SFist: Holy Shot! Have NBA Games Been Rigged for Years?

Olsonist

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:34:07 -0800

I remember Divac and Kobe, I think it was Kobe, diving for a loose ball. Two great players going at it, giving it their all, amazing, clean. Whistle, foul on Divac. 6 and you're gone. Replay after replay and there was nothing. I don't watch the NBA anymore. That was it, and I was more of a Laker's fan at the time. Divac was a fan favorite in LA before he got traded to Sacto via Charlotte. And Shaq was great to watch. Ok, I didn't like Webber.

fyodordos

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:41:04 -0800

this is news? It's not whether you win or lose, but whether or not you make the point spread

funkcommander

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:04:48 -0800

The Lakers shot 27 free throws in the fourth quarter and scored 16 of their final 18 points at the foul line in a 106-102 victory. Lakers guard Kobe Bryant's elbow to Mike Bibby's nose that was not called a foul with less than 20 seconds left "prompted many fans to start wondering about what was motivating these officials"

funkcommander

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:02:37 -0800

i remember watching the 2002 kings-lakers series. outside of boxing, i've never seen anything so blatantly rigged. example: a player from the lakers runs full-speed into a completely set kings player, knocks him to the ground, shoots (directly in front of the ref). ten seconds later, same ref calls a phantom foul on a kings player. not a questionable foul... i mean, literally, a foul that he obviously just made up. the stats (fouls called per team, in particular) after the game really told the story. wow... i'm getting angry all over again...

EllyMental

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:04:31 -0800

I doubt this is limited to basketball. Hello football, baseball, soccer, Olympics etc etc.

andyc

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:18:44 -0800

i can't believe this idea is a surprise to anyone.. the way fouls are called in the nba is very loose and open to interpretation, so of course it's open to abuse as a result. watch any game and you'll notice that they almost never show replays of questionable foul calls because 99% of them should not have been called, and if they went to a replay type of system games would take 2x as long since practically every other play ends in a foul. the idea that star players can just drive towards the rim and automatically get foul shots is just silly and takes away from what would otherwise be considered good defense.

zig

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:07:54 -0800

I don't find the NBA to be tedious or boring I hope the allegations aren't true but something tells me that there is something there. Not explict directives but subtle requests form management on what they would like

cedichou

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:20:12 -0800

What do you mean, they stopped calling traveling. They were showing all lakers-celtics series, and you could see Kareem receive the ball in the post, and shuffle his feet once, and twice, and maybe another time, then make his move. Then McHale would do the same thing. They would have blown the whistle ten times nowadays.

jwb

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:24:14 -0800

1) Pro basketball is tedious and boring 2) After they stopped calling traveling, pro basketball became unimaginably tedious and boring.