Is the NBA both a rigged league and about to have Oklahoma and Indiana play in the NBA finals?

[Pointgod]

Before Snowden, the idea that governments were massively monitoring digital communications was often dismissed as a “conspiracy theory”.

I take the same view as Broadcaster:

I think it’s possible to have an influence without scripting everything.

The question of criticism is whether the mistrust is plausible.

We have a tendency for draft picks to go to teams that fit into certain narratives that is mathematically unlikely to occur without outside influence. So the suspicion is legitimate. Even Lebron commented:

Read on Twitter

And here is the beauty of those examples, I can build similar narratives in case another team would have won the draft.

2008: Memphis gets Derrick Rose after playing College in Memphis. The Sonics get Rose in their last season before moving. The Heat get Derrick Rose the season after they traded Shaq. The Knicks get Rose to rebuild after the Marbury disaster.

2011: Not wasting my time going through the teams and just pointing out the obvious that Cleveland also had the 2nd highest chance of all teams to get the 1st pick with their own pick, which fell back to 4. So why on earth would the NBA manipulate in the form of having the 2nd pick jump 7 positions, if it would look a lot less weirder if the pick with the 2nd best chances gets picked first?

2012: Bobcats get the 1st after trading Wallace and Stephen Jackson and being the worst team in league history. Portland as a replacement for Oden and Roy.

2014: Lakers get the 1st for Kobe's return, similar to Duncan/Robinson. Also, Knicks need some help for Carmelo. Weird how none of the 2 big market teams get support when both have star players that need support.

2019: Again NY an LA. Also why doesn't Cleveland get any kind of reward this time when Lebron leaves?

And so on. Also interesting how some teams get rewarded for losing their franchise players and others don't. Why didn't Sacramento get rewarded for trading DeMarcus Cousins? Guess the NBA really hates Portland since they weren't rewarded for their injuries, Aldridge, or Lillard. And somehow especially the Lakers and Knicks never seem to have any luck, even though that should be the league's biggest interest.

Lmao the conspiracy theorists won’t touch this one. Earlier I saw someone say that the league would rig the pick for Milwaukee if they trade Giannis not realizing that the Bucks don’t own their next two picks The conspiracy brain is sooo cooked it’s actually scary that people have replaced critical thinking with magical thinking. We’re literally going backwards as a society.

[Iwasawitness]

After the Luka and #1 draft pick situation, every other fan was saying the NBA rigs things to benefit the league. If that’s the case, you’d probably wager they’d prefer the Knicks or a team with a major superstar, rather than two small market, middle-America teams playing in their ultimate showcase.

Saying that the draft seems rigged is something that makes sense.

Players have implied. There are form 2 picks who imply it.

People who believe it. Believe it is done to artificially keep certain things in place.

Rigging the Lottery is a lot different from rigging the games.

You can only turn a blind eye much.

No, it doesn’t. We have video showing how the draft process works. It’s there for us clear as day and it’s something that would be very difficult to do based on the video evidence at hand.

[KayDee35]

Every year, conspiracy theorists decide who the NBA will give the #1 pick. When that team gets the pick, they call attention to their prediction. When it doesn't, they ignore that outcome. I mean, nobody wrote that the Pelicans would get the #1 pick when the biggest draft name of the 2010s became available.

When you pick and choose the data points, it's not evidence.

100%.


Show me a conspiracy theorist and I'll show you an attention-seeker who has reached the limits of their capacity to comprehend the world.

Nothing left to do but laugh and their stupidity and move on.

You’re quite possibly in denial that “conspiracy theorists” have also called just about every mainstream news event ahead of time going back for a while now.

There’s a lot of crazies out there, but there’s also a lot of really sane people that realize the world is run by evil.

So, while you’re pointing your finger at the stupidity of others, don’t miss the mirror at times. Keeps ya humble

Ironic that you use "humble" in there when conspiracy theorists are anything but. The rest of us are humble in the face of actual data and analysis. It's conspiracy theorists who think that they're onto something that the rest of us doofuses have not grasped when it's precisely the opposite.

I'm not going to pretend that idiots who are way out their depth deserve any kind of attention except mockery especially when it's clear that they don't understand concepts like the basic standard of evidence and probability.

I'd consider taking conspiracy theorists seriously when they put their money where their mouth is. The conspiracy theorists that are alive today are the ones that put their faith in mainstream science and medicine. They don't trust their fellow conspiracy theorists when to comes to their own lives.

