A Series on Equal Opportunity Conspiracy Theorizing

Introduction

It's that time of year NBA fans, where you will come up with and find numerous theories along the lines of this piece, charging that the league and/or the referees are conspiring separately and/or together to push a certain agenda (e.g. LeBron James' stardom) and that they have been doing so for sometime now through at least three generations (e.g. Dwyane Wade '06 Finals, MJ's push-off in '98 Finals, Ewing draft, etc).

I'm not going to lie.  Despite my flashy degree in journalism, I am not a good journalist because I am simply not big fan of practicing journalism, let alone good journalism, myself.  However, I think those that claim to be practicing said profession, should do it right.

Yet, as long as I have been watching sports, all of the conspiracy theories in basketball seem to revolve around the league and the referees.  Meanwhile, there are numerous entities in this world that have at least as much interest in and ability to manipulate the outcomes of games and series. 

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking the mob and anybody involved in gambling, special interest groups, and certain governments might have as much interest as the league in changing the outcomes of games. 

And I'm thinking players, coaches, and medical personnel have more impact on the outcome of a game or series than referees.

Yet for some reason, even when the finger seems to be pointing in the direction of other entities, basketball fans are ready to sweep those facts under the table in order to focus on the preferred culprits.

Now, I'm not going to throw around any stats or cold, hard facts because I'm not a real journalist.  If you want that, take this to FreeDarko.

However, in this series of entries, I hope to delve a bit into the building blocks of popular theories; why these popular theories about the league and the referees are shaky while creating new and outrageous conspiracy theories of my own; and eventually, why fans love to point fingers at the league and the refs over anybody else.

Hope you'll stay tuned.  Part I is probably already up.