Cuban Hired Former FBI Agent to Investigate 06 NBA Finals
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Mark Cuban has never been shy about criticizing NBA officials, but it seems he took things a step further after the 2006 NBA Finals in which his Dallas Mavericks fell to the Miami Heat in six controversial games.
Per John Canzano of The Oregonian:
This is the stuff of NBA conspiracy theorists' dreams, even if it probably still gives Cuban nightmares.
You'll recall Dwyane Wade took 97 trips to the foul line in six games, including an average of 18.3 attempts over the final four games of the series, per Basketball-Reference.com.
Dallas had taken a 2-0 lead with a pair of convincing wins in Games 1 and 2. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Mavs would cruise home.
But Wade's parade to the free-throw line changed all that.
Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images
Joey Crawford was part of the officiating crew for Game 5 of that series, when Wade attempted 25 foul shots in a 101-100 win. As a team, the Mavericks shot precisely 25 free throws in the contest.
As Flagg indicated in his comments to Canzano, perhaps Cuban never followed through with a lawsuit because he was afraid of the potential consequences. Unfortunately, it sounds like we'll never know what Flagg uncovered or why Cuban chose not to take things further.
Expect anyone with a conspiratorial bent to take this report as proof positive something fishy was going on with the NBA and its officials. But for the rest of us, the comments from Flagg aren't enough from which to draw reasonable conclusions.
As Kurt Helin of NBC Sports wisely explained:
Mark Cuban has never been shy about criticizing NBA officials, but it seems he took things a step further after the 2006 NBA Finals in which his Dallas Mavericks fell to the Miami Heat in six controversial games.
Per John Canzano of The Oregonian:
Retired FBI agent Warren Flagg, a 20-year veteran of the bureau, said he consulted with Cuban after that playoff debacle. Flagg now runs his own New York-based investigation and security firm. He looked deep into officiating, as Flagg said, Cuban was considering a lawsuit.
"Cuban asked me what he should do," Flagg said of the 2006 Finals. "I told him, 'Sue and you'll win your case,' but he knew he'd be killing the Golden Goose.
This is the stuff of NBA conspiracy theorists' dreams, even if it probably still gives Cuban nightmares.
You'll recall Dwyane Wade took 97 trips to the foul line in six games, including an average of 18.3 attempts over the final four games of the series, per Basketball-Reference.com.
Dallas had taken a 2-0 lead with a pair of convincing wins in Games 1 and 2. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Mavs would cruise home.
But Wade's parade to the free-throw line changed all that.
Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images
Joey Crawford was part of the officiating crew for Game 5 of that series, when Wade attempted 25 foul shots in a 101-100 win. As a team, the Mavericks shot precisely 25 free throws in the contest.
As Flagg indicated in his comments to Canzano, perhaps Cuban never followed through with a lawsuit because he was afraid of the potential consequences. Unfortunately, it sounds like we'll never know what Flagg uncovered or why Cuban chose not to take things further.
Expect anyone with a conspiratorial bent to take this report as proof positive something fishy was going on with the NBA and its officials. But for the rest of us, the comments from Flagg aren't enough from which to draw reasonable conclusions.
As Kurt Helin of NBC Sports wisely explained:
But just as is the main flaw with almost any conspiracy—the illuminati, the CIA killed Kennedy, Area 51, etc—it counts on large groups with sometimes competing interests plus often inefficient organizations to maintain perfect secrecy and focus on the end game. The league with its owners and all those referees couldn’t do that if they wanted do.
