different

SoCalHoops College News Report

Now This Is Different. Really Different. Another
Perspective On The Game.--(May 9,1998)

A lot of you probably won't like this article; some will find it interesting. Some will be disturbed. We don't think anyone who believes in "the game" will enjoy it's premise, but we thought it was just too provocative, too thought provoking, too. . . well. . . too weird to pass up. So we're passing it along because the good folks at www.intellecutualcapital.com who published this article in the first instance actually requested that it be republished.

The premise of the article is unique: Is it a crime for a player not to try his best in a basketball game? A real crime? Should the feds actually be prosecuting the two Northwestern players accused of throwing games? Who are the real victims? Las Vegas gamblers? The fans? The players? Think about it.

Read it, and then let us know what you think. Leave a message on the SoCalHoops Message Forum. Or don't. It's up to you.

No Harm, No Foul

by Stephen Moore
May 7, 1998
www.intellectualcapital.com

Listening to the moral indignation expressed in the sports world in the wake of the Northwestern University college basketball gambling scandal, one might think point shaving ranks as one of the most heinous of all modern-day crimes. ESPN sports commentators have been demanding that the two Northwestern basketball players, Kenneth Dion Lee and Dewey Williams, charged with fixing the outcome of three games in 1995 be dealt the severest of penalties, including a prison sentence. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office are hot on the trail.

Now for an irreverent question: Why is point shaving an issue the government needs to stick its nose into? What exactly is the crime that Lee and Williams have committed? Dribbling a basketball off their feet? Throwing up bricks? No, the alleged crime is that they intentionally shot up air balls and dribbled the ball off their feet. Who exactly is the victim here?

It's only a game

I have posed these questions to colleagues and sports authorities since the scandal broke. Invariably, I receive the same answer: Point shaving jeopardizes the integrity of the game. Ah, but the operative word in this sentence, of course, is game.

God knows basketball is important. I myself am an absolute college basketball fanatic to the point where my wife asks for a divorce every March. But by the end of the tournament, even I come around to the reality that it is all just a game -- not really worth breaking up my family over.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not defending the behavior of these two players. Shaving points or throwing a game is reprehensible conduct. It is a betrayal of team, of school and most of all, of self. By all means, they should be kicked off the team. The NCAA should ban them for life. Their teammates should beat the crap out of them in the locker room.

But a federal crime? A felony, no less? If Lee and Williams are convicted of "conspiracy to commit sports bribery," they could face up to $250,000 in fines and a five-year prison sentence. In 1981, Rick Kuhn was convicted of taking money from the mob to shave points during five Boston College basketball games, where he played as a center on the team. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Outrageous. Ten years is a stiffer penalty than we give to the hooded man who comes into your home in the middle of the night, scares the bejesus out of you by sticking a gun in your face and walks off with all your money.

A crime against sports, not humanity

Isn't it absurd that the U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI have spent more than three years investigating whether Northwestern's Feb. 15 1995, game against Penn State, which the Cats lost by 32 points was fixed? I watched some of the film of that game, and to be honest, Northwestern was so godawful that year (finishing 1-17 in the Big Ten), there is just no telling whether the errant shots were intentional or not.

Lee and Williams played miserably that game -- but so did the whole team. The entire performance was a crime against humanity. Anyone who was stupid enough to bet on Northwestern -- even getting the points -- in those years deserved to lose their money.

But talk about misplaced priorities. Certainly the FBI has more important crimes to solve. Instead, it's scouring over 3-year-old basketball tapes to try to detect whether players intentionally turned the ball over.

Shouldn't the Bureau be making sure a crazed terrorist hasn't planted a bomb inside the arena? Shouldn't it be investigating kidnapping, rape and murder cases? These are crimes with real victims and real costs, and that impose a real reign of terror on our streets. Our streets won't be any safer with Dion Lee and Dewey Williams behind bars.

Our modern-day legal code continues to muddy the distinction between acts that are offensive or unjust and acts that are a crime requiring government intervention and victim restitution. Consider this example: A few years ago, I and about 6,000 other tennis fans paid $50 each to see Andre Agassi play a tennis match in Washington. Agassi tanked the match. After playing one hard set, he just gave up. No mas.

None of us could prove it, but all of us in the stadium that night knew that Agassi intentionally took a fall so he could collect his six-figure appearance fee and catch the next plane out of town. He plain cheated us out of our money. He impugned the integrity of the game of tennis. He did a rotten thing. But I certainly never expected the FBI to come rushing onto the court and march Agassi off in handcuffs.

Keeping the streets safe for bookies

The irony of the Northwestern case is that the people who are most protected by applying conspiracy and racketeering laws to collegiate athletics are the gamblers themselves. These laws do not preserve the integrity of the game; they preserve the integrity of the Las Vegas gambling industry. The only person who really cares if Northwestern lost to Penn State by 18 points or 32 points is the gambler who bet against the spread.

In fact, by applying super-tough criminal penalties to college athletes who shave points, we do not restore the integrity of the game. We reinforce the insidious notion that these 18- to 22-year-old kids aren't really playing a game anymore at all. They are engaged in a high-stakes business. That is the greatest threat of all to big-time college athletics.

As for Messrs. Lee and Williams, the principle that should be applied to this and all such cases is identical to the common-sense rule that has applied to basketball since the game's inception: No harm, no foul.