Yet a foul was called and Larry Johnson got to shoot a free throw in addition to the three-pointer he just made. It was hard to see that in how each referees calls broke down. Excuses can be made for bad calls on single plays. The theory here is that the NBA thought it would be best for the highly star powered Los Angeles Lakers to be the face of the league still in 1988. "He turned on basically all of his colleagues in an attempt to demonstrate that he is not the only one who engaged in criminal activity," Stern said. It's rare for an announcer to comment on officiating, but he couldn't contain it saying "I'm just not gonna say anything anymore. Finals MVP: Shaquille O'Neal(36.3/12.3/3.8), Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Wednesday, March 1, 8:19PM. He will also be around a lot longer. The Chicago Bulls were going through a season full of acclamation. Id never experienced anything quite like it, said writer James Ham, the editor of ESPNs Kings site, Cowbell Kingdom. In 2002, the Sacramento Kings appeared to have the LA Lakers' number. I wear it and consider it a Celtics/Kings championship ring.. League-preferred being, of course, the result that generates the most revenue. The Lakers went to the locker room at halftime down 65-51, and only because a desperate three pointer by Lakers reserve forward Samaki Walker was counted as good, despite replays showing the shot left his hands after the buzzer sounded. This is very interesting to me and I'd like to hear from any of you guys who watched the series. You know, one team will shoot 30 free throws one game, and the next game, the other team will shoot 30 free throws. The Sacramento Kings were in the drivers seat to knocking off a young exciting Los Angeles Lakers team that featured Shaquille ONeal and Kobe Bryant, but the referees decided to take matters into their own hands. Pollard was traded after the 2003 season. But the mother ship of NBA conspiracy theories remains Game 6 of the classic 2002 Western Conference Finals between the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers and the upstart Sacramento Kings. As a whole, these plays suggest to me the refs were calling the game honestly, if perhaps not well. The Celtics had 28 more opportunities to score free points. What probably happened was that the Lakers had an easier time getting inside because of the injury to Kendrick Perkins. The buzzer sounded and the Lakers won, 100-99. Had an offensive foul been called, the Bulls would have lost Game 6 86-85 and been forced to play Game 7 in Utah. Let's look at the 10 worst officiating moments in NBA history and what they mean in the grand scheme of things. At best, some of the calls against the Kings big men, like here and here, were dubious. Patrick Patterson wondered, "What kind of league are we becoming?" - That a referee's relationship with one team's general manager "led to an attempt by that referee to influence a game's outcome" in 2004. I'm willing to look at this as just a bad call, but an asterisk should always be next to this moment. The Heat would win the final four games of the series, but the free throw attempts between the two teams were enormously in favor of the Heat. The infamy surrounding this game is just too severe to ignore. Let's talk about LeBron for a minute. Lauro and Donaghy also cited a well-publicized controversy involving a 2005 playoff series between the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks. It wasnt like the Kings stopped scoring points they shot 49% from the field for the game but not at the clip the Lakers were. Jordan was wide open because of an illegal move. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. A former referee at the center of a gambling scandal has alleged that NBA referees rigged a 2002 playoff series to force it to seven games. Watch more top videos, highlights, and B/R original content, I called it the worst officiated game in NBA history, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Draymond Green was a flagrant foul away from being suspended for a game after kicking his opponents in the Western Conference Finals. ", record-setting parade to the free throw line. "If we get to re-rack that series, the Kings beat the Lakers 99 out of 100 times in a seven-games series, former Sacramento player Scot Pollard said in a phone interview. But still, it was only one game, which is why it loses the No. The LA Lakers were in the third seed coming into the playoffs. The Lakers went on to win the series and beat the Nets for their third straight NBA title. Fisher says it's a big leap, though, to say the game was rigged. 