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Corruption in Sport An analysis of the NBA


Jake Baxter
The following report is an analysis of corruption within sport focusing especially on the National Basketball Association. The report helps define what is meant by corruption in sport, before analysing current anti-corruption strategies in the association before outlining some of the major cases of corruption that have occurred in the NBA. The report then looks at the implications of corruption on the leagues stakeholders, before offering recommendations as to how the league could improve their current strategies.

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Table of Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 3 What is Corruption? .......................................................................................................... 4 Corruption in the NBA ...................................................................................................... 6 The NBA playbook against corruption ................................................................................ 6 NBA anti-doping policy ......................................................................................................................... 6 NBA anti-gambling policy .................................................................................................................... 8 Anti-Tanking policy ................................................................................................................................ 9 High profile cases of corruption in the NBA ................................................................... 10 Doping ........................................................................................................................................................ 10 Match Fixing and Point Shaving ...................................................................................................... 11 A Corrupt Commissioner? ................................................................................................................. 12 Implications ...................................................................................................................... 14 Sponsors ..................................................................................................................................... 14 Media ........................................................................................................................................... 15 The relationship between the NBA and its supporters ............................................... 16 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 17 Recommendations .......................................................................................................... 18 How could the NBA improve their anti-corruption strategies? ............................... 18 Increased Transparency ..................................................................................................................... 18 Biological Passports ............................................................................................................................. 18 Ensure advance notification of tests is non-existent ............................................................. 18 How could the NBA improve its integrity? ...................................................................... 19 A more competitive draft lottery .................................................................................................... 19 Ensure young and new athletes coming into the NBA are educated correctly .......... 19 Appendices ........................................................................................................................ 21 Appendix 1: The sport development framework ......................................................... 21
Appendix 2: The results of the study of the prevalence of corruption in international sport by Gorse & Chadwick (2010) ........................................................ 23 Appendix 3: US sport leagues drug policies .................................................................... 24 Appendix 4: A transcript of an interview between Tom Donaghy and Greta Van Susteren ...................................................................................................................................... 25

References ......................................................................................................................... 27

Introduction
The National Basketball Association, more commonly known as The NBA, is the pinnacle of world basketball. The league brings together the worlds best players into a huge commercial metropolis and consequentially into the eye of the mass media. Despite the league paying the highest average salary to its players, it is ranked only third in popularity of the four major American sports leagues. This popularity issue could well be linked to the integrity issues that have faced the NBA in recent years. Since the drug problems the league faced in the 1980s, the on-court violence as seen in the brawl between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers in 2004 and many off-court legal issues for a number of high-profile players the integrity of the league as a whole and its popularity has been affected. The aim of this report is to define corruption in sport by comparing and contrasting different academic scholars definitions in order to pinpoint which definition encompasses all of the issues that corruption brings to a sporting organisation. The report will then critically analyse the anti-corruption mechanisms that are currently employed by the NBA as well as analysing the most high-profile cases of corruption that have affected the organisation in recent years. The cases analysed include the high-profile case of disgraced former NBA referee Tom Donaghy, the doping problems facing players such as Chris Andersen and Hedo Trkolu and the many theories of corruption based around the current NBA commissioner, David Stern. The report will then be concluded by looking at the implications corruption and integrity issues has on the NBA, its stakeholders and the wider sport industry and offer recommendations on how the league could manage corruption more efficiently in the future.

What is Corruption?
The implications that face sport in the adversity of corruption is not a new phenomenon and according to Maennig (2005) corruption in sport can be traced back to as early as the Olympic Games in 388BC. However, as sport has moved through the sports development framework (appendix 1), increasing popularity of many sports has led to them becoming much more of a target for individuals and groups of people wanting to take advantage of the lucrative nature of the industry. (Gorse & Chadwick, 2011). Parallel to the increased popularity of a number of sports has been the rise of sport betting. This increased popularity has been driven by the nexus that exists between the media and sport and the idea that, according to Nicholson (2007), their evolution [the media and the sport industry], particularly throughout the twentieth century, has resulted in them being inextricably bound together. Nicholson also stated he believes that the relationship that exists between the media and sport is sitting right at the core of contemporary sport and will be identifiable in the middle of any issues or problems. A number of illegal gambling syndicates have sought to use this nexus and the development of new media platforms such as Twitter and the World Wide Web as a whole to their advantage and defraud betting operators. However, despite the media taking some of the blame in the development of corruption becoming a contemporary issue in the sporting industry, it has also been integral in helping break the news of some cases, and in some cases helped in the prosecution of guilty individuals. To be able to truly gauge the depth of corruption within modern sport in the globalised era, it is imperative to ensure that the term corruption is correctly defined. Many different academics have offered their own definition as to what is meant by the term corruption over the past 15 years. In its plainest form, corruption is defined as dishonest or illegal behaviour (Collins English Dictionary) and this definition has been drawn upon by both Triesman (2000) and Ashforth & Anand (2003) who define corruption as the misuse of public office for private gain and the misuse of authority for personal, subunit and/or organisational gain respectively. However, as pointed out by Chadwick and Gorse (2011) these definitions are valid when investigating the behaviour of sporting officials and at the governance level of sport. This is proven when looking at the case of the IOC and the investigations into the awarding of host city rights. With cases such as the awarding of the winter Olympic Games to Salt Lake City demonstrating an example of misuse of authority and corruption for organisational gain. However, the above definitions are less accurate in defining the actions committed by athletes in regards to corrupt activities at a personal level. Maennig (2005) acknowledged the need for a definition of corruption to encompass corrupt activities at all levels and not solely at the top/governance levels that previous definitions had covered. Therefore Maennig (2005) decided to incorporate the problem of match fixing into his revised definition, leading him to suggest that in

