If the NBA is rigged, I couldn’t care less

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Terrill/AP

For years, conspiratorial-minded NBA fans and even players have talked about the NBA being rigged through claims of biased refereeing and conspiracies about the NBA draft lottery being fixed.

While the NBA is not faked like the WWE, where players know about and contribute to predetermined results, many believe that the league has its ways of impacting the results through biased refereeing in playoff games. 

Per ESPN, these speculations grew after the now-disgraced former referee Tim Donaghy altered the outcome of games between 2003 and 2007 to profit from gambling on them. For years, the NBA maintained that no games were ever altered. However, those involved maintain that the NBA directly worked to stop the investigation from progressing which put the league’s integrity into question. 

There are also popular conspiracies about the rigging of the NBA draft lottery. According to Sports Illustrated, the first and perhaps most infamous draft lottery, the 1985 NBA draft, drew allegations of being rigged when David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA at the time, selected a bent envelope during the drawing. That envelope contained the name of the team that would draft the top pick in the NBA – that year, the top pick was Patrick Ewing. 

The video for the lottery shows that the envelope had been slammed against the wall as it was inserted into the box it was to be drawn out of, leading it to have a bent appearance. When the New York Knicks were awarded with the first pick off of the bent envelope, it raised suspicion.

The outcome of the 1985 NBA draft restored the Knicks as a franchise and created another major competitor out east. If the draft was rigged, it helped them avoid an era of irrelevance after losing their star, Bernard King. Drafting a franchise star in Ewing brought forth one of the most memorable eras of Knicks basketball, and in turn, Ewing became a household name. One must wonder if he would still be remembered as one of the essential players of the 1990s if he had been drafted to the Indiana Pacers, for example. 

As a fan, however, these allegations of rigging are a non-concern. I would even advocate that these decisions enhance the game and make it more entertaining. 

The NBA’s biased refereeing in playoff games was discussed on a recent episode of Gilbert Arenas’s podcast, suggesting that they believe that the NBA’s refereeing in playoff games is impartial to help the league’s marquee markets and create interesting playoff matchups.

Former Philadelphia 76ers player Evan Turner, who guest starred on the episode, recalled advice he received in his second year of playing from veteran member Elton Brand. Before facing the Boston Celtics in an elimination playoff game in 2012, Brand told him, “You know we’re gonna have to win by 15 just to win by one.”

And his reasoning justifies the act, with Brand supposedly telling Turner, “This is the NBA; it’s entertainment. Would you rather watch the Celtics or the [76ers] play the [Miami] Heat? I’m on the team; I wouldn’t even watch the Sixers play the Heat.” Even the players acknowledge that the NBA has some entertainment-focused components in its refereeing. 

While the financial motivations behind this may be slimy, the resulting product that the fans get is better. Game sevens are much more entertaining than a team getting eliminated in six games. The Paul Pierce-Kevin Garnett Celtics matching up against LeBron James in Miami is a much better series than watching the Heat crush the 76ers. 

The draft lottery also has many conspiracies surrounding it, due to how the event is often televised but not aired live, giving the appearance that something shadowy is going on behind the scenes. But even if it is true that the draft lottery is fixed, this type of rigging also serves to improve the league. By assembling the league’s young stars with the team most suitable for the viewers’ entertainment and past increasing parity, it could give teams that are unpopular as free agency destinations, like Cleveland, Minneapolis or New Orleans, superstar players that they would be unlikely to ever acquire if not through the draft. 

When the league helps out its large markets, it engages more fans. The league is more enjoyable when fans are involved and interested, and sometimes giving the big market teams special treatment helps make this happen.

What makes the NBA special is not the fairness of its competition, but the moments that create stories and memories for the fans, whether they occurred spontaneously or were contrived by the league.