SOUL wrote:Ari_Emanuel wrote:In the aggregate, the outcome that optimizes for the greatest good/greatest number of people is one in which the league maximizes interest in the league as a whole and by proxy, television ratings.
Outside of actually creating a dynasty team, which is incredibly difficult and rare, especially given the new CBA, the next best thing owners can do to inflate the values of their franchises is to grow interest in the game.
There are heads of state openly profiting off their positions to the tune of billions of dollars - what makes you think officials won't arrange to add a couple ping pong balls here and there to push fate toward their most favoured outcomes? Rigging can be done much more subtly than you might think.
I hope you know this would imply that every single person is in on it at least a little - from front offices, to coaches, to players. There would be implicit understanding that this is the business once they come into it. That the NBA is nothing but entertainment and they're all benefiting from helping other teams when it makes sense, even if it means their jobs or roster spots.
Nothing is that ironclad. If people think it's actually rigged, which people have for a while now, there would be some actual evidence being worked on besides coincidences or being like "a player went to his hometown team!"
The NBA is a privately owned organization, as are the franchises, and the owners of those have been getting insanely rich off their investments. There is no incentive to investigate, and even if there was, there is no system of checks, balances, and transparency to ensure such an investigation would yield anything of merit.
Also, I refute the argument that everyone would have to be involved. That's like saying everyone would need to be directly involved in any corruption that happens in a modern corporatocracy. It's simply not true. Events can be soft-rigged, and the system itself ensures that enough people with the right amount of influence are benefiting enough ($$) to overlook unethical dealings.
As a matter of fact, that is exactly what is happening right now with the stock market and current politics.
