NBA Lacks Integrity
By Ken Reed
Playoff spots were on the line last night in the NBA, the final night of the regular season. But the NBA and a few of its franchises made a mockery of the playoff race.
After a terrible start to the season, the Miami Heat made a remarkable run down the stretch in a quest to land a playoff berth. On the last night of the season, they needed to beat Washington and have the Chicago Bulls or Indiana Pacers lose to get in. The Heat took care of business by winning its game against Washington but Chicago and Indiana also won, so the Heat are out of the playoffs.
Fair enough, until you look a little deeper and see that both Chicago’s and Indiana’s opponents rested numerous players, basically giving the games away. The Bulls played the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets long ago were eliminated from the playoffs and couldn’t improve their draft position by tanking the game with Chicago. Still, despite the game against the Bulls having playoff implications for Chicago and Miami, the Nets decided to not try. They rested six players, including leading scorers Jeremy Lin and Brook Lopez. Why did these players have to rest? Did they have early tee times the next morning?
Whazzup Brooklyn? Why did you do it? The Miami players had busted their rear ends during the second half of the season in order to still be in playoff contention on the last night of the season. But the Brooklyn coaching staff, or administration, or both decided to simply hand the last playoff spot to Chicago.
Indiana’s opponent, Atlanta, had already secured a playoff berth against Washington. So, they at least had the excuse that they were resting key players for the playoffs. Brooklyn? The Nets had absolutely no excuse for not showing up against Chicago.
NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, has a major integrity problem on his hands. On any given night, he — along with league fans — don’t know which teams are going to try and which teams are going to tank.
Silver and the owners better fix this problem over the summer before the NBA moves any closer to professional wrestling on the integrity metric.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
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Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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