Hacker News Reader

Comment by jds375 | Hacker News Reader

I would love to get more people's opinions on if this is still happening in the NBA and to what extent.

Naturally, I would assume that this rarely happens still if ever. Modern methods of oversight and statistical methods ought to be enough to ensure such things don’t happen. The NBA has a vested interest in maintaining the legitimacy of the league and thus are naturally inclined to root out any kind of cheating or illicit betting. Could you imagine if it got out that this was still happening and a more intense, modern investigation happened? It could destroy the NBA, which is something I’m sure the NBA is working hard to make sure doesn’t happen.

However, at least on reddit’s r/nba it seems a common opinion (at least according to upvoted responses) that much of this is still going on. Obviously that’s not saying much, but it makes me wonder… Do I have it wrong? If so why? And likewise, if so what’s the point in watching these sports?

View on HN

It doesn't seem to be happening as much. Last year's championship was a 4 game sweep by the Warriors. Donaghy used to bet on playoff series knowing that the league wanted the refs to do what they could to extend the series to 7 games. One notable example is the 2002 series between the Lakers and Kings.

This reddit thread definitely has me suspicious about current referee Scott Foster. https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/asciqn/serious_can_we_...

Scott Foster is the worst referee for more than a decade. Even in 2007 when the absurd number of phonecalls with Donaghy came out and most players protested on his absurd calling nothing happened. The NBA really needs those refs to fix games for the most important markets (LA, NY, Chicago).

i've been watching more nba lately and the officiating seems so arbitrary that it's making me skeptical that statistical analysis can isolate fraud from poor officiating.

like that kevin durant "save" against houston where he was lounging in the first row for what seemed like several minutes beforehand. or nearly every 4-point-play that james harden gets, or lebron's inability to travel. or the lack of foul calls for non-stars like josh hart (lakers).

i play rec ball and our officiating is bad too, but it seems worse in the nba despite having professional refs (granted, it's a faster and more powerful game, but their refs are supposed to be the best).

I wonder the same thing at times when strange things happen in the NFL. How much could betting play a role? And how can it be possible that this doesn't happen, when there is SO much potential for money to be made?

it's sad because what used to be an escape from real life for me (play, and watching play) has become more of a frustration and reminder of adult problems, so i now choose to abstain from that.

I'm pretty sure Haralabob Voulgaris made quite a bit of money by finding refs who (presumably subconsciously) called certain games in certain ways that the oddsmakers weren't yet accounting for.

Virtually nobody besides successful gamblers and actual statisticians has any insight into what is actually going on. There's just too much noise and 99.9% of people aren't analyzing enough data to make any sense of it, assuming they're analyzing any at all and not just screaming when a call goes against them.

I firmly believe that every major professional sports league is willing to twist some knobs and push some buttons in order to ensure/avoid certain outcomes which might be extremely beneficial/damaging to their business. Something as simple as fixing a draft lottery in advance, even just for the top player to be drafted, can have a huge impact on growing or shrinking certain teams' fanbases/markets. You could probably accomplish it with only a few people aware -- wouldn't need the entire league to be in cahoots -- and it's not really something like matchfixing.

And I'm sure that referees in most leagues are given directives about which players to favor, etc. In hockey, at least, it's really apparent that the superstars tend to get treated with kid gloves by the refs.

Having said that, I firmly do not believe what some others do, that entire sports are rigged a la pro wrestling. I think the leagues will, on rare occasion, step in to protect their investments. But I don't think someone's sitting behind the scenes writing out the storylines in advance.

There’s so much money in sports betting now, there’s no way that there isn’t a ton of corrupt behavior going on.

Allowing widespread legit betting is asking for less than honest behavior. Even a single player throwing a few shots or missing/hitting a metric can make people money.

The leagues can also not notice things that encourage behavior that fans like. Baseball players on steroids attracted a lot of buzz in the 90s and early 2000s.

It's true there's a lot of money in sports betting, but there is even more money in the NBA (TV deals, player salaries, team valuations, etc). That larger sum of money would be existentially threatened by continued corruption within the league due to sports betting. Thus, one would think that more money would go towards stopping any corruption.

I suppose that doesn't mean there wouldn't be any corruption, but it seems like there would certainly be less?

People aren’t rational, and many people are hooked on gambling.

Look at Pete Rose as an example.

The NBA has seemed rigged for years. Closer to WWE than a true competition.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com