[MrPainfulTruth]

Imagine how dumb you have to be to think everything can only be in binary terms. If it's rigged, everything must be rigged. There can never be any nuance.

Thank you. People are unable to abstract from their immature fandom sometimes. If it concerns my team or my hero it cant be rigged.

Ive seen people more mature than that. Many Lakers fans know they are not like any other team. And honestly i have seen very few allegations of favorable outcome in the entire east playoffs, while the dubious officiating accompanied OKC throughout the entire season and up to now. So, nuance is, one team / player is supposed to come out as champion this year, everything else dont matter. Nothing else is manipulated, and its not about "big markets" because that doesnt matter any more in times of globalization.

[The4thHorseman]

Imagine how dumb you have to be to think everything can only be in binary terms. If it's rigged, everything must be rigged. There can never be any nuance.

Thank you. People are unable to abstract from their immature fandom sometimes. If it concerns my team or my hero it cant be rigged.

Ive seen people more mature than that. Many Lakers fans know they are not like any other team. And honestly i have seen very few allegations of favorable outcome in the entire east playoffs, while the dubious officiating accompanied OKC throughout the entire season and up to now. So, nuance is, one team / player is supposed to come out as champion this year, everything else dont matter. Nothing else is manipulated, and its not about "big markets" because that doesnt matter any more in times of globalization.

Jokic fan still crying about the officiating

[Effigy]

After the Luka and #1 draft pick situation, every other fan was saying the NBA rigs things to benefit the league. If that’s the case, you’d probably wager they’d prefer the Knicks or a team with a major superstar, rather than two small market, middle-America teams playing in their ultimate showcase.

Saying that the draft seems rigged is something that makes sense.

Players have implied. There are form 2 picks who imply it.

People who believe it. Believe it is done to artificially keep certain things in place.

Rigging the Lottery is a lot different from rigging the games.

You can only turn a blind eye much.

No, it doesn’t. We have video showing how the draft process works. It’s there for us clear as day and it’s something that would be very difficult to do based on the video evidence at hand.

‘Very difficult’ is not nearly the same as impossible. Particularly when hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.

[bkkrh]

Before Snowden, the idea that governments were massively monitoring digital communications was often dismissed as a “conspiracy theory”.

I take the same view as Broadcaster:



The question of criticism is whether the mistrust is plausible.

We have a tendency for draft picks to go to teams that fit into certain narratives that is mathematically unlikely to occur without outside influence. So the suspicion is legitimate. Even Lebron commented:

Read on Twitter

And here is the beauty of those examples, I can build similar narratives in case another team would have won the draft.

2008: Memphis gets Derrick Rose after playing College in Memphis. The Sonics get Rose in their last season before moving. The Heat get Derrick Rose the season after they traded Shaq. The Knicks get Rose to rebuild after the Marbury disaster.

2011: Not wasting my time going through the teams and just pointing out the obvious that Cleveland also had the 2nd highest chance of all teams to get the 1st pick with their own pick, which fell back to 4. So why on earth would the NBA manipulate in the form of having the 2nd pick jump 7 positions, if it would look a lot less weirder if the pick with the 2nd best chances gets picked first?

2012: Bobcats get the 1st after trading Wallace and Stephen Jackson and being the worst team in league history. Portland as a replacement for Oden and Roy.

2014: Lakers get the 1st for Kobe's return, similar to Duncan/Robinson. Also, Knicks need some help for Carmelo. Weird how none of the 2 big market teams get support when both have star players that need support.

2019: Again NY an LA. Also why doesn't Cleveland get any kind of reward this time when Lebron leaves?

And so on. Also interesting how some teams get rewarded for losing their franchise players and others don't. Why didn't Sacramento get rewarded for trading DeMarcus Cousins? Guess the NBA really hates Portland since they weren't rewarded for their injuries, Aldridge, or Lillard. And somehow especially the Lakers and Knicks never seem to have any luck, even though that should be the league's biggest interest.

Lmao the conspiracy theorists won’t touch this one. Earlier I saw someone say that the league would rig the pick for Milwaukee if they trade Giannis not realizing that the Bucks don’t own their next two picks The conspiracy brain is sooo cooked it’s actually scary that people have replaced critical thinking with magical thinking. We’re literally going backwards as a society.

Yep and I think the main point, that kind of gets lost that if the league would rig anything, the draft is literally the dumbest of them all. Nobody knows what kind of players you will actually end up with.

