Please feel free if you've heard any or seen any posted on other boards. I had to share some of these stories because they had me laughing. These are really things ive been told either at work or at sports bars. Maybe it was one of those you had to be there situations....either way youve got to wonder how people come up with this kind of crap.
Here is one I heard today. The reason why the Lakers lost the title is because David Stern and the marketing juggernaut did not want a person with rape charges to be the poster boy of the league. David Stern and the refs got together after game 2 with ABC and decided that they needed it to go 7 games. Thinking the Lakers could come back and win at any time they decided to hand over games 3 and 4 to stretch it to 7 games. Once it was obvious the Lakers couldn't compete with 7 players on the court at once Stern then made the final push to make sure Kobe couldn't be the next Michael Jordan.
Here is one I heard after game 4. A few high rollers in Vegas had the whole thing setup. From the refs all the way to a few unnamed players on the Lakers squad. All of them were paid off. Reason? The odds on the Lakers to win were 5 to 1.
Another one I heard today was that Kobe tanked the games so he could a) leave to NY to play for the Knicks and build up new endorsments and B ) so next year he could look like he improved his game 10 fold and prove to everyone Shaq had nothing to do with his success.
The best ones I heard relates to ABC and NBC. During NBC's tenure as the NBA broadcaster it was Jordan the Lakers. The only exceptions was when Jordan retired and the Lakers were rebuilding and in the strike shortened season. NBC liked the "dynasty thing", and like to focus their advertising around the great players and great dynasties, so they chose MJ and Shaq. That is why Orlando went to the finals one year when Jordan had "retired" getting the public ready for the next "dynasty".
ABC on the other hand wanted to create new interest, that the league was becoming to predictable and stagnent, so that is why the Lakers have been shut out for 2 years in a row. The prediction now is that a new team will win next year, and the new era without the dynasties is taking shape. The evidence is that when the Yankees won every year in baseball eventually rating dropped, so now the plan is for a new champ every year, to rekindle the interest in the league.
