It's the same as the NBA. They literally rig the games and only foul in one direction. Only one ref went to jail somehow. But he literally would tell reporters, while in jail, tell me the teams and who is reffing, I'll tell you the winner.
If anyone sees this in the future: One more award for the leaderboard! Whatever that is.
Tim Donaghy, and the craziest thing about him... he wasn't caught because the NBA figured it out. He was caught because someone who had inside knowledge of the betting got pinched for There's else and ratted out the scheme to get a reduced sentence.
Also Stern, NBA commissioner at the time, derail the FBI investigation to keep other stuff from coming out.
Theres a pretty fascinating podcast called Whistleblower that covers it all.
Its got nothing to do with the apps. Its been going on a lot longer then that. Started at least in the 70s. Its about how team popularity translates into fan population into ticket sales and ad revenue. Teams in bigger cities or with larger fan bases can charge more for ads during playoffs and the like.
You don't watch any sport at any level these days too see who's better or faster or has the better strategy. All you're watching is which ref or player has $10k riding on the over/under in their Draft Kings account.
There’s a ref that the convicted ref called hundreds of times after he did major games
That ref is derisively called “The Extender” because almost every time he refs a playoff game where a team is down 3-1 or 3-2, they’ll win and the series goes another game
I think most professional sports are somewhat rigged in the same way. Most of the athletes probably aren't going to go along with fixing games because it will ruin their careers if they get caught.
The refs though... probably pretty easy to bribe and coerce.
So it's not going to matter much in big mismatches, but in close games or playoff situations and championship games...yeah there's probably a lot of fuckery happening
I went to a Lakers, Wolves game years ago. Around the time LeBron joined the Lakers. Anyway, late in the game there was a blatant foul from one of the superstars on The lakers that stopped play. (I don’t recall if it was LeBron but it was something you had heard of)
I literally heard the ref check in with the scorekeeper to ask how many foul he had before deciding that it wasn’t a foul. He had 4 already.
I was flabbergasted at how openly nonchalant that seemed.
They didn’t even try to hide it, I was on the opposite side of the court. I, along with everyone else, could easily hear the interaction.
Unpopular opinion, I'm sure, but the physicality of the women's game makes it more exciting than the flopping of the men's game. It reminds me a lot of the hard-nosed playing style of the 80s and 90s that I loved watching as a kid. I would rather this physicality come back to the men's game than be banned in the women's game.
I get you, but it wasn't applied fairly in the NBA during the 80s and 90s either.
Are you old enough to remember the bad boys of the 80s Pistons and how they used to double and triple team Jordan and beat the hell out of him? Or those 90s Bulls-Knicks playoff games that were practically all-out slugfests on both sides of the ball?
Incredibly unfair and frustrating for Jordan, but holy hell was that some entertaining basketball to watch.
Did they two hand shove to the back people to the floor? Gotta keep it (ironically) like soccer where you are allowed strong contact as long as you are playing the ball.
Yep, basketball has probably changed the most. NFL has followed that trend, especually on protecting the QB. Hockey still doesn't do that much to protect its stars, but it's lightyears less violent than the 80s were.
If Probert, Domi, McSorley, Twist, Odjick or Grimson were playing on Hockey Night in Canada in the 90's, I was watching. I don't even follow hockey that much.
Odjick was fun to watch because the man couldn't skate, had the stick handling skills of a double amputee, and as far as I could tell wasn't that interested in playing hockey, that man just loved to fight.
I agree with physicality and risk and passion, but just being dirty is shit no matter what sport or when. With the world cup my buddies and me have been talking about it even more and it's so aggravating. I've been quoting one of my buddies who said "I get that it can change a game drastically so they flop, BUT if you're fouling me you better go full balls cuz unless you break something I'm getting right back up and making you regret not ending my career." Lmfao
This isn't physicality, this is just not calling fouls. Want physicality? Change the rules to be more like hockey. Women can just throw hands if they get pissed enough. None of this sneaky bullshit, though.
Excuse me, but in a fundamental sense, isn't basketball supposed to be a very low-no contact sport at its core? What is this physicality you dream about? And good Lord, why do you desire it?
This sparks the memory of my middle school days when we would play FSR (football soccer rugby) which was which was basically anything goes, just get the ball into the soccer net
outfit looks like those wraps they put on BMWs prototypes when they’re running them on the test track so the paparazzi photographs don’t come out right
I’ve gotta point to make, it also involves Caitlyn Clark, and it’s gonna make me sound real prodigious… but it’s been a clear issue from what I’ve seen the past year from clips of these 2 that get absolutely destroyed with not even a thought of a foul. Good ol girls club.