sport, corruption may take the form of behaviour by athletes who refrain from achieving the level of performance normally required in the sport in question to win the competition and instead intentionally permit others to win [competition corruption], or behaviour by sporting officials who consciously perform their allocated tasks in a manner at variance with the objectives and moral values of the relevant club, association, competitive sports in general and/or society at large [management corruption]. Despite Maennig including match fixing into his definition of corruption and drawing a line between the grey areas of competition corruption and management corruption, his definition was criticised for failing to acknowledge doping as a form of corruption within sport. With this aspect of corruption missing from Maennigs definition, Chadwick and Gorse (2010) offered their own definition to what corruption in sport entails. Corruption in sport involves any illegal, immoral or unethical activity that attempts to deliberately distort the result of a sporting contest for the personal material gain of one or more parties involved in that activity (Gorse & Chadwick, 2010) The above definition is widely considered to be the most concise and all- encompassing definition of corruption within sport that that is yet to be published. The definition seems to have solved the problem regarding the lack of standardisation in defining corruption in sport. The above definition was devised after Chadwick & Gorse published the results of a longitudinal study that analysed competition corruption between 2000 and 2010. The results of this study can be seen in appendix 2.

Corruption in the NBA


The following chapter will illustrate and analyse the mechanisms that the NBA currently adopt in order to manage corruption within the league before highlighting the most high profile cases of corruption that have affected the NBA in recent years. I will then analyse these high profile cases further to fully understand the effect that they had on the league as a whole and to gain an understanding as to how the league handled these cases.

The NBA playbook against corruption

With corruption being such a pertinent issue in world sport, governing bodies and leagues alike must ensure they have efficient mechanisms in place to help combat corruption. This is no different in the NBA, where they have their own anti- corruption strategies to help combat the problem and to standardise punishments. These mechanisms and strategies need to be closely monitored and dynamic in order to be effective. Under Article 35 of the NBA Constitution, the commissioner of the NBA has the authority the administer disciplinary actions in the forms of either suspensions or fines less than $50,000 to players for on-court incidents, conducts that do not conform to standards of fair play, conducts that do not comply to federal or state laws, and conducts that are detrimental to the game of basketball or the league. The 2005 collective bargaining agreement (CBA), between the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and the NBA, said that any party can appeal to an arbitrator if any given suspension is longer than 12 games or a player is fined above the level of $50,000. Should the incident be more serious, for example longitudinal substance abuse or point shaving, players implicated can be permanently banned from competing in the league. However, those players banned for substance abuse are allowed to return to the association two years later this is after an agreement under the anti-drug agreement between the NBA and the NBPA.

NBA anti-doping policy

In September 1983, the NBA was the first professional American sports league to implement an anti-doping program. This anti-doping act was implemented in order to try and deal with the cocaine pandemic that was running strife through the league. This cocaine problem was so serious that according to Wong (2010) it was estimated that 70% of NBA players were using cocaine and such misuse was having a detrimental affect on the leagues integrity. By 1999, The NBA and the NBPA had agreed to tougher drug laws and added marijuana and its by-products (skunk, hash, resin etc.) as well as steroids to its banned substances list. This 1999 CBA agreement also lead to the testing of veteran players through training camps a procedure that wasnt common before this agreement. Only 14 months after steroids were added to the banned substances list, in March 2000, the NBPA had commissioned its own prohibited substances committee. This committee added a raft of new steroids, including testosterone to the banned substances list (a comprehensive list of the banned substances can be seen in figure 1 below). The stringent list became more

comprehensive at the beginning of the 2004-05 NBA season, where substances such as ephedra and cathine were added to the list of banned substances. Date Substances Banned September 1983 Amphetamine (including, but not limited to, methamphetamine and MDMA), Cocaine, LSD, Opiates (Heroin, Codeine, Morphine), and Phencyclidine (PCP). January 1999 Marijuana and its by-products, Steroids (Bolasterone, Boldenone, Clenbuterol, Clostebol, Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone , Dromostanolone , Ethylestrenol, Furazebol, Mesterolone, Methandienone, Methandriol, Methenolone, Mibolerone, Oxymesterone, Trenbolone March 2000 Steroids (Androstenedione (Andro), Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), Fluoxymesterone, Methyltestosterone, Nandrolone, Oxandrolone, Oxymetholone, Stanozolol, and Testosterone) October 2004 Ephedra (also called Ma Huang, Bishops Tea and Chi Powder), Ephedrine, Methylephedrine, Norpseudoephedrine (also called Cathine), Phenylpropanolamine (PPA), Pseudoephedrine
Figure 1 - Banned substances in the NBA

