Cheating NBA Moments

**The Basketball Brief** (0:00)
This is the entire history of cheating in the NBA.
And even though the league was founded in 1946, for the first few decades of its existence, it was basically a cheating free-for-all. Rests were fixing games in the early 50s, college gambling schemes were spilling into the NBA, and entire rosters were getting changed by mob-run, behind-the-scenes collectives. It was chaos, just without enough cameras to prove any of it for our brainwrap minds today. Thankfully, that all changed in 1988, the year the league got its first modern cheating controversy. And, of course, the refs were involved. See, during the Pistons-Lakers finals, the Lakers were up 102 to 101 in game six, with 17 seconds left, ball in Kareem's hands.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:45)
The old man goes up and misses the shot.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:48)
Bill Lambeer has fouled out of the game at number six.

**The Basketball Brief** (0:50)
That was the exact face the crowd was making too. Bro barely even grazed Kareem, if he hit him at all.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:56)
And there was the foul Lambeer pumping his left shoulder.

**The Basketball Brief** (0:59)
Yeah, you're not convinced to me that there's any foul then. Lambeer might as well have been social distancing from Kareem Skyhook. Yet somehow, the refs forced him to foul with a call so bad, he got nicknamed the Phantom Foul. And thanks to that foul, the Pistons couldn't close out the Lakers in game six and eventually lost game seven. Was it a conspiracy to force game seven against a team everyone hated? Maybe, maybe not. It's kind of hard to prove either way. But at the very least, Pat Riley admitted that Kareem hit that Phantom Skyhook foul, which should be enough for Detroit fans to close the case. But just because he admitted to the Phantom Skyhook foul doesn't mean Pat's completely clean. If anything, in the 90s, Pat drove off the deep end into suspicious activity. See, in 1995, the Miami Heat really wanted him to coach their team. The only problem, he still had a full year left on his contract with the New York Knicks. But that didn't stop Miami from secretly negotiating a contract with Pat. And it didn't take long for the rest of the NBA to catch on. Cuz that under-the-table deal striking is a blatant violation of NBA tampering rules, basically cheating in broad daylight. So the Knicks filed tampering charges faster than Riley could even try to defend himself. It kinda worked out for Pat, cuz the Knicks did drop him. But Miami had to cough up 1 million in cash and a first round pick for 1996 Turns out the NBA doesn't like teams trying to secretly steal other teams' coaches. But Pat Riley's tampering scandal was nothing on what the Tampa rules were going through during the late 90s. See, historically, Minnesota was straight trash. But after they locked down Kevin Garnett, they got their first winning season in franchise history. And not only that, but Stephon Marbury was also on the come up. So in theory, they could have had one of the biggest basketball dynasties ever. All they had to do was build around KG and Marbury.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:37)
Instead, Minnesota signed former number one overall pick Joe Smith ahead of the lockout shortened 1999 season. It seemed as though Smith had sold himself short by agreeing to a small one-year contract with the upstart Wolves. However, the truth was much shady, and that seemingly team-friendly pact with Smith would end up costing Minnesota dearly.

**The Basketball Brief** (2:59)
But honestly, dearly is an understatement. Because here's the deal. Joe Smith passed on 80 million from Golden State to sign a cheap one-year deal with Minnesota. Weird, right? Then he signed another cheap deal the next year and another one the year after that. On paper, it made no sense until you see what was happening underneath, because Minnesota and Smith had a secret plan. Smith's signs bargain one-year contracts to keep the Wolves under the salary cap. The Wolves keep his bird rights, then, after a few years, they give him a hidden seven-year, $86 million payday. Extra cap space now, huge contract later. Everyone wins, except the salary cap, the league, and everyone else playing fair. And they probably would have gotten away with it. What?

**SPEAKER_4** (3:39)
Smith and the Timberwolves might have gotten off scott-free if not for a scandalous agent breakup. When agent Andy Miller left Eric Fleischer's firm, he took Garnett and Smith with him as clients. When Fleischer responded with a lawsuit in 2000, a number of records, documents, and phone calls came to light as part of the legal process. Among the revelations, the Timberwolves front office, led by owner Glenn Taylor and Vice President Kevin McHale, had reached an illegal agreement with Smith in 99