NBA games fixed? You don’t say!

Anyone surprised about this? I’m not the least bit surprised. I’ve seen some horribly called games over the years, a la the 2007 Suns-Spurs series, the 2006 Heat-Mavs series, 2002 Lakers-Kings, to name a few. You’re dealing with human nature, greed, money, desperate times (when people who bet ‘on credit’ sink into debt). I would not be surprised one bit if the 2006 Super Bowl (Steelers over the Seahawks) was fixed. You’re talking about about the biggest game there is (for betting, at least).

Some have said that the refs who fix games don’t necessarily pick one team to win, but can influence the over/under only. I would argue that while it’s not likely that the refs purposely decided a game in favor of one team (too risky as it’ll blow their cover), he or she can change the outcome by calling some fouls in the fourth quarter (for the over/under) and let the free throws decide the game. The ref has no control whether the player will make his free throws, but if he wants the total points to go over, he will call fouls against the team with the worse free throw percentage so that the higher free throw percentage shooters get to the line. The better teams tend to have better free throw shooters, so it’s in the gambling refs best interest to have the better team go to the line. So that, my friend, is how a ref can change the outcome of a game. Which can explain the parities between the good teams and the bad teams. In other words, the bad teams in the NBA are not as bad as they look. They just don’t get the calls.