Do you think the NBA fixes games?

Question

The NBA doesn't fix games. That's impossible. And stupid. It could never happen. But there are three major problems here. First, Dwyane Wade shot as many free throws (25) as the entire Dallas team in Game 5. I just don't see how there's any way this can happen in a fairly-called game. It's theoretically impossible.
Second, everyone knew the officiating would be a problem heading into this series because of Cuban's past problems with the league. No team depends on the refs quite like the Heat. When the refs are calling all the bumps on Shaq and protecting Wade on every drive, they're unstoppable. When they're calling everything fairly, they're eminently beatable. If they're not getting any calls, they're just about hopeless. The officiating in Game 3 (the last five minutes were just obscene) and Game 5 (again, a top-five debacle) was absolutely atrocious.
Third, here's a theory on referees that was described in a blog last spring:
"I don't think the NBA fixes games, but they have one trick that they use for situations like this -- when they want a home team to win the game, they invariably assign the worst referees possible to that game for two reasons: Bad referees have a tendency to get swayed by the home crowd, and bad referees never have the stones to make a tough call on the road. In a related story, I went to 35 Clippers games this year and kept a list of the referees in my pocket which I also used to follow the referees for any televised games. And yes, the referees in the NBA -- as a whole -- have never been worse. But there were six referees that stuck out as being especially terrible."
Then I went on to list the worst six referees. Here was No. 2 on the list:
"2. Bennett Salvatore -- Always one of the worst, he took it to another level this season. If you see him on the court at the start of the game, get ready for about six technicals, two near-brawls and both coaches having to be restrained by their assistants at various times."
Why is this relevant? Not only did Salvatore officiate Game 4 of the Suns-Lakers series (the one where Kobe tied it at the end of regulation and won it at the end of OT on two shaky non-calls on Nash, both by Salvatore), not only did Salvatore officiate Sunday night's Game 5 (in which Miami had a 40-12 free-throw advantage at one point), but Salvatore called the foul on Wade's final drive in overtime (remember, the call where ABC couldn't find a replay to show that anyone touched him?) even though he was standing at midcourt a full 35-40 feet from the play, and even though two other refs were closer to the play. Not only was that NOT his call, he butchered it.

I'm asking OTHER people you know. I'm just sharing my views and letting people know the facts

Answer 1

Wow!!! What a very informing question. Informing in the way that you made so much sense in your theory. I agree that the NBA cannot fix games in the sense of having a team just quit, but sabotaging a certain team with the crappy officiating now I can believe that. Coming from Utah and being a Jazz fan I can see this in every game since the refs totally hate Jerry Sloan. Not that you care or anything but Karl Malone said something interesting during an interview during all the hype of his statue and number retirement her In SLC i will quote the best I can he said,: I was out doing something other than basketball related things and ran into a NBA referee that refer ed many of the Jazz's games he told straight up that he was sorry that he coast the Jazz and Me a championship due to his bad call in the finals" this was concerning the push off Jordan did on Bryon Russell. So this comment gives your theory a good leg to stand on.

Answer 2

I agree that the NBA and David Stern can't "throw" games. But I do think that he can make it a lot harder for a certain team to win. This NBA Finals was a complete joke in terms of fair officiating. Dwayne Wade doesn't even get touched on several of his fouls. But Dirk Nowitzki basically gets body slammed to the floor and play continues. How is that fair officiating?

I know that I may sound like a conspiricy nut by implying that David Stern and his cronies would give special treatment to a team. But let me ask you this and tell me if I'm crazy. Does David Stern want another Michael Jordan?

You would be a fool to believe he wouldn't. Another Jordan would make the NBA billions and billions of dollars. So how do you go about getting another Jordan? First of all you need him to be a champion. Secondly, you need the next "Jordan" to score as many 40+ point games as possible. And how do you go about doing that? You get the refs to call as many fouls as possible to artificially inflate his scoring numbers. And you would hope that with some padding of a players numbers it would also help out that team.

