-are the NBA Finals rigged?

Asks Daniel Haynes

IN what is undoubtedly the biggest stage of basketball, the one question has remained, undermining the integrity of the sport at large and leaving fans worldwide angry; “Are the NBA Finals rigged?”
To understand the question, one must understand the complexity of the situation.

The Golden State Warriors were poised to complete the most historic season in the National Basketball Association (NBA), blowing out teams on their way to a 73-9 season-no ordinary feat in a league that plays 82 games and in the process taking out the previous 72-10 record set by the game’s greatest player Michael Jordan and his 1995/96 Chicago Bulls, 20 years ago.

Golden State was on the cusp of victory, ready to take the championship in five games, after blowing out the Cavaliers in three out of four games, but everything changed in Game 4 on a controversial play that left Warriors fans feeling cheated.

It was then the sounds of foul play began when Warriors Forward Draymond Green was suspended for the close-out game five, after an altercation with Cavaliers Forward Lebron James with less than three minutes left in Golden State’s 108-97 victory over the Cavaliers on Friday.

James stepped over Green after the Warriors’ forward fell to the court, and Green swung his arm and appeared to make contact with James’s groin area.

The Cavaliers stormed through game five at Golden State to win 112-97 with Green forced to watch the game outside the arena, since NBA rules prevented him from being in the arena. To add insult to injury, Andrew Bogut got injured and was ruled out for the rest of the finals.

The Cavaliers then stormed through game six 115-101 in Cleveland with even more drama on the night as Warriors’ wonder kid Stephen Curry, the league’s back-to-back MVP, fouled out of the game after picking up fouls that fans felt were blatant, wrong calls by officials. Curry then angrily launched his mouth guard into the crowd which hit a fan before the officials sanctioned him with a technical foul and  ejected him from the game.

This caused his wife Ayesha Curry to take to twitter after the game and tweeted, “I’ve lost all respect, sorry this is absolutely rigged for money… Or ratings in not sure which. I won’t be silent. Just saw it live sry.”

As for those who believe the NBA will make money off of a game seven,  AdAge cited data from ispot.tv indicating that ABC pulled in $223.9 million in advertising revenues over the course of last year’s NBA Finals match-up, which again featured the Cavaliers versus the Warriors. That series  lasted only six games, however.

A game seven is typically a ratings and money-making bonanza. AdAge estimated that had there been a game seven last year, it would have likely drawn an audience of 32 million viewers and a 21.2 household rating, up from an average of 20 million viewers and an 11.6 rating for the previous games in the 2015 NBA Finals.

As for the advertising revenues, “A seventh game likely would have tossed another $45 million on the pile,” AdAge reported.

So, if the 2016 NBA Finals had ended with a game five victory by the Warriors, ABC would have missed out on the ad revenues of Game 6 and Game 7—which will probably total in excess of $80 million, based on estimates from last year.

I’m an Oklahoma City Thunder fan, and I believe the NBA was rigged the moment my team lost after leading 3-1. Reason? Let’s face it, no one wanted a Kevin Durant versus Lebron James Finals.