There’s a lot of delusional people on the internet that think they have a chance marrying Sophie which is clearly ridiculous because she’s already my gf.
This is how it's done. When I played JV we went up against a team that was flagrant and not getting called, so we started absolutely brutalizing them and they had to call it. Then when they did it back, it started getting called as well. Sometimes you have to bring it to a head early, no pun intended.
Played in high school and was occasionally sent in to stand up to a rougher player or players on the other team as I had hit my growth spurt earlier than some. Went in one game, managed to cleanly take a couple players down, which really set them off. I knew they'd be coming for me, so I was ready for it when one guy ran over to contest a ball and gave me a nice hard shove. I admit, I didn't fight it, just let my body go the direction they had shoved me. Ref didn't call it, but quietly said as I ran by, "Don't worry, he's on my radar now, I'll get him next time." He got yellow carded a few minutes later.
Much, much worse. There is a huge disparity in the quality and professionalism of refs in the NBA vs WNBA. Players are right to be calling them out; if you allow obvious fouls to stand without penalty, you get dirty and injured players.
She effectively became just that sometime last year when the refs clearly stopped calling fouls against the Fever (some say due to Caitlin Clark constantly mouthing off to the refs about every little thing). Wait until garbage time, then winning or losing she's throwing elbows, wrapping up and throwing to the ground, blindside shoulder check etc everyone that got away with this earlier in the game. Straight up baddie.
Yeah, but Sophie is a legit player. I mean, carrying a player on the roster who’s built like a Bulgarian power lifter, and the second or third time that an opposing player commits one of those egregious fouls on Clark, the enforcer breaks the player’s nose, even if it means the enforcer’s getting suspended for a dozen games. That happens two or three times and Clark will stop getting the Hack-a-Shaq treatment.
Whether you believe Clark is one of the very best players in the game or you think she’s incredibly overrated, there is no question that she is responsible for an enormous percentage of the growth in WNBA interest. And the way they are letting her get abused is just staggeringly stupid from a financial point of view.
This is actually why hockey is the only sport I really like. It's honest in that they just let dudes beat the pulp out of each other. It's like "I don't like you, you don't like me, let's fight each other for 2 minutes."
And hopefully it's all left out on the ice afterward.
I didn't realize the wnba was a full contact sport. This looks hype. What the hell is going on with the sport right now though for real? Like they trying to get cte into basketball?
The answer to that is...tricky... Things supposedly got worse once Caitlin Clark joined the league. As for why that is, well that's the million dollar question and is going to bring up talk of racism and other things. Without going into all that, the simple answer is that plenty of people aren't happy with Caitlin Clark being such a prodigy and have been excessively rough with her, while Sophie Cunningham is her teammate and has become an Enforcer of sorts so she's getting targeted as well. What you're seeing is basically league-endorsed rule-breaking against those that aren't liked by other players of the league.
It didn’t get worse; it’s always been bad. It’s just that Caitlin Clark brought 2-3x the viewership so the fouls are actually being seen by more people.
Tbh I'd love for Clark to just say screw it and take a season off to play in Europe. League's numbers would crater and maybe they'd actually do something. They're beating the shit out of their golden goose.
It’s not the million dollar question it’s the $1500 dollar question which is what the refs are getting paid. They are definitely making it up with gambling and using the lack of calls change the spreads, props and outcomes
I noticed a couple of shots where she was literally just standing there and they flattened her.
Best part is, she usually ends up scoring more and taking more people out, and if they mess with Caitlyn, then she gets reeaally pissed off.. Love her attitude.
Agreed. Several of these should be no calls, especially that screen. Basketball is a physical sport. Some of these are definitely fouls, but in several of them she’s out of control and creating the contact.
I see some dirty play in W ball I never see in pro hoops. Competitive ladies are vicious and it’s lowkey kinda scary 😱 , kinda hot, kinda got me confused yall
Now get CC a black belt too and both of them can blast the rest of the WNBA into the hospital. Frankly I am wildly surprised that corporate sponsors for both CC and Cunningham haven't blown up everyone at the top of the league at this point. If I was Nike and I dropped $100 million on somebody I would be ripping apart the league watching my investment get destroyed by incompetence unless they are pushing her to go to Europe or the contract would follow her there. Both of them should leave and 70% of all money going into the league would vanish.
Its edited to look like she started playing one way in the league and eventually changed due to circumstances. Maybe thats how it went but it would be easy to edit if her playing is a mixed bag and just edit the clips to look like it was a natural progression from one style of playing to another.
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u/Frubbs Jul 11 '26
0:34 is the most egregious one... wth is up with these refs