Is the NBA fixed?

[rutzan]

i think so...that's my opinion...you can have yours...whether you want to spin as favoritism...it's just semantics...

btw...go ask rasheed, tim donaghy...heck...even our beloved stephen a smith...what they think about the officiating...where there is smoke there is fire...

someone else brought up a good point in another thread...what about our 17...were they fixed...

here's the key...david stern...

if you haven't seen it...go check youtube for the patrick ewing draft day controversy...

more to the point...since the hey day of bird, magic and jordan...the nba has gone downhill under stern and his mob in so many areas that i won't even enumerate them...

[snowball]

where amazing happens.

[Lord of Mikawa]

Ever since the move to LA, the NBA has wanted Lakers to be THE franchise. Guess who got in the way of that? So no I don't think this league is fixed BUT I do believe "superstar" calls are complete crap. The officiating in this league sucks and that can be seen on any given night. Tell me the last time a NFL or NHL official blew a call.

[esel1000]

No, its not fixed for a team to win. Either team could pull out the victory. But the refs do pick favorites and seem to do everything in their power to will a certain team to victory. Sometimes the celtics sometimes not. Last night was just an overly obvious example of favoritism. Refs need to let these guys play its ridiculous

[CelticHooligan3]

I don't know if it's fixed but somehere along the line the refs were given far too much power. I think this era was ushered in by Jordan and the concept of a living breathing legend on the court. The league relies on these types of SuperStars for ratings and revenue and therefore have a convoluted "agenda" because of this fact.

When the physicality and self policing of the game went away the refs became the stars in their own right. Now they are arguably just as big a part of "the show" then any player. And many have egos that would rival any player. That is the real problem.

Consistency in calls in also a major issue that has been addressed by stern very casually and in my personal opinion I think he will see the die hards fans leave in droves if all these problems persist.

[cman88]

Tim donoughy said on weei that the nba infers to the refs who they want to win a series for ratings

[wdleehi]

Fixed to make the best players look better.


Not fixed to allow certain teams to win. 


The fixes that make the stars look better tilts the officials in their favor. 

[Celtics4ever]

They certainly bear grudges too.   There is no way the league grades these bozos.  Bad refs persist too much for that too happen.

Sometimes I wonder about all pro sports.   But basketball with it's replays are clearly the worst officials and I would say the thinest skinned.

We played poorly.   I think we were hampered by the calls but it is no excuse for our play.  That being said, they have always subsidized their stars with FTAs and star calls.

[csfansince60s]

Tim donoughy said on weei that the nba infers to the refs who they want to win a series for ratings

He also said that the way that they did it was to have a league official show film to a ref's crew of perhaps a player's move that is questionable. For example, if Rondo did something that could be called palming, then the league officials would tell the refs to watch for and tighten up on that call.

He went on to say that you could tell which team the league wanted to win by the number and content of films that they showed.

Stern's a sleaze, but his product sells. They should call him "Snake Oil Stern".

[fairweatherfan]

The officiating in the NBA can be pretty awful at times, and there's clearly different standards for stars vs non-stars.  And the more subjective the call, the more inconsistent it tends to be.  The league needs to take steps to remove the subjectivity, situational considerations, and especially the refs' egos from how calls are made. 

But I don't think anyone here really believes it's fixed.  If it was, why bother watching?  If it's not, why say so?  And again, if it's rigged, we're one of the biggest beneficiaries - we have 3 titles, 3 finals appearances, and several conference finals since Stern got here.

If you do believe it's fixed, I suggest a little test - judging things in hindsight is easy.  But since the league is so blatantly rigged, it shouldn't be hard to make a few predictions in advance.  Specific, clear ones that can be objectively true or false, not vague things like "LeBron will get all the calls, y'all". 

Write em down and keep track of your hits and misses.  The smart, discerning fans who see through this massive conspiracy should also be able to consistently predict how that conspiracy will play out, right?  Those 3 straight years of Kobe-LeBron finals matchups can attest to that.

