One common thing that is part of every sport is conspiracy theories. Basketball players and the NBA are also surrounded by many conspiracy theories, especially since 1985. The Conspiracy theories are just another little thing that makes the sport interesting and gives people something to talk about. So in this article, we will tell you about some of the most engaging conspiracy theories in the history of the NBA.
NBA games getting rigged
Tim Donaghy, who is a basketball official, was once arrested and sent to jail. He then made the allegation that everyone had been making for years. Referees in the NBA were rigging games for ratings. Donaghy alleged that there were men from the company in the league who called fouls to prolong the series and give the lead to the big market team. One of the games was the 2002 Western Conference finals, Game six, when Sacramento couldn’t get the call to go their way and the Lakers took Game seven. One of the referees in that game was Tim Donaghy.
Jordan’s gambling problems
This is one of the most famous conspiracy theories in Basketball history because
it centers around the league’s best player of all time “Michael Jordan ”. His gambling
problems had gotten out of hand, and an investigation was launched after his third
championship. After this, David Stern told Jordan to leave until the gambling stories
were over, so he went to play baseball. In 2005, during an interview with Ed Bradley,
MJ himself admitted that he had gambling problems.
LeBron James being a part of the Illuminati
Some of the publicized actions by LeBron James in the past few years have made many people think that he is a member of the Illuminati. As everyone knows, the Illuminati is a secret organization that was founded years ago to oppose unwanted religious beliefs and superstition. In 2012, when James won the title with Miami Heat, there were many conspiracy theories surrounding him. His close friendship with American rapper Jay-Z is another reason to link him to the group because Jay-Z himself is speculated to be a part of it.
James’ shirt number was 23 earlier, but it changed to 6 after some time, and 666 is considered an Illuminati symbol. One more thing that makes the speculations true is that during the Cavaliers game, at the end of each national anthem sung, he was seen pointing to the air and making “3 Six” hand signs. People assume that these hand gestures are some form of prayer because he looks towards the sky most of the time, but few state that no religion uses this hand sign and it solely belongs to the Illuminati.
conspiracy of the lottery Draft
The 2010 and 2011 lottery draft conspiracy theories were started by David Kahn when the Cleveland Cavaliers won the lottery draft that year. The owner of the Cavaliers, Dan Gilbert’s 14-year-old son, who has neurofibromatosis, was on the podium for the Cavs. After they won the lottery, David said, “This league has a habit, and I’m just going to say it’s a habit of making up some pretty incredible stories” . Through this statement, he alleged that Stern had definitely fixed the lottery. A similar thing happened next year when the widow of Abe Polin was on stage in Washington. Like any conspiracy theory, there is circumstantial evidence, but nothing has come to light.
The Big Three pre-planned it
When the Miami Heat came together after picking LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade in the 2010–11 NBA season, the basketball world stopped and decided that they had one team to hate collectively. The idea here was that the Miami Heat had planned this for years, and many claimed that these three had planned to play together since 2006.
The theory looked strong because all of them have been good friends since 2004 and played at the Olympics together first. After this, all of them spanned exactly the same length in 2006. The theory got so big that Cleveland Cavaliers’ owner Dan Gilbert decided to consider the tampering allegations against the Miami Heat and LeBron James, but still nothing came out of it.
Conspiracy about the first ever NBA lottery
The first ever lottery draft used by the NBA was in 1985, and the very first lottery is still scrutinized. That year, Patrick Ewing was considered one of the best prospects to come out of college. He dominated the college game a year ago and seemed ready to continue his progress in the NBA. During that time, one of the NBA’s franchises, the New York Knicks, was in bad shape as they just finished a miserable season and needed a star to lead them out of the basement. They coincidentally won the first lottery and the right to draft Patrick Ewing.
At that time, the NBA used envelopes to decide the lottery, and the envelope picked by commissioner David Stern in 1985 won the lottery. The conspiracy behind this is that the Knicks envelope that won the lottery had a folded corner, which allowed David to identify it and choose. Many people still believe that the first ever lottery in the history of the NBA was fixed by David Stern. Ewing had the best time of his career with the Knicks, but he never led them to an NBA title.
