NBA Referee Fixed Games: FBI
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James Joyner | Friday, July 20, 2007 |
The FBI is about to arrest an NBA referee in a points shaving scandal.
Shocking if it turns out to be substantiated. While the temptations are there, one would think the other referees — and the League — would quickly get wise to an official making a significant number of unusual calls.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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The real question is why the hell the FBI is wasting its time on the NBA?!?!? Who gives a damn?
Although I can predict Bush's next State of the Union. He will go beyond his principled stand in one of his earlier SoUs objecting to steroids in baseball to be against gambling in basketball.
The real question is why the hell the FBI is wasting its time on the NBA?!?!? Who gives a damn?
People engaged in legal betting? People buying tickets? The television networks spending billions to broadcast supposedly honest competition?
Almost certainly, more people care about the honest administration of professional basketball games than a whole lot of the other things the FBI spends its time doing.
would quickly get wise to an official making a significant number of unusual calls.
In the NBA how could you tell? Did he actually call a foul or travelling on a superstar?
I agree with Bandit completely. To watch any significant amount of NBA games is to witness some of the most atrociously inconsistent officiating of any major sport. And that includes European and international soccer, which has also had its share of corruption amongst officials. This story shocks me only in the limited nature of its scope; I'd have expected to see multiple officials cited. At least this gives one of these guys a reason for the calls they make.
People engaged in legal betting? People buying tickets? The television networks spending billions to broadcast supposedly honest competition?
Almost certainly, more people care about the honest administration of professional basketball games than a whole lot of the other things the FBI spends its time doing.
Like I said--the effects of this have no significant public policy impact. They might find it more fruitful to investigate officiating in the World Wrestling Federation. I have a sense that some of those refs aren't calling a fair fight.
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