The medical director in charge determines the current testing mechanism in place in the NBA. This medical director is an individual chosen jointly by both the NBA and the NBPA. Through the current mechanism players are allowed to voluntarily admit using a prohibited substance and seek treatment through a programme developed by the NBPA to help treat and rehabilitate stricken athletes. Should a player voluntarily admit to using a substance they will not be penalised, unless they fail to cooperate with the treatment arranged by the NBPA. Should the NBA or NBPA receive any information that suggests a player is breaking the anti-doping code they may request a hearing with the accused party that involves the case being heard by an independent expert. Should the independent expert believe the case has substance, the NBA will proceed to test the accused four times over the six-week period immediately after the case has been heard. Alongside this, the 2005 CBA finally agreed to the random drug testing of all NBA players up to four times throughout the course of the NBA season. This test is designed to discover the use of those drugs prohibited by the NBA.

The penalties that are currently in place for the NBA in regards to being found guilty of doping vary substantially, based on a number of factors. These factors include the substance involved in the case and the circumstances in which the accused is discovered to be using said substance. The NBAs policy is in some ways very similar to that of the National Football League (NFL), in that if a doping offence is bought to light in a violation of federal or state law, then the punishment is increased. However, the NBAs policy also differs to the NFLs in that the NFL has harsher punishments in the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), such as steroids. Whereas the NBA punishes the use of what are considered street drugs more severely. These street drugs are substances such as cocaine and opiates including heroin and codeine. Figure 2 below shows a breakdown of the NBAs punishments in line with their substance policy. The NBAs drug abuse policy below can be compared to the policies of other US major sport leagues as shown in appendix 3. Substance First Offense Second Offense Third Offense Steroids 20-game suspension 45-game suspension Disqualification from the league Marijuana No penalty enter A fine re-enter 5-game suspension program program re-enter program Others (Drugs Disqualification N/A N/A 1 2 of Abuse ) from the league
Figure 2 The NBAs Substance Policy (Correct as of the 2011-2012 season)

Despite the punishments for doping being increased as a result of the 2011 CBA, there has still been widespread criticism in the way in which the NBA conducts doping tests. The director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), David Howman, is one of these critiques. Howman was quoted as saying they've got gaps in their program, between what they do and what we suggest would be better. These gaps in the testing will be elaborated upon in the recommendations section of this report, along with ideas and practices that could help the NBA close these gaps.

NBA anti-gambling policy

After the Tim Donaghy scandal that will be detailed later in this report and the numerous allegations and cases of point shaving within both the NBA and the NCAA, the NBA has developed its own anti-gambling policy to try and combat this happening in the future. As part of the 2005 CBA, strict guidelines have been put in place to ensure that betting or wagering on NBA games by referees, players, coaches, trainers or other team or league employees is non-existent with the NBA stating that it is entirely inconsistent with fair and honest competition and has no place in our sport. In line with these guidelines all referees are prohibited from betting or wagering on any NBA game and any violation of this rules will lead to expulsion from the NBA. In 1 Drugs of abuse includes, but is not exclusive to: cocaine, speed, heroin, LSD 2 Players may be reinstated into the league at the end of a two year period

addition to this, and to try and stop NBA referees from becoming intertwined with gambling problems and circles, the NBA also are generally prohibited from gambling in any manner and not exclusive to NBA or sports betting. Any violation of this rule will lead to the referee in question going in front of a disciplinary panel. In order to prevent the misuse of confidential information by illegal organised crime syndicates in their aim of fixing NBA contests, the NBA has made it illegal for referees to disclose their schedule of game assignments to anyone apart from immediate family members. Any violation of this rule will also result in the referee being part of a disciplinary procedure. The NBA have also set up a hotline that referees should call should they be approached regarding any suspicious activity and provide their officials with a handbook that tells them what they can and cant do and offers help should they become addicted to betting.

