EL SEGUNDO HERALD June 23, 2016 Page 5 What If It’s Fixed? By Adam Serrao As fans of professional sports, we are always looking to answer questions that we seemingly have no answer for. Who’s a better player, Kobe or LeBron? Who’s a better team, the Showtime Lakers or this year’s Golden State Warriors? Is Ichiro Suzuki as good of a hitter as Pete Rose? The debate can go on and on until even the most adamant fan runs out of breath and stats to back their argument. After all, that’s what being a fan is all about. You’re literally a “fanatic” for your team or the player that you root for. One question that is recently making headlines and tugging on the minds of every basketball fanatic lately involves the NBA playoffs and whether or not they are fixed. Just like all of the other questions, there is no clear-cut answer to help us all identify the unencumbered truth. When piecing together certain recent facts surrounding this year’s NBA Finals series between the Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers, though, it may just be fair to think that the playoffs are, indeed, fixed. There are plenty of conspiracy theories that exist in the world today. September 11, the shooting of JFK, Area 51, even the moon landing, are all subjects that are heavily debated between conspiracy theorists and their opposites. Just as those theories exist, so does the yearly theory that the NBA playoffs are fixed. Most recently, the wife of NBA All-Star Steph Curry chimed in on her thoughts that the game is fixed after the Warriors lost Game 6 of the finals to LeBron and the Cavs. “I’ve lost all respect sorry this is absolutely rigged for money...or ratings in not sure which. I won’t be silent. Just saw it live. Sry.” Ayesha Curry posted on twitter shortly after her husband was ejected from the game for attaining his sixth personal foul and throwing his mouthpiece toward the crowd out of sheer frustration and anger. Does Ayesha have a point? Well, let’s look at some of the reasons why the NBA could, in fact, be fixed. For starters, the NBA and ABC were in line to make huge money from a Game 7 championship-deciding contest that took place between the two teams. Last year, ABC pulled in $223.9 million in advertising revenues over the course of the NBA Finals between the same two teams. That series only went six games. While that is still a huge amount of money off of only six games, this year’s ratings have drastically spiked and the prospect of a Game 7 brought along with it the prospect of an extreme boost in ratings and profit. A Game 7 last year would have likely drawn an estimated audience of approximately 32 million viewers, up from an average 20 million viewers from previous games in the 2015 Finals. The 32 million viewers was surpassed this year. A seventh game last year would have grossed $45 million in advertising revenues. Also, a number that was severely surpassed with this year’s Game 7. Based on the estimates from last year, if this year’s NBA Finals had ended in five games, like it looked like it would after the first four games of the series, ABC and the NBA would have missed out on at least $80 million in revenue. That’s not to mention the profits that the arenas are pulling, that the ticket sellers are making, and that players, sponsors, and the league all figure to make. Sure, there’s no distinct, indisputable evidence that the league is rigged, but if it were, there would certainly be a ton of people cashing in checks on its behalf. That begs the question, though, of just how would the NBA be able to rig the series? The NBA isn’t rigging who actually wins the title, but they are rigging how many games the series goes. Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy has come forth and said as much, as well. Donaghy was pushed out of the league after it was made public that he was gambling on games. When asked for comment on if the NBA is rigged, Donaghy stated, “It was always a situation where the team down in the series was going to benefit from those calls.” What the former referee was speaking of was the NBA’s tendency to give whichever team was down in the series the favorable calls in a game. Donaghy went on to state that the reason Draymond Green was suspended for Game 5 was to give the Cavaliers an advantage and hopefully get them back in the series. “It [Draymond’s suspension] gives Cleveland a better chance of prolonging the series,” Donaghy continued. While most people would tend to not believe what Donaghy has to say because of his former gambling scandal that wound him up in jail, what would the former referee have to lose by unearthing the dirty secrets of a National Basketball Association that he once worked for, but later turned its back on him once he was caught for gambling? Donaghy also explained how the NBA would send an overseer into a room with the referees before the game and instruct them on how they should call the game on that specific day. “Definitely indirectly with the tape sessions that took place and how they would