<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">THE FBI is investigating an NBA referee who allegedly was betting on basketball games - including ones he was officiating during the past two seasons - as part of an organized-crime probe in the Big Apple, The Post has learned.</div> <div align="center">Source: NY Post</div>
This would be so bad on refs and the NBA. Man, can you imagine refs betting on the games they officate, crazy.
I'm not surprised by this, but it's a concern for me as a basketball fan. This completely taints the integrity of the games, and the Finals of all things. The NBA is one of the easiest sports to manipulate because of the foul calls an official can make. Two quick fouls on the opposing teams superstar player completely alters the game. Those two quick fouls might also result in a couple of technicals and then the team is at a serious disadvantage the rest of the night. Remember when Joey Crawford was suspended after the Tim Duncan clapping incident? He said he was going to spill the beans on a lot of the NBA's dirty laundry. I wonder if he's the insider the FBI used to indict this referee, and I'm sure there are plenty of other referees who also bet on games. A few years back the referees where cashing in their 1st class tickets for economy seats and pocketing the difference and not reporting that on their taxes.
I wouldn't be surprised if this happens in all sports, not just basketball. It can easily be in college basketball, the NFL, maybe even MLB. I think it's pretty obvious that refs "favor" players, especially superstars like Wade, LeBron, and to a less extent Kobe, Duncan, Arenas. I don't think you can argue that Wade and LeBron do get the most phantom calls, though. There has always been speculation about refs altering the game, this just backs it up even more.
Haha they show a picture of the 06 finals in the New York Post with this article. http://www.nypost.com/seven/07202007/news/...urray_weiss.htm
The thing is, it wouldn't be as simple as just giving calls to big-name players like Wade, Lebron, Kobe, etc. That's no way to make money. If he is actually involved with the mafia, then it'd be much more subtle but much much worse. The article described how typically in these cases, the mobsters running the books will intentionally create an easy spread that will attract a lot of people (eg: Spurs +5 over the Hawks) and then have the referee fix the game to favour the bookkeepers (eg: making intentionally biased calls so that the game is closer than it should be).
Wow this could be really bad for the NBA. Fans would think several games they went to were fixed, making rhem turn their backs on the game. Is it multiple refs or just one thats involved.
This all because of the Mob. Don't you guys watch godfather? But yeah i was lstening to the interview with the writer of the article Murray Weiss. And apparently the case has been happening for over a year and a half and appaears to be 95% over with. He expects these wrong doers to be "rounded" up in about 3-6 weeks. He also went on to say that the amount of games being "cheated" were in the double digits. Which of course could be anything from 10-99 games.
<div class="quote_poster">Windmill360? Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Haha they show a picture of the 06 finals in the New York Post with this article. http://www.nypost.com/seven/07202007/news/...urray_weiss.htm</div> Hahaha good for them! Lol i remember when we were arguing over that call on JBB for weeks.
I wonder what David Stern is thinking right now? This is horrible, the players aready hated the refs, now this is just devastating.
This one is from Yahoo. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The nightmare has forever lurked in the reaches of commissioner David Stern's mind, because NBA officials can control a basketball game with calls made and unmade with the subtlest of touches. These referees are human and flawed and can get deep into gambling debt, get addicted, like everyone else in this culture. </div> Read More
Lol at Stern just for backing the refs so much when fans, coaches, players, owners, etc have been ragging on them (and rightfully so) for years. I guess its good that he had confidence and support for his employees like a good boss should but this issue was way out of hand with the terrible officiating, hopefully this will spark some reforms in officiating. The NBA is probably the one league/sport where the refs can have a HUGE influence on the games. They can basically decide it themselves by calling fouls, not calling fouls, giving T's and/or ejecting players or coaches. Most other sports have rules that are set in stone or black and white while the NBA has basically just abandoned the rules completely and allowed the referees to call a game at their own discretion. I can just imagine now if this (or these?) ref/s officiated games in the Mavs-Heat finals the year before last. Cuban will have a field day.
From what I've read, it's one NBA official who has been betting on games for over two years, including ONE game he ref'd in.
<div class="quote_poster">Mamba Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">From what I've read, it's one NBA official who has been betting on games for over two years, including ONE game he ref'd in.</div> Yeah right one game in two years he reffed in? I'm sure he bet on multiple games he officiated. "I did it once and got away with it, I CAN DO IT AGAIN." This is a gambler's mentality. Hopefully Stern takes a hard line on this official and makes an example out of him.
Wow, another bad thing to bring the rep of the NBA even lower. I agree with Mamba, other sports officials probably have done the same thing, but the NBA gets exploited first. I think that this will bring the rep of the NBA way lower then it previously was. I wonder what is going on in Stern's head right now and what officials have done this.
I wouldn't wash Stern's hands of this, he's always been side by side with his refs and stood up for them. I don't think it's too out there to believe he knew about this, or worse, had a hand in it.
