Whistleblower Podcast - NBA Corruption

[KillerLeft]

I'm not sure how secret this is - maybe I'm the last to find it. But, I came across this podcast the other day, and I'm now about 2/3 of the way through the entire thing. While I feel it's a bit over-stretched (the whole thing probably could've been like 4-5 episodes), I'm definitely learning some things I didn't know. Interesting, to say the least. Anyway, with ref hate here reaching all-time high levels I thought some people would be interested. 

https://whistleblowerpod.com/episodes/

[Jason Terry]

I was just thinking about this last night. This looks interesting. Thanks for sharing. There’s also a movie on the subject called Inside Game. It’s all especially interesting for Mavs fans too because of Cubans involvement in corruption investigations around the same time. He hired a private investigator after the 06 Finals. 07 the FBI mistakenly finds proof of Donaghy engaged in manipulating games. Really interesting 

Sure wish Luka would remember this and quit complaining to the refs. They’re human and he needs to find a better approach

[ThisIStheYear]

The bad old days. That Sacramento - Lakers game 6 and the Mavs - Heat game 5 are the most sketchily officiated games I’ve seen in any sport outside the Olympics and boxing.  Bad calls happen and the sport is difficult to ref, but I think the officiating has gotten a lot better since then, at least it doesn’t seem so biased anymore, so maybe Cuban’s influence has had an impact. I can’t really think of a game in recent years where I felt especially aggrieved by the officials.

[KillerLeft]

Finished this series. Pretty good. Lots of Mavericks content in the last couple of episodes.

[hakeemfaan]

NBA has some of the greatest athletes in the world which is why it keeps sucking me back in. Else the superstar calls or rewarding players constantly for initiating contact and getting cheap fouls really drags the the game down for me.

[cow]

It's a pretty good podcast but the production doesn't have the chops of Serial who they are clearing aping and it leaves you with a lot more questions and assumptions than anything concrete.  

There aren't a ton of takeaways beyond reaffirmation that the entire ref union should have been uprooted once the scandal hit.  

The Cuban stuff is interesting if the "Golden Goose" comment attributed to him is true and shed light on Cuban's priorities.  Also the "The Time Is Now" call to arms from the podcast team is really stupid.

Thanks for posting, KL.

[KillerLeft]

It's a pretty good podcast but the production doesn't have the chops of Serial who they are clearing aping and it leaves you with a lot more questions and assumptions than anything concrete.  

There aren't a ton of takeaways beyond reaffirmation that the entire ref union should have been uprooted once the scandal hit.  

The Cuban stuff is interesting if the "Golden Goose" comment attributed to him is true and shed light on Cuban's priorities.  Also the "The Time Is Now" call to arms from the podcast team is really stupid.

Thanks for posting, KL.

My two biggest takeaways were:

1) how nepotistic the hiring process is, and how most of the refs come from a small geographical area. 

2) they stopped short of claiming this, but all of the information they presented seems to point to the idea that the NBA leaked the news story that ultimately halted any further investigation.

[cow]

2) they stopped short of claiming this, but all of the information they presented seems to point to the idea that the NBA leaked the news story that ultimately halted any further investigation.

This is a VERY safe assumption as the NBA is the only one the leak benefited.  It let them paint Tim as a rogue actor and bury the issue.  We'll never know how widespread the issue is because of this or the realities have the NBA having crews who's purpose was to extend playoff series ($$$) but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck or so the saying goes.  I think being on the end of a screw job has just made us all aware of how much of a farce the league can be.

That's why the attributed "Golden Goose" comments would be so troublesome if true.  Cow towing to your billion dollar house of cards when you've always preached about competition being ruined due to officiating would be a pretty big blow to my respect for Mark.  I'm not going to pick sides on if it is true or not, especially without hearing from the man himself and him not wanting to appear on the podcast is also interesting.

[Jason Terry]

It's a pretty good podcast but the production doesn't have the chops of Serial who they are clearing aping and it leaves you with a lot more questions and assumptions than anything concrete.  

There aren't a ton of takeaways beyond reaffirmation that the entire ref union should have been uprooted once the scandal hit.  

