Disturbing corruption theories

I was at a Barnes and Noble bookstore in Las Vegas yesterday and in the sports section, there was a book entitled “The Fix Is Still In” by Brian Tuohy writing on “more corruption and conspiracies the pro sports leagues don’t want you to know about.”  

It was the only copy on the shelf and skimming through the pages, I was intrigued by Tuohy’s findings. I found out later that Tuohy had authored four other books, including “Larceny Games: Sports Gambling, Game-Fixing and the FBI,” but “The Fix Is Still In” is his latest work, published just this year.

I bought the book because I couldn’t put it down while skimming. There were too many interesting topics to digest. One was tanking in the NBA. Tuohy referred to a study made by Adam Gold, a Master’s degree holder in statistics at the University of Missouri, who discovered that from 2004-05 to 2010-11, “teams that missed the playoffs won just 32 percent of their games after they were mathematically eliminated from the post-season compared to 37.5 percent beforehand.” Tuohy even quoted the Toronto Raptors’ president of basketball operators Masai Ujiri as saying “it would be a fantastic season” if the team wound up with a spot in the NBA draft lottery. Asked about his thoughts on tanking, Ujiri “sidestepped” the question, according to Tuohy.  

An NBA general manager was quoted as admitting “sometimes my job is to understand the value of losing.” The NBA has experimented with different formulas to dissuade teams from rampant tanking but the efforts aren’t fool-proof. “Tanking isn’t enjoyable,” said Tuohy. “It represents a significant danger to the game, striking at the sport’s very integrity. The rationalizations for ‘tanking’ a game and ‘fixing’ one are not that far apart.”

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was once fined $600,000 by NBA commissioner Adam Silver for revealing he once told his players “losing is our best option” to wiggle into a position for a high draft lottery pick. Tuohy’s solution is to abolish the draft and strictly enforce salary cap conditions.  

“Granted, eliminating the draft would rob the NBA and its broadcast partners of two made-for-TV events as well as hours of mock drafts and analysis content but a free-market system would produce the greater good,” wrote Tuohy. “Competition – real, honest competition – would become the rule, not the exception. Even the worst teams would fight for every win because they would need to prove to prospective players that their franchises are worth joining.”

Former Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy said, “we have to find a way there is absolutely zero incentive to lose … the essence of sports is two teams playing against each other trying to win … when you have a third of the league trying to lose games, I don’t think that’s good for our product at all … it’s a lack of integrity in the league and lack of respect for the fans.”

E-sports was another Tuohy target. He said in 2017, it was estimated that there were 191 million e-sports enthusiasts and by this year, the global e-sports market is projected to be valued at $1.9 billion. Betting is widespread in e-sports and Tuohy said games are just as susceptible to bribes as athletes in other sports. South Korea was singled out by Tuohy as the host of the first major e-sports fixing scandal. In 2010, it was proved that 16 gamers were involved in rigging at least 12 StarCraft matches. In 2016, a gamer named “Life,” or Lee Seung Hyun, was convicted for fixing, ordered to pay a hefty fine and banned from Korean e-sports forever at the age of 19.

A revelation by Tuohy was in 2014, two Philippine teams MSI Evolution and Mineski were accused of match-fixing in a Dota 2 tournament. “In something often seen in tennis, gamers on these teams found betting on themselves to lose was more profitable than advancing in the tournament,” he said. In 2015, an organization called the E-Sports Integrity Commission was established to legitimize the sport and wipe out corruption in gaming.

Tuohy advanced conspiracy theories involving the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals and even Kobe Bryant’s 60-point explosion in his farewell game where the Los Angeles Lakers beat Utah, 101-96, at the Staples Center. He also wondered about the integrity of some of Muhammad Ali’s wins, particularly against Sonny Liston. Those are topics we’re reserving for another column.