I would also like to point out an interesting tidbit. Has anyone ever seen such a dramatic turnaround in sports? I'm not talking about a game because anything can happen in a single game (ex. Buffalo Bills coming from 30+ points back to beat the Houston Oilers). But I'm talking about one team going from absolute domination to being dominated.

The Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat in the first 4 games of the year by probably 70ish points (30 point win, 18 point win, and a couple double digit wins in the finals). But then they couldn't beat Miami to save their lives. And it was nothing new. Before the Finals the Heat with Shaq never beat the Mavericks. It had been 3 years or more since Miami won a game in Dallas. So they obviously had been dominating Miami for a while now.

Also, think about this. I was watching ESPN Classic and they were showing the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Caviliers series from 1990. It was the game where Jordan scored 69 points. He went to the free throw line 23 times in that game. Dwayne Wade was averaging 23 attempts in the final 2 games of the Finals. I know the rule changes favor players that can penetrate to the basket. But you also have to realize that the 3 point line was a lot further back in 1990. While that may not be good evidence to show the NBA favoring a certain team or player it does show that Dwayne Wade is no Jordan.

As for that person who said the Mavs used the "Hack-A-Shaq" strategy. Your wrong. They didn't. Shaq's free throw attempts throughout the Finals. Game 1 he had 9. Game 2 he had 7. Game 3 he had 6. Game 4 Shaq had 10 attempts. Game 5 he had 12. In Game 6 he had 4. I hardly would call that using the "Hack-A-Shaq". That's an average of 8 attempts a game which is nothing.

Answer 3

No. The first 2 games the Mavs had no complaints, they won. The complaints came after they started losing. Remember a few years ago Riley was singing the same song when the Heat were losing. If they were fixing games, why not have it go 7 and make more money. Did you know people are saying the same thing about the World Cup officiating? That's what happens in sports. If the Mavs had been more aggresive, like Wade they may have got more calls too. D Wade is just that good.
By the way I live in KY and had no rooting interest, but am glad Cuban lost. He showed some class clapping for Miami.

Answer 4

I agree. The only people that would buy into that story are conspiracy theorists. I'm a dedicated Spurs fan, and I would love to believe that my team was knocked out of the playoffs due to some ***-backwards conspiracy to put the Lakers and Celtics in the finals for ratings but that just wouldn't make much sense. This guy is just trying to damage the NBA as much as he can. The bottom line is that the Lakers beat the Spurs because they were faster, and played better THIS TIME ;P And the Celtics are in the finals because they are THE dominant team in the East. Refs make stupid calls. Some refs have it out for certain players, it's just the way sports goes. The officials are the structure and backbone of the game; their rulings are never overturned and this guy knows that if he can make everybody doubt the officials' intentions that he can undermine the quality of the whole league. I suspect most people will come to a similar conclusion and there will be a slight contraversy; but the league will recover and we will look forward to another great season and heated playoffs next year with pleanty of other contraversies.

Answer 5

You can blame the refs for Dallas losing to Miami. Or you can accept that Wade is one of the best players in the league. Your choice.

Remember this. Avery Johnson used a strategy of "Hack a Shaq". They fouled him as much as possible. Wade drives to the basket a lot. That adds up to a lot of fouls. Its not so much the refs fault as it is Johnson's.

Oh and if you're going to complain about the ticky tack foul that sent Wade to the line remember that Dirk had something similar in Game 4 against the Spurs when Bowen gave him a little bump.

Answer 6

Personally, I think they DO "fix" some games in a sense... especially in the post-season. Of course they can't *completely* fix a game. But at times, it's obvious that the referees are favoring one team over another. Last year they called everything on Detroit and hardly a thing on SA. SA had 3x as many free throw opportunites in a few of those games. That doesn't happen naturally. They also sometimes call fouls on one guy and not another (ahem, Shaq, cough).

Answer 7

The officiating was in favor for the mavs the heat just stepped it up a bit.


