NBA fixing: biggest American sports story in recent memory?

[Clarkmeister]

I think this is worth breaking off from the existing thread. I was talking to my Dad today and I honestly can't think of a bigger sports story in my lifetime. By comparison, the Vick dog story which was nonstop the last few days pales in comparison in my opinion.

Here's the major sports-related stories that come to mind, in no particular order:

Tyson ear biting
Vick dog fighting
Ben Johnson doping
Pete Rose gambling (I think this obviously is way less significant than the current NBA story)
Bonds/Sosa/McGwire/Canseco "steroid era"
Nancy Kerrigan
OJ Simpson
Magic Johnson with AIDS
Jordan to baseball
Team USA baskeball turning into a joke
Kobe rape case
Tyson rape case
Duke lacrosse rape case

I'm sure there are others I can't think of off the top of my head. And while certainly nothing will get as much press as the OJ case, I am hard pressed to think that any of the things I listed really *should* be bigger, or are more significant than NBA games, including playoff games, having the outcome influenced by an official. The more I think about it, the bigger I think this is.

[Vyse]

The "outcome," in terms of wins and losses, has not yet proven to be influenced. It's more likely to be point shaving (or adding) for spreads, and I doubt he was doing it every game. People should really let the facts come out before you guess as to how big it is.

[Clarkmeister]

[ QUOTE ]
The "outcome," in terms of wins and losses, has not yet proven to be influenced. It's more likely to be point shaving (or adding) for spreads, and I doubt he was doing it every game. People should really let the facts come out before you guess as to how big it is.

[/ QUOTE ]

Impacting the spread is impacting the outcome.

The feds are involved and are now ready to come public with the story. This is going to get worse before it gets better.

[J.A.Sucker]

It's a big story, but I don't know how big it really is in the grand scheme of things. There are several point-shaving scandals that have come and gone over the years involving players. Is this worse than, for example, than Hedake Smith? I dunno. Perhaps. Time will tell how deeply it all ran.

Nevertheless, I think there have been bigger stories - Magic and HIV was pretty big (I think everyone who is around our age remembers exactly where they were when it went down). OJ was even bigger, and more unbelievable (and, for me, far more captivating). The Nancy Kerrigan debacle was truly unbelievable, as well.

This could become truly huge as the facts unfold, especially if the league shows some complicity in the matter.

[MicroBob]

Ummm, there are plenty of NBA games with point-spreads of 1 or 2 points.
If he is involved with any 1 or 2 point underdog or favorites he is most certainly influencing the outcome.

Or another example: The 3-point favorite is up by 5. The underdog has the ball with 30 seconds left. You think he's going to let them try to score to cut that margin at all?
Any out-of-bounds, contact in the paint, anything vaguely resembling a travel is ALL going to get called just ONE way if he has anything to say about it.


Anyway, to Clark's point:
Yeah, this is probably going to have the biggest impact on sports of any story in recent memory.
The OJ and Nancy Kerrigan stories were actually 'bigger' overall (Kerrigan was talked about on the news and mocked on late-night TV and morning-radio for weeks/months) but neither really affected their sport that much.


This is definitely worse than the Pete Rose scandal and I think will have a greater impact.
Pete Rose did have SOME influence on the games in which he would or would not bet on his team. But, for the most part, it was mostly a story of how he was gambling and getting banned from baseball. Not that he changed the Reds chances of winning the pennant or any individual game THAT drastically.

This ref was directly influencing the outcome of the games via making sure he gave one team the benefit of the calls which is way worse and way scarier.

This is a VERY big deal.

[dnh83]

I'm very interested to see what kind of effects this will have on TV rating/attendance etc. I'm going to guess that it won't have the negative effect that some people seem to think.

[EvanJC]

It's huge, but I don't think it's the biggest. If it comes out that there was more than one bad apple, I think it becomes much more serious.

[Nortonesque]

At least now we can ditch the "David Stern is fixing this game" conspiracy theories for "The mob is fixing this game" conspiracy theories.

[Assani Fisher]

It really isn't that big. It was a small little story at the bottom of the front page of my paper(Washington Times). The thread here has 90 or so replies. The thread on footballguys has around 150 replies. Thats not much attention at all.

[TheNoodleMan]

[ QUOTE ]
It really isn't that big. It was a small little story at the bottom of the front page of my paper(Washington Times). The thread here has 90 or so replies. The thread on footballguys has around 150 replies. Thats not much attention at all.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is only the beginning, you are insane if you don't think this is going to be huge news for months.