Anti-Tanking policy

Like other major US sports leagues, the NBA adopts a draft system that allows the franchises in the NBA to draft what they believe are the best college players within that draft cohort that year. Prior to the 1985 draft the NBA would assemble their draft order based solely on the win-loss record of teams in the previous season. This was, and still is, the same method that is used by other sports leagues such as The NFL and MLB. However, as there were fears of some teams tanking, a practice that sees a team purposefully lose matches to increase their draft stock and in turn receive a higher draft pick, the NBA introduced the draft lottery. The draft lottery was first introduced in the 1985 draft, bringing with it a whole new corruption case detailed later in this report, and meant that all the non-playoff teams were given an equal chance of being selected as the number one pick. The lottery system was developed in 1990 to a weighted system that gave the team with the worst regular season record the best chance of obtaining the first pick in the draft. Despite this new weighted system seeming to go against the lotterys main aim of fighting tanking, it seemed to find a level ground of ensuring the worst performing teams in the league were rewarded with a higher draft pick, but they werent entirely guaranteed a high draft pick.

High profile cases of corruption in the NBA


Doping
Since league-wide testing began in 1999, the NBA has only seen a handful of players found guilty of substance abuse. The majority of these players were handed 5 or 10 match bans in line with the NBAs substance abuse policy at the time of the incident. Figure 3 below shows the players who have failed tests for PEDs. Year Name PED found guilty of taking Punishment 2000 Don MacLean Steroids 5 games 2001 Matt Geiger Steroids 2 games 2002 Soumalia Samake Nandrolone 5 games 2007 Lindsey Hunter Phentermine 10 games 2008 Darius Miles Phentermine 10 games 2009 Rashard Lewis DHEA 10 games 2011 O.J. Mayo DHEA 10 games 2013 Hedo Trkolu Methenolone 20 games
Figure 3 - NBA players who have failed tests for PED's

The most high profile cases on the above figure are the suspensions handed to Rashard Lewis and Hedo Trkolu. At the time of the failed doping test, Lewis was one of the highest paid players in the Association. He was suspended without pay for 10 matches in August 2009 after testing positive for an elevated level of testosterone. It is believed that the banned substance came from an over-the-counter supplement that Lewis had taken and he personally wasnt aware of any wrongdoing. His team, the Orlando Magic, publically backed Lewis calling the situation a very innocent mistake. The most recent case of doping in the NBA involved Turkish forward Hedo Trkolu who was suspended for 20 games without pay for testing positive for the anabolic steroid methenolone. Trkolu, who ironically also plays for the Orlando Magic, took full responsibility for the positive test and blamed medication administered by a Turkish trainer to help him in his rehabilitation from a shoulder injury. Once again, the Magic publicly backed their player. Alongside the eight cases of players testing positive for PEDs that are shown in figure 3, there has been one case of a player being disqualified from the league for violating the Associations drug policy. This player is Chris Andersen, who at the time was contracted to the New Orleans Hornets, who was banished from the league for testing positive for a banned substance in January 2006. In line with the 2005 CBA, neither the NBA or NBPA are able to release the specifics of the failed drug test, however as Andersen hadnt been found guilty of any wrongdoing in the past, it is assumed that he was found positive for using drugs of abuse. After serving his 2- year expulsion period from the league Andersen was able to request to be reinstated

as an NBA player. The NBA and the NPBA granted this request in March 2008, and Andersen returned to the New Orleans Hornets. As of May 2013, Andersen is signed to the Miami Heat and he is expected to be crowned an NBA Champion at the end of the current season.

Match Fixing and Point Shaving

Despite the 10 most prevalent cases of doping in the NBA since 1999, the biggest corruption scandal to hit the NBA in recent times is that of disgraced NBA referee, Tim Donaghy. In July 2007, the FBI released details of an investigation by their own division of officers that are tasked with dealing with match fixing in sports, into NBA officials betting on games in which they officiated. This investigation revealed that Tim Donaghy had bet on games in which he had officiated during the 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 season and made decisions in these games to affect the point spread3 in these games. In August 2007, on the back of the revelations exposed by this investigation, Tim Donaghy pleaded guilty to two federal charges of conspiracy relating to the FBI investigation. In June 2008, before being sentenced by the courts, Tim Donaghy released a statement through his lawyers that accused the NBA of instructing referees to improperly referee a number of playoff games because it was in the NBA's interest to add another game to the series. Donaghy identified games in the 2002 and 2005 play-offs as the two he believed to have been fixed by the NBA with game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals being specifically pointed out. This was a game between the LA Lakers and the Sacramento Kings in which according to Liu (2008) is considered by Kings fans the worst officiated game in sports history. In July 2008, Tim Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment with three years of supervised release and admitted that he had brought shame on myself, my family and the profession. This case was bought back into the public eye in 2009 when Donaghy, after being released from jail, released a book making claims in regards to internal corruption in the NBA. A transcript from an interview about his claims with Greta Van Susteren broadcast on Fox television can be found in appendix 4. This case and in particular the claims seen in appendix 4, elevated the conspiracy theorists belief that players tarnished with the superstar status were given special treatment by officials in the NBA to increase their marketability. An example of such preferential treatment is that in the 2006 FIBA World Championships, LeBron James went to the foul line an average 2.2 times per game, compared to the 13 times on average he went to the foul line in the 2008 play offs. The stark difference is that the NBA wants to sell jerseys, and with the player in question being more successful on court, his marketability stock will be more successful off court. 3 The point spread of a game directly relates to the gambling markets available on a game. Point spreading is used to even the odds between two teams and offers a points handicap to the underdog

