If you missed it over the weekend, Rasheed Wallace told the Detroit News that he thinks the Pistons got jobbed in the Eastern Conference Finals due to an NBA conspiracy, adding: “This game ain’t basketball anymore, it’s entertainment. It’s starting to get like the WWF. There ain’t no real wrestling anymore either. It’s all fake.”
Oh ‘Sheed, oh ‘Sheed. First off, I can kind of understand where he’s coming from, after all, I’m (allegedly) the leading conspiracy theorist in the Dime office. Of course I’ve raised an eyebrow at certain calls (Larry Johnson’s four-point play) and even entire games (Suns/Spurs Game 3) before, and I was fully on the “Stern doesn’t want a Pacers/Blazers Final (2000)” and the “Stern won’t let LeBron go to a small market” train at one point. And it’s safe to say a lot of fans were right there, too.
But here’s the thing: Fans don’t play in the League. We can’t turn refs and League administrators against us. It doesn’t matter what we say. But if in fact D. Stern is closer to Vince McMahon than we’d like to believe, Rasheed isn’t helping the Pistons any by trying to call him out and pissing him off or incurring the wrath of the guys with the whistles. Then again, it’s not like ‘Sheed hasn’t already done that enough times.
October 29th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Tom Toronto says:
I’ve often considered the possibility of fixing myself, but there’s one thing I always come back to. In basketball, even if the calls are against you and the refs are fixing the games, you still have to hit those shots. Lebron still has to drain the fadeaways, the Robert Horrys of the league still need to hit those buzzer beaters, and you can’t fix that. Even if the ref makes the bs calls, you still gotta hit those free throws. So at least in basketball, you can only fix a certain degree of the game. You can give a team an advantage, but you can’t make a team lose like Bret Hart.
October 29th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Myrie in NY says:
Ever sport has some degree of organized crime.
October 29th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Gee says:
Myrie you are not only right but time has even shown that.
My only concern is that when players really start feeling like “Well it’s obvious that the refs or the NBA doesn’t want us to win this game” will they just start b.s-ing on the court cause they don’t care. I hope not. Sheed sounds like he may be headed that way, if he aint already there.
Tom Toronto why would you want to “fix” yourself? That is messed up homey what is wrong lol. Just kidding I know how you meant it. It was just funny to read.
October 29th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Tom Toronto says:
Lol, nice, didn’t even realize I wrote that.
October 29th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
smity says:
it’s hard to be a fan of rasheed sometimes. sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what to make of him or something he says or does…but the question i have is why wouldnt the nba be fixed? Why would the nba be one of the lone shining lights of purity in a society as corruptibly governed by greed and the persuit of profit as this one? its obvious that the money makes the league go round. and its obvious that they do care about ratings and that they do care about money and more money and that more ratings means more money. so why wouldnt the nba, despite what is said in defense of accusations against it, do whats necessary to make be as financially successful as possible…? i’m just saying…and sheed should keep some of his thoughts like these to himself unless he knows exactly what type of position he’s putting himself and his teamates in and is fine with that (as perhaps it is part of some ultimate plan…)
October 29th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Bust Jlaze says:
Dag, you gotta figure it would be REAL hard to fix NBA games, at least to fix the OUTCOME of the game. Even with the Gambling Ref scandal, it was more like subtle stuff like covering spreads and junk, right? You can’t say cats can fix EVERYTHING. And even if the NBA WAS fixed, that’s like having a Pro Wrestler coming out and saying “this crap is fixed”. If it were truly fixed, you’d have to have ALL the players involved, including ‘Sheed, to pull it off in the first place!
But I feel Sheed’s frustration, the refs completely took the pistons out of that final game, and ‘Sheed just LOST it after that flop that Varajao threw. (Didn’t Donaghy make that call?)
October 29th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
Bryan says:
Sheed sayin’ that the league is fake and blaming that for loosing the ECF?
Garbage, straight up garbage….
he can’t keep his temper under control thats why Detroit lost…
October 29th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
DOC says:
that shit got some fixin. I can see the refs gettin the memo to dont let bronny go back to detroit for game 7
October 29th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
andrew says:
you can’t fix games. you can help out a team but come on…
does any one really believe the league would fix things for us lil folks in S.A.? i’ve loved the spurs all my life but i get bored of them too
October 30th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Tom Toronto says:
Andrew, that’s probably the best argument against fixing I’ve ever heard. If it really was fixed, would the Spurs really win 4 titles? Would they really embarrass Lebron with a 4-0? Probably not.
October 30th, 2007 at 10:59 am
fiyaman says:
Think about it.. last yr Kobe TMac and Yao, AI and Melo, Dirk, Wade and Shaq were all gone in the 1st round. The only real superstars left were Duncan and Lebron. Its not that far fetched to say Conspiracy to make sure those 2 meet.