Do you believe the NBA is helping Lebron and/or Lakers?

[iamgine]

Whether it's winning the IST or making the playoff or eventually prolonging playoff series, do you believe the NBA is actively helping them?

[Jasper]

Whether it's winning the IST or making the playoff or eventually prolonging playoff series, do you believe the NBA is actively helping them?

tinzel town with a losing team... apathetic the NBA doesn't watch top notch teams instead of .500 teams or less===== boring

[highwhey]

hell yeah they are lol. that IST was rigged like a motha****a.

[SATAN]

hell yeah they are lol. that IST was rigged like a motha****a.

How so?

[Full Court]

You know how some players get the superstar treatment? Jordan got it. Kobe got it. Lebron and Giannis get it. Etc. Well the Lakers get the superstar treatment as a team. It's not some grand conspiracy by the NBA, but the free throw disparity is just one manifestation. The Lakers do get special treatment that other teams do not. And having Lebron, who gets the superstar treatment as an individual, on the team just adds to it.

[ShawkFactory]

You know how some players get the superstar treatment? Jordan got it. Kobe got it. Lebron and Giannis get it. Etc. Well the Lakers get the superstar treatment as a team. It's not some grand conspiracy by the NBA, but the free throw disparity is just one manifestation. The Lakers do get special treatment that other teams do not. And having Lebron, who gets the superstar treatment as an individual, on the team just adds to it.

This is a fair assessment. Is the NBA actively helping the Lakers? I suppose on what your definition of it is. I don't believe that how individual calls play out is a part of some grand scheme to get them in a particular position. But they do get the benefit of the doubt in a lot of situations. I just don't know that it's by instruction rather than subconscious bias.

[ILLsmak]

The IST was just dog shit comp, but I dunno. I don't think they are gonna help them win a ring, so ultimately it doesn't matter. If they wanna feed them to a team in the Finals for ratings, I'm cool with that. Would take a lot of help to get them out of the West tho.

-Smak

[ArbitraryWater]

Pretty sure they had a Celtics fan ref cheat the lakers last year, but who knows, maybe Im making something up ay

[Full Court]

This is a fair assessment. Is the NBA actively helping the Lakers? I suppose on what your definition of it is. I don't believe that how individual calls play out is a part of some grand scheme to get them in a particular position. But they do get the benefit of the doubt in a lot of situations. I just don't know that it's by instruction rather than subconscious bias.

Yeah, I doubt anyone's instructed to help the Lakers. It's probably mostly subconscious. But there may be a little conscious bias too. The Lakers are the most popular and most talked about team, so I'm sure they get some leniency, or benefit of the doubt, just based on that.

[Duffy Pratt]

The Lakers and the Clippers are the only team to get two extra home games each year. That historically has worked to the Lakers advantage.

They are a big market with the biggest fan base. Thus, all other things being equal, the League would absolutely prefer the Lakers to make deep runs into the playoffs. The refs all know this, whether explicitly instructed or not.

The most sketchy playoff “fixes” in history just happen to have gone in favor of the Lakers.

The scheduling for the first round of the IST just happened to give the Lakers the easiest draw.

On the other hand, they were blessed with having one of the all-time great GMs, who made tremendous decisions. They got hosed with the rejected Chris Paul trade, which probably cost them a title or two. And there are isolated incidents of terrible game determining calls going against them.

On balance, I believe that the League tips the scales in their favor, while trying to preserve the illusion that the games are fundamentally fair. It;s not like the rest of the League are the Washington Generals to LA’s Globetarotters. But the games, in the long run, are called to favor them.

[highwhey]

The Lakers and the Clippers are the only team to get two extra home games each year. That historically has worked to the Lakers advantage.

They are a big market with the biggest fan base. Thus, all other things being equal, the League would absolutely prefer the Lakers to make deep runs into the playoffs. The refs all know this, whether explicitly instructed or not.

The most sketchy playoff “fixes” in history just happen to have gone in favor of the Lakers.