A Corrupt Commissioner?
David Stern has been involved with the NBA since 1966 when he was appointed as an outside counsel. By 1984, he was given the role of the leagues commissioner, which is a role that he still holds today. Throughout his 29 year tenure at the helm of the association Stern has seen the NBA go through a massive popularity and commercial boom. However, despite Stern being seen as a catalyst of this boom there are many that believe he hasnt always acted in a correct just manner in his role. The first of such incidents came in the 1985 draft. As previously mentioned, the 1985 draft was the first draft that was preceded by a draft lottery and this is where the leagues first apparent case of internal corruption happened. Stern, a self-confessed New York Knicks fan, was given the responsibility of picking one of seven envelopes out of a clear plastic box. The envelopes all contained logos of the seven teams with the worst records in the previous season and Stern was given the responsibility of choosing which team would have the number 1 pick of the 1985 draft. As all of the envelopes were put in the tumbler, one of them was placed in forcibly, causing the envelope to bang on the edge and cause the envelope to develop an upturned corner. Stern picked the one envelope with the upturned corner, despite it being one of the most unnatural envelopes to pick. This envelope turned out to include the logo of the New York Knicks, who drafted future NBA Hall-of-Famer Patrick Ewing with many believing the NBA wanted such a player to be drafted to a large market team such as the Knicks to increase television revenues. Another big controversy that has affected the integrity of the Association is the situation with the NBA owning one of the leagues franchises. In December 2010, the NBA purchased the bankrupt New Orleans Hornets for a fee believed to be around $300m. The purchase of the franchise caused murmurs in the sporting world with many questioning the conflict of interest that must have been present in the league having a controlling stake in one of its franchises. However, it wasnt until the following December that this conflict of interest was really called into question after a situation involving the Hornets star player Chris Paul requesting to be traded away from the Hornets. The Hornets had agreed a three-team trade that would have seen Paul traded to the LA Lakers however Stern vetoed this trade for what an NBA spokesperson would only describe as basketball reasons. Both NBA coaches and journalists alike criticised this situation with then Lakers coach, Phil Jackson publicly criticising the NBAs collective ownership of the Hornets and respected NBA reporter, Bill Russell stating that the situation was one of the biggest conflicts of interest in sports history. This was a league intentionally jeopardizing its own credibility. This was a scandal popping out of thin air, self-created, almost like a man- made lake or something. The final controversy surrounding the leagues ownership of the New Orleans franchise came to light during the 2012 NBA draft lottery, where the Hornets won the number one pick all with only a 13% chance of doing so. Despite the fact that it is a common occurrence that a team with a low percentage chance of winning the

lottery seems to do so, it cant be ignored that the player speculated to go first in the NBA draft Anthony Davis, is considered to be one of the best players to enter the league in recent years. Although this could well be pure coincidence, the integrity of the league has once again been affected due to the NBA owning the Hornets. The NBA finally sold the franchise to Tom Benson for $338m in April 2012.

Implications
Despite the NBA facing these corruption allegations and going through a number of crisis over the past 15 or so years, the league has still managed to grow in terms of commercial revenue and worldwide popularity. In the large part this is down to the amount of money sports brands such as Nike, Reebok and Adidas have spent on endorsing and marketing individual athletes such as LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Shaquille ONeal. The NBA has also seen tremendous growth in China and Europe over the past 10 years, making it a commercial and globalised sports league. However, what if it was it to emerge that the great Chicago Bulls team of the early-1990s were taking PEDs? What effect would this have on the sport and on the players on that great team, taking into consideration that the team included Michael Jordan, a player and brand that is the face of basketball and of Nike worldwide? The following chapter will look at what the true implications of corrupt behaviour in the NBA has had on a number of key stakeholders including the media, league sponsors, the supporters and betting regulators.