To go with the rigged examples from that X post, Cleveland wound up with Andrew Wiggins at 1 in a super deep draft that was expected to be one of the best of all time without a clear Nr. 1 pick. It is super likely that Minnesota still would have made the Kevin Love trade if they would have stayed at 9, with some additional asset thrown in. And Cleveland had Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson, 33rd pick Joe Harris and future 1sts and 2nd rounders available. Also funny how there is no mentioning of the 2013 draft, where Cleveland also moved 2 picks up, but I guess a generally crappy draft with Anthony Bennett being their pick doesn't fit the narrative.

So instead of getting a taltented player that might turn out like Zion and since apparently multiple teams are involved and aware, wouldn't it make more sense to rig it in the form that the team gets in the future a favorable free agent signing or trade as instead? The current theory of rigging the lottery has basically the logic that I give you 1 Million Dollars to receive a lottery ticket that might win me 1 Million Dollars.

Just to look at it from the New Orleans perspective. THey had Chris Paul and traded him to get the possibility to draft Anthony Davis to then also have to trade him to get the chance to draft Zion. Wouldn't you think that the 2nd time around they say "Hey we will most likely have the same situation with Zion again in a few years, can we maybe go another route?"

[Dennis 37]

I can’t believe there are people out there that actually think the league is rigged. It’s one of the most popular and profitable leagues in the world. They don’t need to rig it.

OKC/Pacers is a disastrous outcome for the NBA but it doesn’t matter because they are still a money making machine.

All you have to do is watch the non calls on LeBron when he dislodges players or sets illegal screens. The free throw discrepancy for the Lakers year after year proves the league is rigged.

Not just him, his entire team gets the benefits of calls, rememeber when the cavaliers with lebron went 5 quarters of playoff ball against the raptors without committing one foul

Indeed.

[Dennis 37]

I can’t believe there are people out there that actually think the league is rigged. It’s one of the most popular and profitable leagues in the world. They don’t need to rig it.

OKC/Pacers is a disastrous outcome for the NBA but it doesn’t matter because they are still a money making machine.

All you have to do is watch the non calls on LeBron when he dislodges players or sets illegal screens. The free throw discrepancy for the Lakers year after year proves the league is rigged.

They didn’t even make the playoffs some of those years. First round exit this year.

That they don't win all of the time does not mean they are not favored by the league.

[Mikistan]

100%.


Show me a conspiracy theorist and I'll show you an attention-seeker who has reached the limits of their capacity to comprehend the world.

Nothing left to do but laugh and their stupidity and move on.

You’re quite possibly in denial that “conspiracy theorists” have also called just about every mainstream news event ahead of time going back for a while now.

There’s a lot of crazies out there, but there’s also a lot of really sane people that realize the world is run by evil.

So, while you’re pointing your finger at the stupidity of others, don’t miss the mirror at times. Keeps ya humble

Ironic that you use "humble" in there when conspiracy theorists are anything but. The rest of us are humble in the face of actual data and analysis. It's conspiracy theorists who think that they're onto something that the rest of us doofuses have not grasped when it's precisely the opposite.

I'm not going to pretend that idiots who are way out their depth deserve any kind of attention except mockery especially when it's clear that they don't understand concepts like the basic standard of evidence and probability.

I'd consider taking conspiracy theorists seriously when they put their money where their mouth is. The conspiracy theorists that are alive today are the ones that put their faith in mainstream science and medicine. They don't trust their fellow conspiracy theorists when to comes to their own lives.

Sad way to live man

[Iwasawitness]

Saying that the draft seems rigged is something that makes sense.

Players have implied. There are form 2 picks who imply it.

People who believe it. Believe it is done to artificially keep certain things in place.

Rigging the Lottery is a lot different from rigging the games.

You can only turn a blind eye much.

No, it doesn’t. We have video showing how the draft process works. It’s there for us clear as day and it’s something that would be very difficult to do based on the video evidence at hand.

‘Very difficult’ is not nearly the same as impossible. Particularly when hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.

And your point is?

[NZB2323]

Saying that the draft seems rigged is something that makes sense.

Players have implied. There are form 2 picks who imply it.

People who believe it. Believe it is done to artificially keep certain things in place.

Rigging the Lottery is a lot different from rigging the games.

You can only turn a blind eye much.

No, it doesn’t. We have video showing how the draft process works. It’s there for us clear as day and it’s something that would be very difficult to do based on the video evidence at hand.

