Do you think the NBA playoffs are rigged?

The Lakers are the Hulk Hogan of the NBA - pre-determined to win.

 

No, not explicitly. I think the NBA encourages the star system in their referees, which is a form of cheating/manipulating the results.

 

I don't think there's a lot of doubt that it is.

 

Yeah the NBA really wanted the Pistons to win a title in 04.

And they rooted for a Spurs/Pistons Finals the following year.

 

[video=youtube;H_i3Vnd0n44]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_i3Vnd0n44&feature=related[/video]

[video=youtube;fvkKdXLwt0U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvkKdXLwt0U&feature=related[/video]

 

I guess people like to pretend a referee wasn't sent to prison for betting on and manipulating games

 

By his own account I thought he said he manipulated spreads, not changed entire playoff series.

 

Who is the current referee that is a convicted felon again? I forget his name.

edit: Ken Mauer

 

Little background on Ken Mauer

This is funny

 

I don't think the NBA is really rigging the final outcome of the series but it does seem that they like to have series extend to 6 or 7 games.

 

"Rigged" might be going too far. Between the Donaghy type shenanigans, the refs who hold personal grudges against various coaches/players/teams, and the league approved "superstar" system, there are all sorts of reasons why the officiating would be biased in any given game.

A systematic rigging of play-off series? It wouldn't shock me, but that level of conspiracy has yet to be proven.

 

I agree with you, except your reasoning is my definition of "yes".

If two teams play equally well, the team with the bigger star will win. To me, that's a yes. OTOH, everyone including the owners know this, so they can try to get the bigger stars on their team. They can also try to convince the public (and therefore the league/refs) that their young players are stars. This explains why the Blazers had ROY Ipods made for members of the allstar team voters in the media.

Officiating is a very big part of the NBA, and the refs have well known biases.

 

Well, my post said it was a form of cheating or bias. But the use of "rigged" suggests that the league pre-determines the results of games and series. While the star system biases games towards certain types of teams, I don't think the league is explicitly trying to make specific teams win. It depends, I guess, on how you read the word "rigged."

 

I think it's possible to play so well that the game can't be rigged against you.

 

I'm actually not sure that's true. The nature of the game today is some amount of contact on every possession. If a referee crew wanted to, they could put pretty much anyone they wanted on the bench, just by making "judgment calls" a certain way. It doesn't matter if you're the 1995-1996 Bulls if Jordan and Pippen are on the bench with 4 fouls in the first half and fouled out by the start of the fourth quarter.

Not that I think the NBA rigs games that blatantly, but the fact that the NBA has become a contact sport where referees have to decide what contact to whistle and what contact not to whistle pretty much gives them the power to create any outcome they want.

 

this.

Teams with "stars" have an advantage because they have different standards for foul calls. The stars get calls more often and they get called for fouls less often. The home team also always has an advantage because the refs are always influenced by the crowd. Neither of those things should be the case, but they are. The other team just has to play that much better to overcome those factors, which they often do. It just makes the games closer and series' longer.

 

Some call this cheating. I think the league would be better off not having convicted cheaters officiating their already suspect product.