Sponsors

Corruption within any sport, not only basketball, could have a massive effect upon the sponsors and associated partners of the sport, sporting individual or sporting event as a whole. Chadwick (2013) stated that he believes this has developed due to sponsors seeing the tarnished image of their sponsored property being transferred to the sponsor itself. Sport sponsorship, and the revenue generated through it, has increased massively in recent years in line with the sport development framework displayed in appendix 1. A Sport Marketing Survey estimated the true value of the sponsorship market within sport in 2009 to be worth 79% of the total global sponsorship market size. This revenue garnered through sponsorship has helped sport develop and become central within many peoples lives in the modern day. Despite the large value of sponsorship for sporting organisations, it is necessary to consider what has been said by Chadwick (2013) and understand that sponsors do not want to associate themselves with a sporting entity that is found to be corrupt. With the need for the revenue that the sponsors provide, they are now much more of a salient stakeholder with them holding the three characteristics identified by Mitchell et al. (1997). This increased stakeholder salience means that sponsors now have more authority and power in potentially kicking corrupt behaviour out of a sport. This idea has been described by Chadwick (2013) as market driven morality and has been apparent in two cases of sponsors and their reaction to corrupt behaviour in recent years. These two cases are based around Emirates Airlines, who ended their association with FIFA in light of their recent corruption scandals, and

Skins, who instigated a programme entitled Change Cycling Now which was an initiative to try and rid the sport of the problems that it has faced over recent years. Many of the NBAs top players have massive endorsement deals with the elite players such as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant raking in over $40m in endorsement deals with large organisations such as Samsung, Nike, State Farm, Audemars Piquet and Hublot. These endorsement deals are for massive amounts of money and over a long period of time and poses the question that was a player of their stature to be found guilty of any corrupt behaviour would they drop the athletes to help uphold their reputation. However, as mentioned earlier it could be argued that these players are already an accessory of corrupt behaviour in the way in which referees apparently favour the more elite and marketable players in foul calls, leading to increased numbers on the boards, and ultimately a better player. Despite these allegations the sponsors still continue to invest huge amounts of money into these players and market them to a worldwide audience, this could link to what was said by Carpenter (2013) that US sport is more about entertainment than competition and therefore sees less emphasis on preventing corruption resulting in sponsors seeing this lack of emphasis and internal corruption as a way to enhance their brand and profits.

Media

Due to the media and sport nexus that was detailed earlier in this report, there has been a large hike in the way that these two industries have become linked together and the power that the media has as a stakeholder has increased significantly as a result. With the raft of sport media conglomerates that exist in the United States such as ESPN, there is a constant need for these organisations to fill their publications with news, either positive or negative, about sport. Sport has become such a massive phenomenon world-wide it has become common for sport news to be on the front page of media outlets as well as the back pages. In the initial phase of a corruption case, media outlets are more than likely to experience a hike in sales and website hits as everyone will want to read the reports and find out about the details about the case. There is also the conflict of interest that many of these media outlets will possess. Media conglomerates such as ESPN, Fox Sports and NBC all spend huge amounts of money to receive the broadcasting rights to show live NBA matches. This in turn allows them to raise money through advertisement sales during their live broadcasts that bring in huge amounts of money for the broadcasters. Therefore, with this in mind, how much will these outlets want to discuss the reports of corruption within sports when they are relying on the sport to stay popular in order for them to stay profitable? My view is that this conflict of interest is an area which needs to be explored in more detail to fully understand the extent of the problem.

The relationship between the NBA and its supporters


Corruption within sport is a direct threat to one of the fundamentals of sport the uncertainty of outcome, alongside affecting upon the integrity of the sporting organisation and its marquee players. These threats have a direct impact upon the relationship between the sport or sporting organisation and its supporters and according to Transparency International UK, corruption will undermine supporters loyalty and the fundamentals of fair play. On the back of the Tim Donaghy scandal that hit the NBA in 2007, fans of NBA teams that were present at the games in which Donaghy was found guilty of fixing requested their money back. This is only a small piece of the wider picture of the problems that the league faced with the relationships with the fans in the wake of a scandal with many deciding against trusting the league and especially its commissioner, David Stern. Despite the initial concern of the fans about the integrity of the league, it seems evident that there have been no long lasting effects of the Donaghy scandal. The leagues attendances have continued to grow at a steady level and the league has continued to grow globally since the scandal broke in 2007.

Conclusion
The main aim of this report was to analyse corruption within the NBA by looking at the leagues anti-corruption mechanisms and analysing major cases of corruption in the sport. After analysing the differing views from academics on the concise definition of corruption in sport, I was able to pinpoint that the definition offered by Chadwick & Gorse (2010) was the all-encompassing definition and the one that fits best. I believe it is imperative to consider the views of sports lawyer, Kevin Carpenter, who stated that US sport is more about entertainment than competition and therefore sees less emphasis on preventing corruption (2013). I believe this statement is particularly interesting when you look at how lenient the NBA are on the use of PEDs that have the potential to increase the entertainment factor of the sport. An analysis of the current anti-corruption mechanisms in place in the NBA showed where there are potential gaps and grey areas. These gaps are especially prevalent in the doping tests adopted by the NBA, but are also visible in its other anti-corruption mechanisms. With these grey areas identified I have been able to offer a number of recommendations to the NBA in helping closing the gaps in their testing and help uphold the integrity of the league. The analysis of the high-profile cases of corruption in the NBA also leaves some suspicions in my mind that the league is corrupt from within. The lack of transparency displayed by both the NBA and NBPA in regards to all reported corrupt activity doesnt help rebuild the leagues integrity, neither does it offer logical explanations to what could well be simple coincidences but are now fully-blown conspiracy theories to many. The news that David Stern is set to step down from his position of commissioner in 2014 could very well be a defining moment in the NBA and its problems with internal, management corruption. However, the fact that the next commissioner is currently Sterns assistant may well mean the league doesnt enter a new era under new stewardship and that it will continue to be run as it has over the past 30 years. Only time will tell.