‘Very difficult’ is not nearly the same as impossible. Particularly when hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.

The league rigging the lottery for the Knicks to get Melo would result in the league making more money. The league rigging the ECF for the Knicks to make the Finals would result in the league making more money. If the league rigged the Luka deal and promised them the #1 pick, then they could have done the same with other teams, and given the Knicks a star from 2002-2012. The league letting the CP3 deal to LA go through would lead to more money.

[NZB2323]

Before Snowden, the idea that governments were massively monitoring digital communications was often dismissed as a “conspiracy theory”.

I take the same view as Broadcaster:

I think it’s possible to have an influence without scripting everything.

The question of criticism is whether the mistrust is plausible.

We have a tendency for draft picks to go to teams that fit into certain narratives that is mathematically unlikely to occur without outside influence. So the suspicion is legitimate. Even Lebron commented:

Read on Twitter

Snowden told people about the government spying when it was a new thing, and he wasn’t the first whistleblower, and he would face criminal charges for what he did.

The NBA has been rigging lotteries and games since 1985 and we haven’t heard a peep from any commissioner, Owner, GM, coach, or reporter about it in 40 years?

Donald Stern, who had his mistress record his conversations, was fine with the league being rigged against him? Stern and his mistress, who was all about becoming famous, have been quiet about it the whole time? Why wouldn’t the league want 2 good teams in LA? Why haven’t we ever had a battle of LA playoff series with the Lakers and Clippers? Why didn’t we get a Lebron vs. Kobe Finals? Why are we getting OKC vs. Indiana?

Yes, Derrick Rose is from Chicago. So is Dwayne Wade. Why didn’t the Bulls get the 5th pick on 2003? Carmelo Anthony was born in NYC and won a NCAA tournament at Syracuse. Why didn’t the Knicks get the 2nd pick in 2003?

If teams are rewarded with the 1st pick after a star leaves, why didn’t the Lakers get the 1st pick in the 2005 lottery to pair with Kobe after Shaq left? Why weren’t the Cavs rewarded with the 1st pick when LeBron left in 2019?

The league is rigged for the Lakers, but the league vetoed the CP3 deal. Make it make sense.

[toooskies]

I think it is much more likely that the league is loosely rigged by gambling more than it is controlled by the NBA. Small-market teams means less homer bets on them which means the house wins more when Indiana and OKC win. Vegas cashed in on big-market teams (Knicks, Lakers, Warriors) looking surprisingly good one round and flattened the next.

[Effigy]

No, it doesn’t. We have video showing how the draft process works. It’s there for us clear as day and it’s something that would be very difficult to do based on the video evidence at hand.

‘Very difficult’ is not nearly the same as impossible. Particularly when hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.

The league rigging the lottery for the Knicks to get Melo would result in the league making more money. The league rigging the ECF for the Knicks to make the Finals would result in the league making more money. If the league rigged the Luka deal and promised them the #1 pick, then they could have done the same with other teams, and given the Knicks a star from 2002-2012. The league letting the CP3 deal to LA go through would lead to more money.

You’re one of those ‘the NBA does not rig every possible thing they could, therefore nothing is rigged’ folks. The league doesn’t seem to care about the Knicks. It’s basically the Lakers and JUST the Lakers. Maybe they hate Dolan, I don’t know what to tell you. But it’s pretty simple to look at the incredible amount of ‘luck’ or completely lop sided trades that have gone down that only benefit the Lakers. Hey, you think it’s all coincidence, and take the NBA at their word, that’s fine. Millions of people believe the official story that Covid came naturally from bats too. Totally fine if you believe everything you are told, this is just a fun diversion.

[NZB2323]

‘Very difficult’ is not nearly the same as impossible. Particularly when hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.

The league rigging the lottery for the Knicks to get Melo would result in the league making more money. The league rigging the ECF for the Knicks to make the Finals would result in the league making more money. If the league rigged the Luka deal and promised them the #1 pick, then they could have done the same with other teams, and given the Knicks a star from 2002-2012. The league letting the CP3 deal to LA go through would lead to more money.

You’re one of those ‘the NBA does not rig every possible thing they could, therefore nothing is rigged’ folks. The league doesn’t seem to care about the Knicks. It’s basically the Lakers and JUST the Lakers. Maybe they hate Dolan, I don’t know what to tell you. But it’s pretty simple to look at the incredible amount of ‘luck’ or completely lop sided trades that have gone down that only benefit the Lakers. Hey, you think it’s all coincidence, and take the NBA at their word, that’s fine. Millions of people believe the official story that Covid came naturally from bats too. Totally fine if you believe everything you are told, this is just a fun diversion.

