[SportsNinjaParticipant]

but it’s another thing when executives throughout the league say it:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba–nba-s-problematic-ownership-of-hornets-opens-door-to-rigged-talk-over-draft-lottery-20120531.html

Lockouts, low revenue, troubled franchises, draft/playoff conspiracies, a ball changing catastrophe, corrupt and/or horrible reffing, the CP3 trade, the- I know where the bodies are buried, because I buried them myself quote, and other controversies have all tarnished his career.

Whatever good Stern may have done for the league in his earlier years, he is completely undoing. It is time for him to step down.

[Scott42444Participant]

 …everyone was laughing at my conspiracy thread (although I am half joking, part of me wonders if the NBA even wants parity).  I believe that part of the sale of the Hornets had a #1 pick involved.  I said that 2 weeks ago, now other NBA executives are saying it.  Stern had to look like he handled the ownership and sale of the Hornets great.  He found a great owner, someone with ties to the city (unlike say….Clay Bennett buying the "Seattle Supersonics").  In order to sell for the most money possible, I believe he guaranteed the #1 pick in a draft with a clear cut #1.  Now, it might not be in the best interests of the NBA for New Orleans to become a power in the NBA, but I predicted they would get the #1 pick (and won $10) because it is a stupid and VERY easily manipulated system with the "locked" ping pong balls in a back room.. Keeping the price of an NBA franchise as high as possible is in the best interests of all the owners.  

[The8thDeadlySinParticipant]

I dont like that the lottery is just Mr. Silver telling me who the winner is..

I want to go back to when the balls bounced in the container and we found out at the exact same time that everyone else found out who won the lottery..

Just holding cards makes it easier to fix it.. You can still fix the ball bouncing thing by puting way more balls for 1 team that they need but even at that, you cant guarntee that 1 team wins..

Since they make teams send a represnative to the lottery anyway, why not give each represenative a box full of balls and let them place the balls into the selector.. Then, if a team wants to check or count their chances, they can do it right there.. Televise all of that and nobody says anything about consparicy..

I am excited to see what changes will be made when Stern retires..

(((((Side Note)))))

I dont remembe when it was but at one time, the NBA was considering changing the uniforms to more of a spandex material.  The Uniforms were going to have a tighter fit on the top and a bit longer shorts.. Then, the players woud have the option of wearing a set of compression pants and/or a long sleeve compression top.  Both would coordinate with the uniform and match the color scheme and even have patterns on them. 

I would have loved for that to happen.. It would have been exciting and would have given players options to play in long sleeves.  Could have been pretty sweet.

[Scott42444Participant]

 …has anyone changed their minds and started to think there might be something fishy going on here after last night?

[fliptonnParticipant]

My only problem with the conspiracy theories is that there were so many options for conspiracies. Everyone would have been talking if the top pick went to any team including:

DC – to help out John Wall/big market 19.9%
Cleveland – Dan Gilbert situation 13.8%
Hornets – because they sold the team 13.7%
Sacremento – to keep them in town 7.6%
Brooklyn – because of the move 7.5%

So there is a 58.4% chance that one of these teams would win it and a 24.7% chance of a team with a strong conspiracy theory behind it winning.

Now I recognize that of those 5 the Hornets seem the most likely for a conspiracy but they were also the most likely to win of the strong conspiracies and there were a lot of different scenario’s where people would have talked regardless. There were 137 scenarios where the Hornets get the pick and the most likely of them happened (every other team falling in line). It is suspicious, but certainly not obvious.

[The8thDeadlySinParticipant]

Personaly, I dont think its fixed but the format allows room for it to happen.. Make the process transparent and it is hard to think that its fixed.. Hide it and show UNSEALED envelops, and it is easy to scream consparicy..

You want to make things exciting, make it public.. You want to make things interesting, hide it..

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

It amazes me how stupid people are when it comes to these matters. Why would the league rig a lottery to help the smallest market in the league? There are nine times more people in the borough of Brooklyn than in the city of New Orleans, and the wealth difference is even greater. If Anthony Davis is supposedly this franchise changing talent and the league so crooked as to rig a lottery that they would put him on a team that just sold for $330 million? That is a pittance in NBA terms, and the league could have gotten more after the lottery. This would be like someone going to a roulette wheel placing bets on nine numbers and crying when the guy playing five has one of his numbers hit. Yes, you had more chances than the other guy, but it is a spin of the wheel. There was a 75 percent chance of Charlotte not getting the top pick. There was a 80.1 percent chance of the Wizards not getting the top pick. It is not unexpected that "someone else" gets the pick no matter who the lottery team is.

[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

As I said on the last thread

You can make a consipracy thread on nearly any team that wins the lottery but when the MOST conspired team wins it, you’re going to be put in a tough position to try to defend it.

We’re talking about a team that:

A. Lost it’s superstar

B. Is league-owned (yes, it still is until the season is over)

C. Was sold for an obscenely large amount of money (there is no way it was worth that much because of the fact that it was league-owned and it had been on the market for so long, the owner should have had plenty of leverage to drop the price 75m-ish)

D. League-owned team won it’s own lottery

E. The David Stern already crossed the line once this season by vetoing a trade, why wouldn’t he cross it again?

dlipto, I wouldn’t say the Wizards winning it is much of a consipiracy, they had a 20% chance to win it.

[surveParticipant]

 "dlipto, I wouldn’t say the Wizards winning it is much of a consipiracy, they had a 20% chance to win it."

thats a 20% chance that we "saw"…the other 80 (unseen) had been signed, sealed, and delivered.