The scheduling for the first round of the IST just happened to give the Lakers the easiest draw.

On the other hand, they were blessed with having one of the all-time great GMs, who made tremendous decisions. They got hosed with the rejected Chris Paul trade, which probably cost them a title or two. And there are isolated incidents of terrible game determining calls going against them.

On balance, I believe that the League tips the scales in their favor, while trying to preserve the illusion that the games are fundamentally fair. It;s not like the rest of the League are the Washington Generals to LA’s Globetarotters. But the games, in the long run, are called to favor them.

during the IST against the Suns, they got a late timeout in the 4th whilst having no possession of the ball and the officials didn't bother to check. it resulted in the lakers getting possession of the ball with only 10 seconds to go.

yeah, it was pretty clear the league wanted them to advance in the tourny.

[bison]

Yes. Lebron was so pathetic at trying to lead the lakers to a playoff spot that Adam Silver literally invented the play in tournament just to get lebron into the playoffs :facepalm:

[Full Court]

during the IST against the Suns, they got a late timeout in the 4th whilst having no possession of the ball and the officials didn't bother to check. it resulted in the lakers getting possession of the ball with only 10 seconds to go.

yeah, it was pretty clear the league wanted them to advance in the tourny.

Come on now. Attributing that idiotic call to "the league" is just silly. The refs didn't check or question because it was Lebron who called the timeout, and the refs give him the nod every time. Fact is, the ISH fake "championship" has an asterisk on it because of that call, but you can't pin every bad call the refs make on the league.

[ImKobe]

No. Do you really think the league could keep that kind of shit a secret if there actually was a conspiracy to help the Lakers?

You do understand it would destroy the league if that shit was actually true and a ref or someone in the league office leaked it, right? Look at how big the sports' gambling industry is now. They'd be screwed if there was any foul play with all the lawsuits that would come their way.

[ShawkFactory]

Yeah, I doubt anyone's instructed to help the Lakers. It's probably mostly subconscious. But there may be a little conscious bias too. The Lakers are the most popular and most talked about team, so I'm sure they get some leniency, or benefit of the doubt, just based on that.

This is true, but I think the leniency then comes from a fear of backlash if a ref happens to make a call the wrong way for them.

[BarberSchool]

Not as much as many past lakers teams.

See: Lakers/Blazers, and Lakers/Kings from decades past.

But certainly the consolation prize of the IST included some subtle help, and lots of media FRAMING, to get one last huge dump of lakers merch selling worldwide.

Don’t believe me ? When the subtle help wasn’t as urgent/attended to, look what happened to their performance/record, post-IST….

[tpols]

The IST was just dog shit comp, but I dunno. I don't think they are gonna help them win a ring, so ultimately it doesn't matter. If they wanna feed them to a team in the Finals for ratings, I'm cool with that. Would take a lot of help to get them out of the West tho.

-Smak

Woah... what are you on my G? I'm sick of people calling it the "IST". It was The mother****ing Championship. And most people count it as 2 rings because of its prestige. So Lebron and MJ are tied right now at 6 rings.

[bullettooth]

Everyone except idiot Lakers fans knows the league has a giant hard on for Los Angeles.

[Duffy Pratt]

No. Do you really think the league could keep that kind of shit a secret if there actually was a conspiracy to help the Lakers?

You do understand it would destroy the league if that shit was actually true and a ref or someone in the league office leaked it, right? Look at how big the sports' gambling industry is now. They'd be screwed if there was any foul play with all the lawsuits that would come their way.

We already know that it has been true, and it didn’t destroy the League. That’s the whole point of the Lakers/Sacramento WCF. It couldn’t have been more clearly rigged.

[Jasper]

Yes. Lebron was so pathetic at trying to lead the lakers to a playoff spot that Adam Silver literally invented the play in tournament just to get lebron into the playoffs :facepalm:

I like that comment .... he handed Bron the MVP trophy while AD kicked his ass.