"They started with Magic, it got bigger with MJ" - Former Warriors guard claims NBA rigged games to market 'cash cow' players
Kwame Brown and former Warriors guard Gilbert Arenas discussed the possibility of NBA games being rigged during an episode of "Kwame Brown Bust Life" on Saturday. The duo claimed the NBA has historically rigged games and marketed its biggest stars as "cash cows."
The duo mentioned the likes of Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan as examples of "cash cows". Both Jordan and Magic were the pioneers of their generation, and the pair dominated their respective eras. This dominance led the league to use these players as selling points, with both players having rivals that complimented them. Johnson had the radical Larry Bird while Jordan had Isaiah Thomas and the Bad Boys Piston Team.
These factors alongside the growing media made the duo the face of the NBA but Arenas believes that these players got the level of success due to the NBA trying to use them as "cash cows."
Kwame was left perplexed by this, as he believed that if the NBA were rigged and feeding cash cows they would need to manipulate an entire career:
"If they knew he was this cash cow they were marketing him as this cash cow. Wouldn't these numbers, and these accolades, these trophies and the team matching that they matched him with. Wouldn't all that be by design so that they can continue building the mystique of this man and to make this man a cash cow?" Brown queried Arenas. [12:45 onwards]
Gilbert then responded by saying that the league was manipulating the results by changing the rules around these players, rather than planning their entire careers:
"You don't think they have done that from day one? With Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, like you don't think they did it back then. You don't think that the league... I mean if you listen to Isiah Thomas, he was complaining that, how does this kid who has never won a championship come in and you guys change all the rules so it can benefit him, and you break all our teams up so he can grab all the players," Gilbert Arenas said.
Kwame Brown then agreed to Gilbert's take on Jordan and Johnson being used as the face of the NBA. Believing that the league started this tradition with Magic and then carried it over to Jordan's era:
"So what they did was they started this narrative with Michael Jordan with making one player, making everybody love one player like he's the whole league. Matter of fact it started with Magic then it moved and got bigger with MJ. Then the letdown was when MJ retired," Brown said.
Gilbert Arenas once explained how NBA refs cheat
On a June 23, 2023, episode of the "Gil's Arena" podcast, Gilbert Arenas explained how referees cheated and manipulated games in the NBA. He said that players couldn't be swayed by bookies due to their high salaries and that referees were the easiest bunch to exploit.
Continuing to explain his point, the former Warriors and Wizards guard argued:
"The easiest group to manipulate is the referees. All you do is figure out their habits, get inside their habits and you have them by the balls, right? You want to make a little extra money, you know if a referee is making 20 grand ... I don't think they make 20 grand per game right, but if someone offers them 20 grand for this game and says all right over, under 212, the money's on the over you would never know he rigged that game." [1:50 onwards]
Explaining it further, Arenas said that the referees would rig the games in such a way that it always favors the stars. The former Most Improved Player expressed that referees wouldn't foul out a player but rather just keep giving fouls to run up the score.
While this is purely speculation at this point in time, manipulating games to get the edge financially has been a thing of the past in every sport. The NBA has had its fair share of scandals, but Arenas is adamant that it is still prevalent in the NBA today.