[Scott42444Participant]

 …if almost every team except New Orleans or MAYBE Brooklyn got the #1 pick.  The Hornets were the most blatant. The team was league owned and were having a hard time selling it.  They traded a Top 10 player and got back very little (since Kaman and Gordon will be likely to be somewhere else soon).  Unless…they get the #1 pick and another lottery pick as well.  The sale is not yet finalized, meaning Benson could back out.  That would have made it a terrible situation for the NBA and probably for WestMoreland sports fans who could have lost the team.

Seriously, John Wall needing help?  Getting Cleveland back in the playoffs?  Making Jordan happy?  Keeping the Kings in Sacramento?  None of those make sense compared to selling a league owned franchise!  Not even remotely close.

[Scott42444Participant]

 …if the sale of the team was contingent on the Hornets getting the #1 pick, $330 million is not a pittance when the team is league owned.  How does that effect the value of all NBA franchises when nobody wants to buy the team?  How do the other owners feel about paying for a team that competes against their own?  The NBA is not the NFL, they don’t make nearly as much.  As a matter of fact, Fantasy Football is closer in value to the NBA than the NBA is to the NFL (seriously, look it up it’s true).  According to Stern, before the last CBA, a lot of teams were losing money.  Don’t you think they would like an extra 1/3 of a BILLION if they are losing money in a lot of markets?  Does Brooklyn getting Anthony Davis (or trading him for Howard) make every team in the league money? Most likely not.  He is not the second coming of Michael Jordan.  But getting the Hornets off the books AND bringing in 1/3 of a billion helps everyone.

[Scott42444Participant]

 …if the sale of the team was contingent on the Hornets getting the #1 pick, $330 million is not a pittance when the team is league owned.  How does that effect the value of all NBA franchises when nobody wants to buy the team?  How do the other owners feel about paying for a team that competes against their own?  The NBA is not the NFL, they don’t make nearly as much.  As a matter of fact, Fantasy Football is closer in value to the NBA than the NBA is to the NFL (seriously, look it up it’s true).  According to Stern, before the last CBA, a lot of teams were losing money.  Don’t you think they would like an extra 1/3 of a BILLION if they are losing money in a lot of markets?  Does Brooklyn getting Anthony Davis (or trading him for Howard) make every team in the league money? Most likely not.  He is not the second coming of Michael Jordan.  But getting the Hornets off the books AND bringing in 1/3 of a billion helps everyone.

[WestConfsOverratedParticipant]

 The Hornets were debatably in the worst financial condition of any team before the lockout.

With new ownership and getting the #1 pick it will revitalize their fledgling franchise.

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

"The NBA is not the NFL, they don’t make nearly as much. As a matter of fact, Fantasy Football is closer in value to the NBA than the NBA is to the NFL (seriously, look it up it’s true)."

Fantasy football is a casino not a sport.

"According to Stern, before the last CBA, a lot of teams were losing money."

That is called negotiating. The accounting tactic of using debt servicing from the purchase of the team is legal and widely used, but it isn’t a real loss. That accounted for the vast majority of the "losses" owners claimed and that does not even bring in the salaries owners drew for themselves and their family members (who in most instances hold positions not equal to their resumes). Stern worked his angle and got the deal he wanted. The values of the franchises have gone up as a result because now the standard for operating in the NBA is that only 50 percent of all BRI goes to the players as opposed to 57.

"Don’t you think they would like an extra 1/3 of a BILLION if they are losing money in a lot of markets?"

"getting the Hornets off the books AND bringing in 1/3 of a billion helps everyone."

Not when they could have gotten more by selling it to one of the many interested parties who wanted to move the team to markets with more than a 1.1 million in the metro and has more than one Fortune 500 company headed there. I have little doubt that a number of owners would have preferred to sell the team to Larry Ellison and let him move to San Jose. He was willing to pay more than Tom Benson did prior to the new CBA being signed, and probably would have jumped that amount after the lockout, and even more now that they have the top overall pick to go with another lottery pick and cap space.

"Does Brooklyn getting Anthony Davis (or trading him for Howard) make every team in the league money?"

National TV deals are going to be extended soon, and the more eyes on the TVs net more money. There are more eyes in New York than any other city in the country, so making the Nets more relevent would make every team more money.

 

[Toronto16Participant]

 Please explain this to me, in 2008, the Bulls who had a 1.7 chance of winning the number 1 pick jump all the way to number 1 with the hometown kid being the biggest prize.  In 2010 the Wizards owner dies, they have his widow represent them at the lottery and they get the number 1 pick.  2011 Lebron leaves Cleveland and they are awarded the 1st and 4th pick when they have Dan Gilberts sick son representing them.  This year the Hornets who need a new owner and just lost their superstar get the 1st overall pick with the potential buyer of the team present. (Not to mention they were awarded the ’14 all star game).  Game 6 of the 2000 Western conference finals is widely regarded as the worst officiated game in NBA history, just so happens to be the game Tim Donaghy says that the officials were told to call in favour of the Lakers.  How can that all be a coincidence?  Please explain that to me.

[FastAndFuriousParticipant]

NBA:

Where amazing happens exactly how David Stern wants it to happen

[Jlv2012]

This stuff isn’t being made up.  Look at recent lotteries, the evidence is there.  You can actually predict the lottery now.  All you have to do is look at the storylines behind every lottery team.  Even if it wasn’t rigged, the lottery is still defunct and needs to be replaced.

[bloodshyParticipant]

…but last night made me scratch my head.  They desperately need to add transparancy to the system.

[Author]

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