Shortly after he bought the Dallas Mavericks, Cuban immediately started whining about the officiating. Back then, maybe he had a legitimate gripe. His main problem was with the Utah Jazz, whose style of play was dirty; they did have two of the dirtiest players I’ve ever seen. Nevertheless, the Jazz still got all the calls, and it didn’t sit well with Cuban. His Mavs could never get past them. For his whining, Cuban was fined and fined and fined. He started matching the fines to charities, and one time delivered a $10,000 fine in an armored truck filled with pennies. After years of these tactics, it finally began to work. The calls were now going his way. Cuban’s vision was genius. Whine and whine and whine, and stock the team with excellent free throw shooters.

Cubans antics not only drew the ire of the league, but several coaches, including Phil Jackson. Said Jackson, “I know there’s a lot of pressure on the refs when they come here because Mark has them review the tapes and send them into the league. These guys are nervous Nellies when they come in to referee in this building. But they have to do a better job than they’re doing. That’s not acceptable.” Cuban replied by calling Jackson his Bucket Boy.

It had worked. The very thing that prompted Mark to start his crusade, he has become. You will never see Mark complain about the refs when Dirk Nowitski travels, which is just about every time he puts the ball on the floor. But he will complain and make sure the refs know when Shaquille O’Neal lifts his pivot foot one tenth of a second before his planted foot. He will never complain when Devin Harris flops the way Derek Fisher used to against his old teams. He will never complain when his players intentionally foul O’Neal with the force that would critically injure a mortal NBA player.

Wednesday night, on David Letterman, Cuban acted like his team had already won the NBA championship. Not a word about the officiating, just criticizing The Miami heat style as physical and ugly. I watched game 1 and 2, and I didn’t see beautiful basketball from either team. In fact I’ve yet to see pretty basketball from either team besides the Heat in Game 4. Why? Turnovers and missed free throws on Miami’s part. And in the Mavericks, I see a team looking like a junior varsity squad who can’t figure out a 2-3 zone. They are absolutely baffled and it has nothing to do with physical play.

The truth is, when Udonis Haslem isn’t making Dirk look bad, Dirk is making himself look bad. Missing crucial free throws, clanking wide open looks. Avery Johnson and Cuban are now whining that Haslem is playing too physical with Dirk. "[Udonis] Haslem is roughing him up," said Johnson. The problem with that logic is, Haslem has been in foul trouble every game, so why whine if Dirk can’t make the most of the 20 minutes Haslem is on the bench? Look at what happened in game 2. Jason Terry goes in for a lay up, and anticipating a block, uses his off hand to fend off Udonis – sending him hard to the floor and out for the rest of the game. By the way, Haslem, not Terry, was called for a foul. Haslem can barely lift his arms now, so why hasn’t Dirk responded?

I can’t even count how many moving screens and defensive three seconds Miami was called for in game 3. Think Cuban had anything to do with that? Said Avery Johnson, "It's just really disappointing when the other team is pushing and we're not pushing back hard enough." Dallas is pushing plenty on every Heat layup, they just aren’t been called. In game 1, the only two Miami players to take free throws were Shaq and Wade. In 48 minutes, is it even possible that the only two players to get fouled in the act of shooting were those two? Personally, I don’t think it’s possible.

Avery and Mark need to stop whining about what the officials aren’t doing, and start concentrating on what their team isn’t doing. The refs are already on their side. Unfortunately for them, Dwyane Wade isn’t.

Answer 8

does seem like it huh? one team will be up by like 30 and the other time suddenly gets a jolt and wins the game by 10. that's bull****. like the blazers some years back, only 8 team points in the 4th quarterm, losing to the lakers in the western finals. blazers should've been champs that year. they probably thought letting shaq and kobe win would make the nba more money. portland's best player was sheed.

Answer 9

They may feel pressure from the media becuz of ratings about who should win

Answer 10

Nope. Controversy exists were there are two or more people.