[celtsfan84]

The officiating in the NBA can be pretty awful at times, and there's clearly different standards for stars vs non-stars.  And the more subjective the call, the more inconsistent it tends to be.  The league needs to take steps to remove the subjectivity, situational considerations, and especially the refs' egos from how calls are made. 

But I don't think anyone here really believes it's fixed.  If it was, why bother watching?  If it's not, why say so?  And again, if it's rigged, we're one of the biggest beneficiaries - we have 3 titles, 3 finals appearances, and several conference finals since since Stern got here.

If you do believe it's fixed, I suggest a little test - judging things in hindsight is easy.  But since the league is so blatantly rigged, it shouldn't be hard to make a few predictions in advance.  Specific, clear ones that can be objectively true or false, not vague things like "LeBron will get all the calls, y'all".  Write em down and keep track of your hits and misses.  The smart, discerning fans who see through this massive conspiracy should also be able to consistently predict how that conspiracy will play out, right?

Great post.

If it were truly fixed, wouldn't the Lakers still be in it?  The Los Angeles market is about 5x bigger than the OKC market.  The money series is Los Angeles vs. Miami (or Boston).

[JoT]

I don't believe it but looking at some of horribly reffed games in the past I can understand why someone would think that.
It's not helping the NBA's case though especially when people think of not only this game, but the 2002 game 6 WCF in the 4th quarter for example.

[celtsfan84]

I don't know if it's fixed but somehere along the line the refs were given far too much power. I think this era was ushered in by Jordan and the concept of a living breathing legend on the court. The league relies on these types of SuperStars for ratings and revenue and therefore have a convoluted "agenda" because of this fact.

When the physicality and self policing of the game went away the refs became the stars in their own right. Now they are arguably just as big a part of "the show" then any player. And many have egos that would rival any player. That is the real problem.

Consistency in calls in also a major issue that has been addressed by stern very casually and in my personal opinion I think he will see the die hards fans leave in droves if all these problems persist.

People said that after the lockout too but the NBA had one of its best TV ratings seasons ever.  I don't see people leaving in droves.

[guava_wrench]

I don't believe it but looking at some of horribly reffed games in the past I can understand why someone would think that.
It's not helping the NBA's case though especially when people think of not only this game, but the 2002 game 6 WCF in the 4th quarter for example.

It takes a special kind of person though to go back to a game 10 years ago to try to support a conspiracy theory.

Especially when last night's game was pretty evenly called apart from 2 techs.

[guava_wrench]

The officiating in the NBA can be pretty awful at times, and there's clearly different standards for stars vs non-stars.  And the more subjective the call, the more inconsistent it tends to be.  The league needs to take steps to remove the subjectivity, situational considerations, and especially the refs' egos from how calls are made. 

But I don't think anyone here really believes it's fixed.  If it was, why bother watching?  If it's not, why say so?  And again, if it's rigged, we're one of the biggest beneficiaries - we have 3 titles, 3 finals appearances, and several conference finals since Stern got here.

If you do believe it's fixed, I suggest a little test - judging things in hindsight is easy.  But since the league is so blatantly rigged, it shouldn't be hard to make a few predictions in advance.  Specific, clear ones that can be objectively true or false, not vague things like "LeBron will get all the calls, y'all". 

Write em down and keep track of your hits and misses.  The smart, discerning fans who see through this massive conspiracy should also be able to consistently predict how that conspiracy will play out, right?  Those 3 straight years of Kobe-LeBron finals matchups can attest to that.

Never say "But I don't think anyone here really believes it's fixed."

There are still people who believe that the earth is flat, people who believe the earth is only 6000 years old, people who believe that Bush 2 had an IQ below 100, people who believe that Obama is a Muslim, people who believe we never landed on the moon, people who believe in Bigfoot, etc. People can believe all sorts of things.