The NBA conspiracy theorists came from the Knicks winning the lottery in 1985 and getting Ewing. So the league rigs the lottery for the Knicks in 1985 but then does nothing to help them in the early 2000s and doesn’t give them Melo in 2003?

Elgin Baylor was drafted by Minneapolis and the Lakers moved to LA. I don’t think conspiracy theories go back that far or claim the league cares about Minneapolis. Wilt wanted to date white women and the only place where it was socially acceptable for a black man to date white women in 1960s America was LA. Kareem wanted to be around a larger Muslim population in either LA or NYC. Shaq wanted to make rap albums and movies and the Orlando newspaper ran a poll where people said he wasn’t worth the money. Lebron wanted to make Space Jam 2.

The Chris Paul trade to the Lakers was vetoed. The Lakers didn’t win the lottery in 05.

I don’t believe everything I’m told, including BS conspiracy theories that have no evidence, where we haven’t heard anyone say anything about it for 40+ years, despite all the league officials, owners, GMs, journalists, coaches, players, wives, and girlfriends that would have to go along with it, including Donald Sterling and his mistress. She leaked a video about him saying racist stuff but wouldn’t leak a video of him complaining that the league is rigged for the Lakers?

[Los_29]

All you have to do is watch the non calls on LeBron when he dislodges players or sets illegal screens. The free throw discrepancy for the Lakers year after year proves the league is rigged.

They didn’t even make the playoffs some of those years. First round exit this year.

That they don't win all of the time does not mean they are not favored by the league.

A league worth billions of dollars can’t even rig games properly. Is that what you’re trying to say?

The league is not rigged. Stop believing in conspiracy theories.

[Broadcaster]

Before Snowden, the idea that governments were massively monitoring digital communications was often dismissed as a “conspiracy theory”.

I take the same view as Broadcaster:

I think it’s possible to have an influence without scripting everything.

The question of criticism is whether the mistrust is plausible.

We have a tendency for draft picks to go to teams that fit into certain narratives that is mathematically unlikely to occur without outside influence. So the suspicion is legitimate. Even Lebron commented:

Read on Twitter

Snowden told people about the government spying when it was a new thing, and he wasn’t the first whistleblower, and he would face criminal charges for what he did.

The NBA has been rigging lotteries and games since 1985 and we haven’t heard a peep from any commissioner, Owner, GM, coach, or reporter about it in 40 years?

Donald Stern, who had his mistress record his conversations, was fine with the league being rigged against him? Stern and his mistress, who was all about becoming famous, have been quiet about it the whole time? Why wouldn’t the league want 2 good teams in LA? Why haven’t we ever had a battle of LA playoff series with the Lakers and Clippers? Why didn’t we get a Lebron vs. Kobe Finals? Why are we getting OKC vs. Indiana?

Yes, Derrick Rose is from Chicago. So is Dwayne Wade. Why didn’t the Bulls get the 5th pick on 2003? Carmelo Anthony was born in NYC and won a NCAA tournament at Syracuse. Why didn’t the Knicks get the 2nd pick in 2003?

If teams are rewarded with the 1st pick after a star leaves, why didn’t the Lakers get the 1st pick in the 2005 lottery to pair with Kobe after Shaq left? Why weren’t the Cavs rewarded with the 1st pick when LeBron left in 2019?

The league is rigged for the Lakers, but the league vetoed the CP3 deal. Make it make sense.

You’re trying to paint a nuanced detail with a fat brush. It’s not black and white. It’s probably far more complex and just because we don’t understand how it could work behind closed doors doesn’t mean it’s not real.

[Broadcaster]

They didn’t even make the playoffs some of those years. First round exit this year.

That they don't win all of the time does not mean they are not favored by the league.

A league worth billions of dollars can’t even rig games properly. Is that what you’re trying to say?

The league is not rigged. Stop believing in conspiracy theories.

Maybe take a peek at how the rest of the world operates and check back in. The world we’re sold isn’t actually the world.

[Spicy P]

A lot more difficult to rig a series of basketball games vs the draft lottery. People can see what is happening on the court with officiating and there are so many more variables than just a set of lottery numbers. No one knows what’s going on with the lottery behind the scenes and it’s easier to manipulate.