Recommendations
The following part of this report will outline recommendations for the NBA in how they can improve their anti-corruption strategies and in-turn improve the integrity of the league.

How could the NBA improve their anti-corruption strategies?


Increased Transparency
With the league running its own anti-doping programme and the allegations of corruption against the commissioner, David Stern, the NBAs ability to police itself internally has to be called into question. To help increase the integrity of the league and the validity of its anti-doping program, the league should seek the support of the US anti-doping agency to help validate and police their anti-doping policies. The league and the NBPA should also re-consider some of the points agreed in the CBA in regards to how strict the rules are on the transparency of failed tests. I believe the league should seek to make the NBPA allow the release of the finer details of failed drug tests to ensure all of the leagues stakeholders are informed of the situation and receive the whole picture.

Biological Passports

The idea of biological passports have become commonplace for athletes competing in a number of different sports such as cycling and other endurance sports. The football world governing body, FIFA, are also working with WADA to implement them into world football prior to the 2014 World Cup. Biological passports consist of assessing athletes blood profiles all year round, to look for trends and fluctuations that appear when an athlete is doping. When any suspicious patterns are discovered the athlete is then subjected to further testing. Should the NBA and the NBPA be able to come to an agreement in regards to allowing blood testing in the NBA, then biological passports should be bought into the NBA to ensure a standardised doping strategy.

Ensure advance notification of tests is non-existent

With the advances in technology and medicines, cheating is becoming a lot more sophisticated. This level of advance has meant that a drug could potentially be administered pre-testing which would ensure an athlete would pass an upcoming drug test. Currently the National Center for Drug Free Sport (NCDFS) who are the contractor for collecting drug samples in the NBA, are given a random list of athletes to test that day. Neither the NBA or NBPA have any advance notice of the players on

this list and this is something that has worked well in ensuring internal corruption isnt common. However, the actual testing procedure is where the gaps lie. With the trainer being responsible to round up all the players for testing, there is a time that elapses where a player learns he is about to be tested and the test taking place. It is imperative that in this time, the athletes are given no time alone in order to potentially beat the test through administering another drug into their system. The NBA and the NBPA must work more closely with the NCDFS to help ensure tests are entirely random and can happen at any given time and place. One way in which the NBA and the NCDFS could implement this is through introducing a whereabouts rule. This rule would require all NBA players to make the NCDFS aware of where they were to be located for a given hour timeslot every day. The NCDFS can then randomly turn up at this location and test the athlete on the spot.

How could the NBA improve its integrity?


A more competitive draft lottery


Instead of the current draft lottery system that the NBA currently employs, the NBA could introduce a spin-off draw consisting of those teams who are out of play-off contention. The idea of this is that once a team is out of play-off contention, they still have to compete to win this mock play-off. In winning the mock play-off, team x will be rewarded with an extra 10% chance of gaining the top pick in the lottery, with the finalists and semi-finalists also being rewarded with increased chances. This spin- off could also raise television revenues for the league as a whole.

Ensure young and new athletes coming into the NBA are educated correctly
With the draft system that exists in the NBA and the recent influx of players entering the league from different nations, the association must ensure players are correctly educated in its policies against corruption. This is especially important considering the problems that have marred the NCAA in regards to point shaving and wider match fixing allegations. With players in the NCAA not receiving a level of remuneration matching the stature of the competition for their efforts, the temptation to become involved in corrupt behaviour is elevated. With this in mind, there is a possibility that once these individuals are part of organised crime syndicates they bring this association with them into the NBA. This also has the potential to happen with players who come across from international locations, should they have become involved in these organised crime syndicates in their native country. This worry is especially prevalent in the importation of Chinese players into the NBA. Despite the NBA trying hard to break the Chinese market and help develop basketball in the country and the NBA brand in China there is worries that due to China being a hotbed for corruption within sport, the players that move to the NBA may already be altercated with organised crime gangs.

The NBA and the NBPA could potentially screen all the players that apply for draft eligibility and potentially introduce a fit-and-proper test to ensure the players have no previous or current links with organised crime syndicates. This should be done with the help of current and ex professionals, not only from basketball, but from a variety of sports that have either been approached by these gangs or accused of or found guilty of match-fixing. These athletes may be able to help the players new to the NBA understand the real problems and implications of becoming involved with these organised crime syndicates.

