The NBA lost me when they blatantly and obviously stuck it to the "I love this team" SuperSonics. Seattle had Pheonix dead to rights in 1993 until a game 7 second half foul binge knocked them out. Some of it was Barkley just schooling Kemp with grizzled veteran plan but the Supes could barely touch a Sun without it getting called.
Later, to add insult to injury, the league implemented off season rules to elimenate the hand check, thereby ruining the most exciting defense the league had I've ever. It was sold as a league that was concerned that defense was taking over the game but they let the "clutch and grab" defense of New York and Detroit stand, despite the 84-89 games it created. Instead, they banned the defense that generated turnovers, fast breaks, thunderous jams and games where both teams scored 100+ per night. Bad, bad call.
I haven't paid much attention to the NBA since. The NFL has issues but the NBA is one step above WWE. One small step.
Want 8,000 words' - that is, 15-20 SSI posts' - worth of lively sports info-tainment? Not a single one of which glorifies Hector Noesi's elite stuff and 1.9 gopher rate?
Hruby Tuesday has an op-ed on sports fixing. He had me at Elliot Kalb. Kalb (1) wrote one of the most important books on sports fixing, and (2) met blogger Hruby wearing a polo shirt with a Super Bowl XL logo on it. Heh!
...........
In the 8,000-odd words of the blog post, Hruby must run through 50 different alleged sports fixes, including --- > the 1985 NBA lotto that sent Patrick Ewing to New York ... Michael Jordan's thinly-veiled exile from the NBA ... the 2002 NBA Western Conference Game 6 in which the Lakers shot 27 free throws in the fourth quarter to "beat" the Kings ... Michael Phelps' eighth gold medal.
Hruby gives 6% as the number of NCAA games that currently involve point shaving on any given weekend. That is, 6% of all games involving a heavy favorite. I wonder if there's an easy gambling system for betting dogs in +15 point spreads? 6% of games is plenty of leverage to work with.
True, there are six or eight sloppy checkpoints in Hruby's charge up the hill, a la "if NBA refs don't have to obey the rulebook on traveling, why would they obey it on anything else" type reasoning. But the fact remains that many people have gone to jail for fixing, and gambling on, major sports. Ever read Life Its Ownself? Back in 1984, Dan Jenkins wrote an entire novel protesting the massive fixing that he saw as part of the NFL's fabric.
Whether fixes are in, within major global sports, that's not in dispute from where I sit. The question is, on what scale. Hruby's article lit up a few light bulbs for me.
.
Comments
was really rigged. i was watching it. i watched all of the games of cwebb and jwill. i cannot believe the calls that were being made during that time. it was literally stolen from the kings. cwebb could have had his ring that year.
another game i can recall that is obviously rigged is the portland-LA game 7 western conference finals. the one with scottie pippen on it. cant remember the year. but LA came from like a 20 pt deficit within 7 minutes during that game. again, portland could just cant get any calls.
i love those teams. those portland and sac teams. both times, LA came out with the championship.