I have been betting on the NBA for only a handful of years but still have seen enough games in which good home teams, having won the last couple of games and built good momentum going into the game, supposedly well rested and with no significant injuires, lost to teams who were bad on road, playing the 2nd of back to backs and even without a couple of its key players. Some of those game were even blowouts. Sometimes the favourites just showed no energy or sense of urgency at all and did not even appear to be embarrased playing that badly.
This made me wonder if NBA players sometimes take bribes from big time gamblers to intentionally not play at their best to cover the point spread, which is known as "point shaving" and is common in NCAA basketball. However, on another thought, NBA players, especially the star players, are paid tens of millions of dollars a year so for point shaving to work, a huge amount of bribe has to be paid to the them, which made bribing almost economically infeasible. (The players who earn significantly less usually have significantly less impact on the game and I assume it is kind of useless to bribe them.) But this logic is based on the assumption that a player who takes bribes and gets involved in point shaving is punished heavily if his action is found, for example, a heavy fine and long suspension, if not, players would be more easily lured into point shaving. So my question is: what punishement is incurred if an NBA play is found taking bribes and point shaving? Career ban? Cancellation of his contract? I read from somewhere that NBA players are not allowed to bet on games they play but teams and the league often turn a blind eye on players betting on other games not involving their own teams.
My question is only about players taking bribes, not about referees' involvements in betting scandals ( I am aware of the Tim Donaghy incident) or the league manipulation on games to extend a playoff series to boost tickets sales (like what might happened in game 6 of the Lakers vs Kings series in 2002)
Someone please enlighten me.
This made me wonder if NBA players sometimes take bribes from big time gamblers to intentionally not play at their best to cover the point spread, which is known as "point shaving" and is common in NCAA basketball. However, on another thought, NBA players, especially the star players, are paid tens of millions of dollars a year so for point shaving to work, a huge amount of bribe has to be paid to the them, which made bribing almost economically infeasible. (The players who earn significantly less usually have significantly less impact on the game and I assume it is kind of useless to bribe them.) But this logic is based on the assumption that a player who takes bribes and gets involved in point shaving is punished heavily if his action is found, for example, a heavy fine and long suspension, if not, players would be more easily lured into point shaving. So my question is: what punishement is incurred if an NBA play is found taking bribes and point shaving? Career ban? Cancellation of his contract? I read from somewhere that NBA players are not allowed to bet on games they play but teams and the league often turn a blind eye on players betting on other games not involving their own teams.
My question is only about players taking bribes, not about referees' involvements in betting scandals ( I am aware of the Tim Donaghy incident) or the league manipulation on games to extend a playoff series to boost tickets sales (like what might happened in game 6 of the Lakers vs Kings series in 2002)
Someone please enlighten me.