15 Times The NBA Looked Fixed, 15. The NBA Draft Lottery is the easiest to rig, and rigging the lottery can be done out of the public view. The two teams had swapped road wins, and the higher seed had a one-game edge and a chance to put the series nearly out of reach with a Game 4 win. 2016 Western Conference Finals Rigged? The Bogus Hue Hollins call in the 1994 Eastern Conferance Semi Final, 10. Then 96-93. This is the first call on this list that feels a little fishy. Pollards fifth and sixth foul calls. . Some people cry conspiracy, claiming the game is rigged. Finals MVP: Tim Duncan (24.2 / 17.0 / 5.3) 2003 Playoff Leaders: PTS: Tim Duncan (593) TRB: Tim Duncan (369) AST: Jason Kidd (163) . Or this. Do you have a sports website? This gets to the heart of the matter to me: despite the NBA's official claim that 95% of calls are correct over a season, there are just too many plays that are far from being clear cut wrong/right and many that fall into a gray area where even watching a play many times in slow motion you can make a case for different verdicts. There is evidence of tampering within the game too,Ingame 6, the Lakers were awarded with shooting40 free throws in theentiregame, including 27 in the 4. quarter alone! If they call it like theyre supposed to call it, the outcome will be the same it was tonight, ONeal said after the game. Although the team names were withheld, Donaghy pointed to Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference finals as one such instance. 3. NBA fans felt that it could be the year that Webber and the Kings won the championship. Here's what I think really happens. That free throw turned a tie into a one-point Knicks lead and victory. Here is just some of Beech's rationale for concluding that the game was not likely rigged. The Magic two years later would be competing in the NBA Finals led by their young superstars in Shaq and Hardaway. Beech did some very intelligent guesswork as to how many points the referees' dubious calls may have unfairly cost the Kings six points. The refs know what players are supposed to get calls, and I think they know who is expected to get the benefit of the doubt at the end of games. Conspiracy theories have always been prevalent in the playoffs of the four major sports leagues in the U.S. Sacramento had beenessentially apoverty franchise for a long time. Hornets general manager Dell Demps had a deal in place which involved: Paul to the Lakers; Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets; and Lamar Odom, Kevin Martin, Goran Dragic, Luis Scola and a first-round draft pick (from Houston via New York) to the Hornets. "The referees followed the league instructions and Team 3 came back from behind to win the series," the letter said. There has always been a group of people who believe in conspiracy theories, and there are some that believe the NBA is rigged in different ways. NPR's Tom Goldman reports. The main argument is games being fixed, and this can be done primarily through bad officiating that is easily detected by fans. Learn more and register, Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trail Blazers vs. Los Angeles Lakers, Seattle SuperSonics vs. San Antonio Spurs, Scores from any date in BAA/NBA or ABA history, Frequently Asked Questions about the NBA, WNBA and Basketball, Basketball-Reference.com Blog and Articles, Subscribe to Stathead Basketball: Get your first month FREE. When one team shoots 28 more free throws than the other, you have to look into it. All rights reserved. If anything, it would have been in the league's best interests for the Lakers to win and even the series. Ewing was the most dynamic center to come out of the college ranks since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Web2002 NBA Playoffs Standings Schedule and Results Leaders Player Stats Totals Per Game Per 36 Minutes Per 100 Possessions Advanced East Conf 1st Round Philadelphia 76ers So, from that standpoint, yes. Here are 15 times the NBA seemed fixed. Orlando Magic Somehow Win The 1993 Lottery, 12. In the fourth quarter alone, the Lakers shot 27 free throws to Sacramento's nine. If the same play happened with Hakeem Olajuwon defending Kareem, I doubt there's a whistle. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Brown got into a fight. Michael Jordan scored a layup with 40 seconds remaining to cut the lead to one for the Jazz. Indiana was the better team (the Knicks were the No. Kobe Bryant started barreling to the basket in hope of calls. Obviously when one team is shooting 21 more free throws than the other, it doesn't look very good. Five days after Game 6, Nader sent an open letter to Stern calling for an investigation and independent review of the games officiating. Pollard, who was careful not to pin the result on refereeing, said he remembered feeling that there was something amiss early on in the game and a feeling of helplessness. ONeal was controlling the paint, aided by the whistles Pollard fouled out in just 11 minutes of court time. According to Lauro's letter: "Tim learned from Referee A that Referees A and F wanted to extend the series to seven games. What's