NBA ref says more involved in the outcomes of games

[RONALD78]

a story claims/alleges that the NBA ref leading the so called fixes in games was also helped by officials , other refs, coaches, and some players

[xavierj]

That's a real shocker. I was just talking about that the other day with my brother in law. Think about it. How many meaningless NBA games are played every year? Then you throw in young kids with the hanger on's and I am sure at times the fix is in. I am sure at times the posse tells the player hey I need a couple grand how about making it close tonight. I think it is probably close to a 100% chance that players and coaches have at times did some things to influence the outcomes of NBA games to help out a friend or make a debt go away that through the normal play it straight up way would not have produced the same outcome. You can bet that this guy is telling the truth and the reality of the fixing of games runs a lot deeper then this ref. But the NBA is a big money business so you will probably never really here the truth or how deep it runs in the game. The money involved will help shut this guy up and the real problems will get swept right under the rug. I love MJ but does anyone really believe he just walked away for a year in his prime because he was bored?

[Masterofreality]

There is no bigger conspiracy theorist about the NBA than moi, and David Stern isn't some innocent bystander. It's all about the money.

I predict that the Lakers and Celtics will be in the Finals this year. I've said it for three months- ever since the Lakers magically worked a trade with Memphis to get Pau Gasol. Think that was some accident? This on the heels of how, despite having a salary cap, the Celtics are somehow able to get Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and James Posey to all show up in Boston at the same time. Wow, some coincidence, and I'm sure that Stern, the great puppeteer, had nothing to do with those machinizations.

Reason? TV ratings. After they got LeBron in there last year, and the ratings tanked, the networks needed a "make good" for this year. Well, here it is. Trust me, there will be no boring Spurs/Pistons final this year. Money trail.

The game outcomes are one thing- there are way too many mysterious game outcomes in the regular season that have more to do with helping some franchises pump attendance than the true quality of the teams. There is nothing more meaningless than the outcome of a November NBA regular season game. At the end of the year, the teams wind up to be in the spots that they are slotted for and the "playoffs" begin. All the while, unsuspecting fans, like here in Cleveland, are paying $11,000 for one season ticket down low between the baselines. Money trail.

What is even more disturbing are the examples of the coreographing that goes on. 2003 NBA draft- Players available Duane Wade, LeBron James, Carmello Anthony. Detroit has the second pick. They pass on Anthony and Wade and pick Darko Milichich? Uh, what? Oh, yeah Denver, who was in the tank and needed a super star pick was 3rd and THEY get Anthony. Detroit's league payback? They get to the NBA Finals the following spring. Money trail.

Lebron going to Cleveland was a set up just like Patrick Ewing going to the Knicks in the famous frozen envelope draft in 1984 was a set up. Hell, New Orleans magically having the best record in the West, just before the all-star game this year was a set up. Incredible that the game just happened to be in New Orleans this year and Byron Scott could then be the coach. Let's see, what else? Yao Ming gets hurt so what happens? Houston, amazingly goes on a 20 game winning streak. How and why? To make sure that the fans keep showing up. Does that streak make a hill of beans difference now? No, except in the Houston Rockets' balance sheet. And, oh yeah. Michael Jordan leaving basketball for two years to play minor league baseball. What guy on top of his game just decides to go play baseball when he's the best player in basketball? How about one who had a gambling problem that had to get straight?
A few years ago, the NBA had a horrible image problem so, the very year that it did, who unbelieveably won the NBA Championship- the good guy, clean as a whistle San Antonio Spurs. Money, money, money and more money.

I can go on and on about this, but living in an NBA city, and seeing those games on a constant basis and witnessing what goes on, it has become very clear to me that the NBA is on the same level as the WWE- and Carnival Barker David Stern is on a par with Vince McMahon. There's tons of stuff that goes on behind the scenes, but with all the money padding a bunch of people's pockets, we'll never know about it.

Stern is probably petrified that Donaghy would really talk. It could bring down the house of cards.

Disclaimer: This rant is not from some bitter guy who is pissed that the Cavaliers lost. I really don't care. I haven't paid for a Cavs ticket for about 10 years. I watched about 15 minutes total of the Boston playoff series-because nothing else was on. I'm p.o.'d when the Muskies are pre-empted up here on FSO when the Cavaliers are on.
The NBA, other than David West, sucks. Pure and simple. (Apologies to James Posey.)

[Shadow]

MOR and I agree.
You want to make a difference. Don't buy a ticket to a game or watch it on TV. Let the league see what happens when sponsors aren't getting their monies worth. Let the professional franchises collapse. The sun will still rise tomorrow and maybe, just maybe, the college game can be saved. I hope so because it's on life support now.

[wkrq59]

MOR and Shadow. Now you know why I will never attend a major league baseball game until Pete Rose is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
I laugh my head off when people say he broke a sacred rule of baseball. He threatened the integrity of the game. BASEBALL HAS NO INTEGRITY AND NEVER HAS HAD ANY! From back when Comisky was screwing his players to the joke that was Landis and even Bart Giamatti, who targeted Rose when Pete was still a player, the whole thing stinks.
Let's get something straight. Pete bet on baseball and lied, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds took illegal drugs to bulk up and hit home runs and both lied, McGwire under oath to a congressional committee and Bonds is being tried for perjury. Pete Rose is not the smartest block in the playpen, but three times the man was told everything would be all right if he just told the truth. When he did, he wasn't sincere enough.
Bud Selig and David Stern and for that matter Roger Goddell all sleep in the same fetid bed. They stink.
As you say, MOR, money, money, money.
I guess in my old age, on the declining side of 71, I'm pretty quick to get disgusted.
That's why I love Xavier and Sean Miller even more. Xavier stands for something and has not compromised the mission of the university--education--for win at all costs. I pray to God that never changes.
The NBA and the way it's really beginning to corrupt the college game--and even the high school game--see Walt McBride for example. Does anyone really believe that a$$hole athletic director that Walt's lacking a teaching certificate was the reason he's out of a job? I heard from people very close to that program that if he didn't win state, he'd be gone. Wait till the Yancey Gates story is told.
Watch O.J.Mayo's follies be swept under the rug, as will USC's involvement in the whole mess. Just as the Reds have failed in the past 8 years to surround Ken Griffey Jr. with a competitive team, the Cavaliers have yet to provide LeBron James with talent sufficient to win it all. Oh and as long as slime like Drew Rosenhaus are screwing up NFL teams (see Chad Johnson and Kellen Winslow Jr.) and Bill Bellichek continues to lie worse than Pete ever did, theNFL will also smell.
It's hell when you love college and pro football and college basketball and can remember some wonderful high school football and hoops games that we have to see most major sports stink like dead bodies. Wait, we've got an exhibit of dead bodies that a credible native of China says are murdered political prisoners. And that nation is hosting the Olympic games. Money, money, money. And didn't our president borrow a sh!t boat load of money from China for the economic stimulus package that's nothing more than a socialistic ploy.
Whee, ain't sports grand?

[principal]

And if sports is a microcosm of life...what are the implications of this thread for:

-Politics
-The Catholic Church
-Organized religion in general (the big money boys, of course)

All huge players in the money game!