I’m not an NBA fan, but this Ad Age story is wild:
According to a new survey of 907 people released exclusively to Ad Age today, more than one-third (37%) of respondents believe that the National Basketball Association somewhat or very likely alters the outcomes of its games.
The YouGovPolimetrix Omnibus Poll found that among “casual” or “avid” fans, an even higher number, 41%, think it’s either very likely or somewhat likely that the NBA alters the outcome of games. Couple that with the fact that only 46% of the poll was aware that an NBA referee was recently investigated by the FBI for receiving cash payments in return for passing inside information along to friends and gamblers, and it’s clear the NBA has a lot of cynicism to overcome.
Is there any legitimacy to this poll? Do we, as a society, trust anything anymore?
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Is it cynicism or is it simply seeing reality? While it might not be done for illegal gambling reasons, the refs definitely alter the game outcomes. It goes to the subjective nature of officiating in the NBA. One guy’s incidental contact is another’s flagrant foul. Ditto the definition of traveling. If the NBA really wants to “clean up” its act, it could start by creating more uniformity in refereeing.
David Stern has not helped in the matter by treating any allegation of deliberate ref wrongdoing as the Roman Catholic Church treated Galileo. Methinks he doth protest too much.
Basketball is an incredibly difficult game to officiate, but it is not impossible to imagine wrongdoing. Basketball is not a game where people will watch no matter who is playing.