worse is that the Spurs initiated the fight. Ten years later, Ham sighed and paused for many seconds when trying to explain the effect Horrys shot had on the Kings franchise. That way was the NBA draft lottery. Cleveland Cavaliers GetThe First Pick Again In 2014. The Lakers were back-to-back defending champions at that point. With Sabonis out of the game, the Blazers had to defend Shaqat his absolute apexwith 6'8'' Brian Grant. Seconds after the miss a whistle blew. The NBA needed a star, so they created one. Kobe was given Finals MVP (side note, he absolutely stole that trophy from Pau Gasol), and people seem to forget what really happened. The Hornets had a 13% at getting the top pick, and it wasnt a shock to conspiracy theorists that they landed the pick because it seemed like the league was making up for vetoing the first Chris Paul trade a season earlier. LA took game one, while Sacramento won the next two. The letter describes a 2002 playoff series that went seven games; the Western Conference finals was the only series to require seven games. If pressed I'd still rate it a Horry foul which would have given a basket and the and one shot to Webber and the Kings a possible four or five point lead. WebGeorge Karl and Ray Allen were both heavily fined for implying/outright claiming the series was rigged so as the big market Philly would match up with the big market LA in the Finals. The Los Angeles Lakers shot 40 free throws in that game - 27 in the fourth quarter - and beat Sacramento, 106-102, forcing a seventh game. Remember, if not for a miracle three-pointer by Robert Horry and the travesty known as Game 6, the Kings would have won this series five games to one (I know that's impossible, but hang with me here). Yet there is a fair amount of left arm push off from Webber and Bernhardt was right on top of the play with a good angle. What was their crime? More often than not, a conspiracy will pop up and make you question a persons sanity, their grasp on reality Missing their star player, they lost to the Mavericks in seven games. With a slim 1.5% of winning the 1993 draft lottery the Magic won it, and selected Chris Webber first overall who they later traded away for Penny Hardaway. . Beech also looked for any and all evidence to support Donaghy's claim that two of the referees were "company men" who did the NBA's bidding. Whistles can swing games, series and ultimately championships. The argument for the NBA being rigged is typically made after an NBA Draft Lottery, NBA draft, a trade, and the main argument games being fixed. This led to people thinking the league fixed the Western Conference Finals and helped the 73-win Warriors reach it so they could get more viewers for the NBA Finals. But the Donaghy saga came back with a vengeance this week. I personally think that the fourth block was a foul, and it was a bad non call, but I'm not going to cry over this one. Still an offensive foul on Kobe there could have changed the outcome! As we know, the NBA is a league that runs on revenue. Is it so crazy to think they could have beaten the Bulls at home in a potential Game 7? But it seemed like the Kings were on the verge of dethroning the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. He went to the free-throw line 15 times. L.A.'s Derek Fisher and Boston's Scot Pollard played in the 2002 playoff game between the Lakers and Sacramento Kings, the game Tim Donaghy says was rigged by two referees in favor of the Lakers. Is The NBA Rigged? You can look at one play over the course of a seven-game series and say, you know what, that might have been it. The free-throw advantage is one thing. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. @ Los Angeles Lakers. The Kings only attempted nine free throws throughout the quarter, making seven. He kidded with reporters that men in black visited him and forced him to change his story. The prevailing theory here is that the NBA saw a fan base that was turned off from basketball after LeBrons decision. A decade later, it remains the first piece of evidence for anyone building a case that the NBA is rigged. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. In 2014, the Milwaukee Bucks had the leagues worst record and the Philadelphia 76ers were in the first year of their drastic tanking strategy that was employed by Sam Hinkie. This is certainly plausible with Bevotta officiating plenty of Game 6s and 7s (the closing games of a series), which is good evidence for Donaghys claim. Unique lists featuring pop culture, entertainment and crazy facts. They had a phenomenal season in 2002, sitting on top of the Western Conference with a record of 61-21. Join our linker program. The league suspended Green for his retaliation, but his retaliation wasnt nearly as bad as the aggressor LeBron James's actions in this incident. 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