show you plays that they wanted you to concentrate on in the game.” What he says makes sense. At the beginning of the series between the Warriors and the Cavs, the Cavs looked completely and utterly overmatched. The Warriors were running through them like a hot knife through butter and even a five game series seemed like it would be too long. Suddenly, the referees began to shift the way that they called the games. Cleveland was allowed to be more physical while Golden State and Steph Curry were called for “tickytack” foul calls. Cleveland suddenly reemerged in the series and before you knew it, we were all watching Game 7 when it previously seemed like Cleveland would have no business at all Burkley & Brandlin LLP A T T O R N E Y S A T L A W Living Trusts/Wills, Probate, Employment Law, Personal Injury Trust and Estates Litigation, Business Litigation, Civil Litiga tion 310-540-6000 Lifetime El Segundo Residents *AV Rated (Highest) Martindale - Hubbell / **Certified Specialist Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law, State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization Brian R. Brandlin • Bruce R. Brandlin • Christopher P. Brandlin Douglass M O R T U A R Y “Our Family Serving Yours Since 1954” B U R I A L - C R E M A T I O N - W O R L D W I D E T R A N S F E R P E T M E M O R I A L P R O D U C T S 500 EAST IMPERIAL AVENUE EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA 90245 Telephone (310) 640-9325 • Fax (310) 640-0778 • FD658 Babe Ruth League Crowns Champions Story and photos by Gregg McMullin The 61st El Segundo Babe Ruth League schedule came to a close with the championship games in the books. The Beavers, who won two of the league’s three rounds, defeated the defending league champion Stars in the second elimination game 6-3. The Stars defeated the Beavers in the first elimination game, 7-1 to force the true championship game. The Beavers rolled through the first two rounds on the strength of a balanced lineup that featured solid pitching with enough offense and good defense. The Stars, which looked to have a strong hitting lineup and enough pitching, found ways to lose games early in the first two rounds but came alive in the third round to get into the playoffs against the Beavers. The Beavers’ lineup featured five high school players including David Brady, Tom Coonan, Cameron Dornblaser. Tom Grant and Jacob Snelgrove. The Stars countered with three of its own with Ethan Burner, Dylan Marquez- Wasson and Shane Salzman. Together these players helped guide their teams to a showdown. During the regular season the Stars had the Beavers’ number by defeating them two out of three times. To win the final round, the Stars had to defeat the Padres, Beavers 4-3, Oaks 10-9 and the Seals 9-2. In the first game, Dornblaser started for the Beavers. The Stars had already defeated Dornblaser earlier in the season so the hard throwing right-hander was not intimidating to the Stars’ lineup. Ethan Burner stroked a leadoff triple to start the game and scored on an RBI single by Marquez-Wasson. Danny Kopecky and Matty Robertson each singled and Kyle McMullin drew a walk in an inning where Dornblaser threw 27 of his 124 pitches thrown as the Stars took a 3-0 lead. The Beavers scored their only run in the first inning when Brady singled and later scored on a fielder’s choice to make it 3-1. In the fourth inning Robertson was hit by a pitch, McMullin worked an eight pitch walk and Jackson Samuelson had an RBI single to make it 4-1. In the seventh inning the Stars tacked on three more runs. Burner, Marquez-Wasson each doubled and Salzman had a single and each ended up scoring to make it 7-1. The Stars played a clean game behind the pitching of Marquez-Wasson (two innings), Matt Covarrubias (three innings) and Burner who finished up the last two innings. When Burner got Brady to fly out to Stars right-fielder McMullin, who made a highlight catch, to end the game, the Stars secured a spot in the championship game. In the championship game the Stars were outpitched, out hit and the Beavers played flawless defense in its 6-3 win to claim championship bragging rights. Brady went the distance throwing 107 pitches including 77 for strikes, striking out three and gave up just four hits. The Beavers took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Charlie Hoffman singled and scored on a fielder’s choice. The Stars countered with a single scoring opportunity in the fourth inning when Burner singled and later scored. But the Beavers opened the game open in their half of the fourth inning by scoring three runs. Tom Grant reached on an error followed by an RBI double by Snelgrove, an RBI single by Jackson Slavens and an RBI single by Josh Mydland. With the score 6-3 in the seventh inning Danny Kopecky led off for the Stars and popped up. Brady got Robertson on strikes and McMullin drew a seven pitch base on Giants Celebrate Their Beach Cup Win. See Fixed, page 13 See Babe Ruth, page 7
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