Certain things are taboo in life. One of them is asking.. “Is the NBA fixed?” Jim Rome learned it the hard way few years ago when NBA commissioner David Stern expressed his disgust by asking the radio personality if he had stopped beating his wife. The defensive reply came after Rome asked if the NBA draft lottery is rigged.
Rome is known to ask easy questions to his guests, but he should be commended for asking a question no media member would dare ask Stern when it comes to questioning the credibility of the league.
One has to wonder if the NBA is fixed. I always wondered that going back to my childhood days when Michael Jordan and the Bulls would get all the calls during their heyday.
Last night had me wondering again when the Heat had some calls down the stretch that helped them earn a 97-94 victory against the Pacers. There were questionable foul calls on the Pacers. There was LeBron James being out of bounds couple of times. The final play of the game was disturbing when there was no call after James grabbed Paul George at the three-point line.
George reacted by screaming that’s BS to veteran referee Joey Crawford, and David West was enraged as he was on his way to the locker room after the game. Who can blame them? Had the foul was called, George would hit three attempts in the free throw line. Had the Pacers star hit all three of them, the game would have gone to overtime.
Anyone with clear eyesight would know that was a foul. Even the Heat were prepared to think this was a foul call. Imagine their surprise considering they know they get all the calls.
The Heat deserve credit for making plays that help them finish the game on a 10-0 run, but it helped Crawford played a role in this game. It’s not a coincidence anymore when the longtime ref plays a role that help give the Heat calls. This is the same ref that failed to call a travel on Ray Allen after he hit that three to tie the game in Game 6 of the NBA Finals this past season after the Heat were minutes away from being denied of a championship.
Who can blame Pacers fans or any basketball fan for worrying about Crawford giving the Heat calls if both teams meet in the Eastern Conference Finals? History is something people don’t forget, and Crawford has helped the Heat be the beneficiary of the calls.
It’s not Crawford’s fault. He is doing what he is being paid to do by the league, which is helping the Heat succeed at all cost. James is the league’s meal ticket in which he brings ratings, marketability and revenue to the league, and the refs will never dare do anything that will hurt their star. It’s the same nonsense they did for guys like Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Jordan over the years.
The league is not about doing what’s right for a team. It’s about making sure stars being in a position to succeed, so that the league get ratings by having their stars win games.
A friend of mine told me the Pacers were never going to the NBA Finals because Stern would see to it. He cited the commissioner does not want the NBA Finals to have low ratings with the Pacers advancing and James not participating in it.
What’s sad is he’s right. He is not the only one who feels that way. Most basketball fans feel that way. It should be expected the same scenario will take place again this spring. There’s no way the league want the Pacers to be in the NBA Finals, and there’s no way they want other teams to do well, either.
It may seem like whining, but that’s the truth, especially in light of disgraced ref Tim Donaghy betting on games, so he had to give calls to teams to help his chances of winning his bet. It wasn’t only him, but other refs would do the same as Donaghy mentioned in his book, Blowing the Whistle. The same ref in his book mentioned refs would be chummy with stars.
Stern can pretend to be outraged about what the refs did back then, but what he is doing is lip service. It’s hard to believe the refs would go make calls to star players for the sake of doing it. They must have had orders by the commissioner to make impact in games that would benefit the league.
After what happened with Donaghy, fans have grown to develop distrust with the refs.
The NBA draft lottery is also rigged. It’s interesting big-market teams always win the lottery often, and it’s interesting teams that really need help like Cleveland get the top pick.
Stern is not going to admit it, but his actions said it all by his behavior towards Rome. Him being defensive sure makes everyone’s point the game is fixed.
The mainstream media will deny it because they know their bread is buttered by the league, so they won’t go all in with the league. Plus, they couldn’t care less about the outcome of games outside of a finding a nice story.
The fans are a different story. They pay money out of their savings to watch games. They vest themselves into the games. They should have every right to demand integrity with the league.
Based on so many controversies from the refs and the league, no one can blame anyone for thinking the NBA is WWE.
Contact or follow Leslie Monteiro at @LightRodWriter
Leslie Monteiro
Leslie is a contributor for Lightning Rod Sports. He covered high school sports in Bergen County out in North Jersey, and has written op-ed columns on sports such as Bleacher Report and NY Sports Digest.