The Cuban stuff is interesting if the "Golden Goose" comment attributed to him is true and shed light on Cuban's priorities.  Also the "The Time Is Now" call to arms from the podcast team is really stupid.

Thanks for posting, KL.

I’ve never heard of “Serial” but will have to check that out too. It’s one of those things where it’s been talked about for years and never gained the proper media attention. Everything was blamed on the “rogue” ref and a lid was put on any further exploration. 

That FBI agent he had a convo with has legit credibility. Most was already known, but there were a few tidbits that were new to me. Perhaps the most interesting part of it to me was the timeline of what David Stern did to combat all of it. I knew he was a scummy lawyer but wow. The NBA knew the scandal was about to come out. The NBA lawyers spoke to the justice department and just hired away the guys needed to make the investigation go away. Then negotiated new billion dollar media deals with the networks a year early(to make sure if the NBA got hurt then they would too). All in the month before the story broke. Then afterwards just money whipped lobbyists to bribe the politicians thinking of pursuing regulations. I guess that’s the 21st century American dream for every industry? 

Guys like Bill Simmons who tried to shed light on this for years just gave up. It’s Dick Bavetta who’s the biggest crook ref and he never even bet on games! Current players can’t talk about it or they face league punishment. Former players effected by it like Chris Webber have just accepted it. 

Mavs nerds followed the 06 aftermath with Cuban, but i never even thought about that 05 rockets series. It makes sense though. All the other West 1st rd series were over in 5 games. They need eyeballs for that TV dough so maybe we did get some help from the refs to beat the rockets in 05. Also interesting that the KP ejection was mentioned. Of course Cuban’s priorities are firstly with protecting his “Golden Goose”. To really try to make the big change  in the NBA he would’ve had to sue the NBA. Even a billionaire like Cuban stands no chance against the NBA and their friends(Stern, Justice Dept, media partners, other owners, lobbyists etc). He would’ve been forced to sell the franchise. So instead he chose to play their game and enact some small changes to the status quo. 

That Lakers/Kings 02 game 6 WCF is comical. Dick Bavetta at his finest

[cow]

I’ve never heard of “Serial” but will have to check that out too. It’s one of those things where it’s been talked about for years and never gained the proper media attention. Everything was blamed on the “rogue” ref and a lid was put on any further exploration. 

That FBI agent he had a convo with has legit credibility. Most was already known, but there were a few tidbits that were new to me. Perhaps the most interesting part of it to me was the timeline of what David Stern did to combat all of it. I knew he was a scummy lawyer but wow. The NBA knew the scandal was about to come out. The NBA lawyers spoke to the justice department and just hired away the guys needed to make the investigation go away. Then negotiated new billion dollar media deals with the networks a year early(to make sure if the NBA got hurt then they would too). All in the month before the story broke. Then afterwards just money whipped lobbyists to bribe the politicians thinking of pursuing regulations. I guess that’s the 21st century American dream for every industry? 

Guys like Bill Simmons who tried to shed light on this for years just gave up. It’s Dick Bavetta who’s the biggest crook ref and he never even bet on games! Current players can’t talk about it or they face league punishment. Former players effected by it like Chris Webber have just accepted it. 

Mavs nerds followed the 06 aftermath with Cuban, but i never even thought about that 05 rockets series. It makes sense though. All the other West 1st rd series were over in 5 games. They need eyeballs for that TV dough so maybe we did get some help from the refs to beat the rockets in 05. Also interesting that the KP ejection was mentioned. Of course Cuban’s priorities are firstly with protecting his “Golden Goose”. To really try to make the big change  in the NBA he would’ve had to sue the NBA. Even a billionaire like Cuban stands no chance against the NBA and their friends(Stern, Justice Dept, media partners, other owners, lobbyists etc). He would’ve been forced to sell the franchise. So instead he chose to play their game and enact some small changes to the status quo. 

That Lakers/Kings 02 game 6 WCF is comical. Dick Bavetta at his finest

Serial Season 1 is is pretty amazing.  Season 2 is okay (less interesting subject matter imho).  Haven't dug into Season 3.

The Ref/NBA Scandal is even more difficult for smaller market teams if true.  Players know the issues with officiating and it's just another reason to pack their bags and go to more marketable franchises.