not see this kind of thing in any other major sport. I am looking forward to the day when this is all exposed.
if the NBA is rigged, the heat should win the championship with ease this year b/c they have brought in the highest ratings. it's all about the money no? if the NBA is rigged, like i said, the spurs would not have won 3 rings. they brought in some ridiculously low ratings. if the NBA is rigged, the knicks wouldn't suck for the past decade. they have the biggest basketball market in the NBA. obviously some series have been pointed out (but you can do that with every league). our team the rockets were the victim of one of them vs the mavs. sure, the league definitely wants certain teams to do better b/c they generate the best ratings and bring in the highest market shares. but every year, those teams don't always win the championships. i mean, that detroit vs san antonio series should put away any qualms. that was one boring ass finals that nobody wanted to watch
If one series is rigged (and the 2002 WCF undoubtedly was), then the entire league loses its integrity. Obviously if the desired teams were there every year, people would be a lot more suspicious. So the league simply influences the result through ref selection and that way they get a better return on results than they would if it were otherwise completely unbiased. It's like weighting a die so it returns the number you want half the time. Also: <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0TgJE7C5wiU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
You're just making every excuse in the book here. What other ToyCen conspiracy theories do you believe?
Why isn't the ref selection process transparent? Why are people able to consistently predict which refs will be doing certain games if the process is "random"? Why did Joey Crawford ref 3/7 Finals games last year? The pool was 12 refs, so in seven games they should all have done one or two games. Why have the Lakers consistently shot 20+ FTs in the 4th quarter over their opposition in elimination games @home in the last ten years? Can you find that discrepancy in other games? Hint: Joey Crawford or Dicky Bavetta reffed these games. Why is HCA such a big deal in the NBA? It doesn't have nearly the effect in other major sports. The league is loosely fixed. How loose that is is the only real issue of debate here. For instance, any league with "superstar treatment" is loosely fixed, because that's acknowledging that the game will be swayed toward the teams featuring the marquee players. But since team play has more effect on league revenue than individual play, I contend that the true fixing goes further than a bit of unfair treatment. And I don't see how anyone who watched the 2002 WCF can really disagree with that.
I only watched the second half of the Bulls/Pacers game and the first half of the Heat/Sixers game, but I didn't see any bad officiating in the time I was watching. In fact, the only bad foul call I remember in the first half of the Heat/Sixers game was a foul called on Wade on a play where Chalmers stripped the ball from someone.
The Commissar tells us, "We don't have Super star calls in this league", those are his own words. We aren't disgracing the game. The game basically disgraces itself and insults our intelligence for better marketing. The inconsistency is the biggest problem. You just can't call a foul on someone for breathing on chris paul and then turn around and allow Paul to crotch check the man he is guarding. It's ridiculous. And the box score does not tell all. Just like George Karl knew they would not call an illegal defense on every play down the court, "superstars" know they will more than likely not be thrown out of the game, unless an official has a grudge against said "superstar". Knowing he can't foul out, said superstar can continue playing his stellar defense of hacking, grabbing a player while getting through a screen, bumping his opponent in the perimeter..you know things that the other guys can't get away with. Clearly the NBA isn't rigged, but the advantage goes to the offense, and most importantly to those who are deemed worthy at whatever meetings those zebras attend. I thought this was universal knowledge. ay ayay I feel like a broken record. One more thing, this has been going around for ages. But at least back then you had the home court, where the refs would give the home team the benefit of the doubt. Whichever superstars were visiting..well, they would just have to live with the bad calls. Now refs just don't care. Wade is going to the line whether the invisible man fouls him in Miami or Houston.
That usually only holds for superstar perimeter players. Superstar big men get in foul trouble all the time.
this im tired of all the "nba is rigged comments" stop whining about this crap.. star players have the ability to draw contact when driving the ball. maybe if you people watched the game without that negative mindset u would see these players actually deserve the foul calls they get. LMB
