Everything is Rigged – NBA Edition
News of the FBI busting a cheating ring in the NBA sent shock waves throughout the sports world earlier this week. If this shocked you, you likely haven’t been paying attention. Sports fans old enough to remember the scandals surrounding NBA referee Tim Donaghy and the 2002 Kings-Lakers Western Conference Finals series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings during the Sacramento Screwjob likely weren't surprised. Everything is rigged.
Make no mistake: most professional sports are already rigged and tipped in favor of bigger markets and pleasing advertisers who have bought ads on the premise that fans will be watching a competitive contest between the top two teams in the sport. Sports betting has only made this worse. (The ESPN coverage of the cheating scandal has been light touch, with betting site banners accompanying the headlines.) The NBA previously tried to sweep the Tim Donaghy scandal under the rug, portraying the cheating referee as one bad apple in an otherwise honest sport. (Not surprisingly, Tim Donaghy has played a heel referee in indie wrestling promotions.) Now we know that the scandal is much bigger than just one bad apple referee. So far more than thirty people across eleven states have been arrested.
How does cheating usually work? Sporting events usually tip things in favor of extending the series, so a five game series gets stretched to six or seven games. There are millions worth of advertising dollars here. The ads have already been sold, and it's a pain to try to compensate big brands with inferior blocks of advertising.
Players involved in the scam are usually instructed to score less in a scheme described as “point shaving.” In Terry Rozier’s case, he is accused of pulling himself out of games so friends could win on his prop bets. In the NBA, referees have wide discretion to put star players in foul trouble, limiting their effectiveness and tipping the scales in favor of a big market team looking to extend a series to six or seven games. The Portland Trailblazers coach Chauncey Billups has been accused of ensnaring NBA players into a rigged poker game. Details of how the poker game is connected to the NBA games are unclear, but it is plausible that NBA players who amassed huge gambling debts would be more willing to take part in point shaving schemes.
Facts: the number of people who know the outcomes to pro wrestling matches (the wrestlers, the referee, the booker) is fewer than than the number of people who know the outcomes to NBA games (basketball players, refs, coaches, mobsters, poker players).
This is why pro wrestling is the greatest and most honest sport. We know it’s fake and the results are pre-determined. That’s why it’s OK to bet on pro wrestling. Pro wrestling is the only honest scam. HHH will never lie to you like Adam Silver does about a Terry Rozier suspension. And if he does, you’ll realize it was to advance a storyline, not to cover poker gambling debts.