Appendices

Appendix 1: The sport development framework


In 2004, Beech and Chadwick developed the sports development framework that is shown below. This framework outlined the 7 stages that sport businesses have passed through, or may still be going through and elaborates on each stage. Many professional sports are now developed to at least the post-professionalisation stage with many sports now in the commercialised stage.

Commercialisation Commercialisation is the stage that many professional sports are currently at. It is seen as a revolutionary process which is described as 'the sport develops an overtly business context, external organisations see the opportunity of using the sport for their own purposes, typically marketing in the form of sponsorship (Beech & Chadwick, 2004). This process of commercialisation has resulted in massively inflated revenue streams for many sporting organisations and therefore the importance of financial management becoming more relevant to sport managers. The main source of revenue for many football clubs within England is received through television broadcasting agreements. This greater exposure has led to sponsors wanting to become involved with sporting organisations and coincidentally leading to a new approach of trying to maximise revenue even more so through merchandise sales. Below are two figures that have been drawn up by Beech (2010) that show revenue streams in the case of football clubs and the differences between the professionalised era and the commercialised era. The Professionalised era

The Commercialised era

Globalisation Globalisation isn't a stage that is directly recognised by the sport development framework but it does have similarities with the post-commercialisation era that is recognised as part of the framework. The term 'Globalisation' is a more widely used business term that has been developed due to advances in general business practice. BBC News (2008) described globalisation; 'this process is not new, but its pace and scope has accelerated in recent years, to embrace more industries and more countries.' This description was also backed up by Anitat (2002) who described it as 'the process through which an increasingly free flow of ideas, peoples, goods and services and capital leads to the integration of economies and societies.' Within sport globalisation has added impetus to international rivalries that date in the modern era from the 1896 Olympic Games Hill (2006). This increased exposure has benefited many sports and where sports such as soccer, cricket, tennis & golf have been global for years, less well-known sports are also benefiting such as lacrosse, table tennis and field hockey. However, according to Giulianotti (2002) no single sport has benefited from its global exposures as much as soccer. This idea is partly described in the figure below which was devised by Hall (2006) and looks at how Manchester United have risen to be the global brand that they now are.

Appendix 2: The results of the study of the prevalence of corruption in international sport by Gorse & Chadwick (2010)

Figure 4 - Corruption in International Sport, taken from Chadwick & Gorse (2011)

Figure 5 - Doping Cases in International Sport, taken from Chadwick & Gorse (2011)

Table 1 - Table of Doping Cases by Sport (2000-2010), taken from Chadwick & Gorse (2011)

Figure 6 - Match Fixing Cases in International Sport, taken from Chadwick & Gorse (2011)

Figure 7 - Attempts to Defraud Betting Operators by Geographical Area (2000-2010), taken from Chadwick & Gorse (2011)


Appendix 3: US sport leagues drug policies
The National Football League (NFL)

Figure 8 - NFL substance policy. Taken from Wong (2010)

Major League Baseball

Figure 9 - MLB substance policy. Taken from Wong (2010)

Appendix 4: A transcript of an interview between Tom Donaghy and Greta Van Susteren
Donaghy: One player where referees targeted on a continuous basis was Rasheed Wallace. He was one of those guys that just constantly -- seemed to go out of his way to embarrass referees. And when you do that to the referee staff, you know, at times they would come together, and basically try to put him in his place, or try to get him in a position where, you know, he would stop doing what he was doing.

Van Susteren: So there are the NBA players who sort of get the harsher treatment, deliberately. Are there any NBA players who are particularly well liked, or favorites that get a pass? Where maybe they've fouled somebody, or did palming or traveling, and everyone said, 'Let's let him go'? Donaghy: I mean, there are situations, and the referees are trained in the fact that, obviously, you don't want to be throwing the stars out of the game, or you don't want to be giving a star a foul that you can give to somebody else who's in that area. Van Susteren: You mean, you'd deliberately pick who you give the foul to? I mean, if there's a collision of players, you'd pick who you'd give the foul to? Donaghy: Sure. Van Susteren: So that someone who might be near the limit on the fouls and who might be a star might not get it, but you'd give it to somebody else? Donaghy: Absolutely. Van Susteren: Deliberately? Donaghy: Deliberately. Van Susteren: And was that discussed beforehand and afterwards, you know, we're going to do this if the situation arises or something like it. And afterwards, good job, you did that? Donaghy: Well, it's the way that you were trained. Obviously you don't want to give a Kobe Bryant or Shaquille O'Neal or LeBron James a foul that may be his second or third foul in the first quarter, to where he's going to have to go to the bench. I mean, it was openly discussed in meetings that, you know, people paid big dollars to see these stars on the floor. So if there's a situation where you can have two people to pick from, you're certainly not going to pick one of them, you're going to pick someone that's the sixth, seventh, or eighth man on that team. Van Susteren: And that's expressly said, that that's what you should do. Donaghy: Absolutely it is.

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