Another one from the vault, this time looking at the NBA and rigged games.

Beginning of the month, I did a post spotlighting 10 NFL rigged events, according to "Nonstop Sports" on YouTube.  He's also done an NBA video...

0) He basically starts by noting the $8,000,000,000/year and the legacy of David Stern which surrounds the NBA, and much of this list.

1) He starts with The Greatest Tragedy in Sports -- or at least distills it to Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals.

If there is one sporting event in American history which should put to bed, with absolute proof, the Corporate Era of American Sports and how it is used to manipulate who wins championships, it's this one.

NFLRanking used to read this blog, and he did such a tremendous job of chronicling, in a complete fashion, the THREE TIMES that Sacramento had actually already won the series (and, hence, why it was completely pointless for them to give any effort at all in Game 7 -- and why that whole "They had Game 7!!" excuse needs to be put to bed) that he was effectively shadowbanned from YouTube after 5.1 million views of just the videos surrounding this rigged series.

He has basically gone into a degree of social-media hiding -- which is no surprise when he basically proved out the nature of the NBA in this series and probably paid for it in any number of respects!

EFFECT:  A downfall which continues today.  Two losses the WC semis followed, two more in the WC quarters, and they haven't been to the playoffs since 2006.  They haven't even won 35 games in a season since 2008.  The Sacramento Kings, as a going concern, are effectively defunct, except as a means to pump up the league statistics for the preferred superstars.

2) 1985 Draft Lottery and The Direction of Patrick Ewing To New York.

I don't know if there still is a video of the entire rigging of the lottery (you can bet the NBA has been trying to take complete videos of this event down as they find them), but it may even be more obvious and in your face than anything you could've believed...

If you watch the video of the lottery, the CBS announcer actually states that the envelopes are placed carefully into a clear plastic sphere (since when did such an important lottery drawing ever take place with the slips visible, unless there were so many hundreds/thousands of such slips that you could have an exposed drum of them without much loss of generality?) -- at about the same moment one envelope is SLAMMED into the group.

It is clear that Stern is looking into the cylinder for the envelope which was slammed -- and, hence, the corner defaced.

The first real rig-job of the David $tern Era.

What this video tells you that many accounts don't includes that the GM of the Atlanta Hawks already knew who was going to win the lottery and told everybody in advance -- and the reason why!

EFFECT:  It took a couple years (23 and 24 wins in the first two Ewing years), but the Knicks would be in every playoffs until Ewing left for Seattle in 2000 -- four trips to the Conference Finals, two to the NBA Finals.  Since he's left, only six playoff appearances, the one this year being the first in eight seasons.

3) Game 7, 2000 Western Conference Finals

Two years before The Greatest Tragedy...  This one is far more amorphous -- and probably more seen in retrospect after what happened two years later.

The main impetus was a reversal of a 16-point Trailblazer lead late in the third, aided by some bad calls and two of the major Portland players fouling out.

EFFECT:  One Western Conference Finals appearance since, and only four series wins since.

4) 2006 NBA Finals

Dallas up 2-0 and big in Game 3 -- here comes Dwayne Wade and the refs to reverse the tide.

Wade shot 72 free throws in Games 3-6, all Heat victories.

EFFECT:  It took four years and the LeBron James Tampering situation, but the Heat would begin a run with James and Wade which would see them in four straight Finals and two championships.

As for Dallas, it would take five years (and a lot of NBA fines to boot -- including a $250,000 fine after 2006's Game 5 when Cuban stormed the floor and confronted the officials, publicly telling them and the world the NBA was rigged) for the NBA to throw in the towel (after probable both Plans A and B were scuttled due to homophobic slurs by star players -- one at opposing fans, Kobe at a referee!!)

5) Chris Paul Nullified Trade, 2011.

Trade nullified because the New Orleans team was in material league receivership.

EFFECT:  Two playoff appearances, one series win since.  See Sacramento.  The league would not miss either of these teams if they were folded tomorrow.

6) 2012 Draft Lottery

Yes, I discover I did cover this one!

And this was the make-up for #5.

7) 1988 NBA Finals, Game 6

This one was a singular call which kept the Lakers in the series, according to the YouTuber -- a foul called on Bill Laimbeer on Kareem with 14 seconds left.  Lakers won Game 6 and 7 to win the series.

EFFECT:  Minimal.  Though it is clear the NBA had no real desire to "push" The Bad Boys, the Pistons came back and nearly, in many opinions, killed the league with it's rough-housing style by making the next two seasons unriggable and theirs.  It could easily be said, however, that this led to The jordon Era, because, at that point, the league was going to take NO material chances.

8) 2018 NBA Draft Lottery and Dikembe Mutombo Steps In It

.... several (in fact, the video notes, SEVENTEEN) hours BEFORE the Draft was revealed.

EFFECT:  The Process had apparently succeeded, a three-year tanking spree in Philadelphia finally netted the team Ben Simmons (who, now after they have really won little since -- yeah, they've been in the playoffs the last four years, but Simmons has been exposed as an ABJECT FRAUD)...

9) 1993 Draft Lottery

Oh gee, the FOURTH Draft Lottery on this list?

The second of Orlando's back-to-back, seen by many as a rig-job to pump up the Orlando Magic.  

EFFECT:  The pick was Chris Webber of Michigan's famed Fab Five.  But then, the Magic traded him to the Warriors for three firsts and Penny Hardaway.  Hardaway would play six years in Orlando, where they would reach an NBA Finals and two Eastern Conference Finals.

10) Draymond Green Suspension, 2016 NBA Finals

Suspended in Game 5 for his fourth flagrant foul of the Playoffs.  At least one of them (if not two) were for kicks to the nuts in the Western Conference Finals.

EFFECT:  Second of five consecutive Warriors NBA Finals, second of four consecutive Warriors vs. Cavaliers Finals, the Warriors winning the other three.  I will get into many arguments, but I do believe that, with especially Green, the NBA did not want the Warriors to represent the league any longer as their champion.