Famous Basketball Scandals

Sports scandals have been the staple of locker room talk and conversations in college campuses, bars, and offices. Sports scandals can take many twists and turns that are usually fed by the media to the public. Here are some of the most controversial college sports scandals and professional sports scandals in basketball.

Kentucky Basketball Scandal

College basketball in the 1950's was rife with speculations of point shaving. Point shaving is any action of a player, a coach, a ref, or any participant of the game with the motive to influence the final score for money.

The Kentucky Wildcats is one of the most successful teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), having won the national title for two straight seasons in 1948 and 1949. Kentucky players Alex Groza, Ralph Beard, and Dale Barnstable pleaded guilty to taking $1,500 in bribes to shave points in an invitational tournament game against Loyola-Chicago. Kentucky lost 67-56 in a game in which they were favored to win by ten points.

The Kentucky Basketball Program was the crème-of-the-crop before the basketball scandal happened. Because of the program's elite status and its threat to become a basketball superpower for decades, mounting pressure from other institutions forced the NCAA to hand Kentucky the NCAA "death penalty". The NCAA placed the entire Kentucky athletic program under probation and barred all Kentucky athletes from the postseason. The NBA also sanctioned Groza and Beard and banned them from ever playing in the league. The Kentucky Basketball Scandal placed the reality of point shaving into the spotlight, which is an issue that haunts the NCAA until the present.

Baylor University Basketball Scandal

Baylor University's basketball program was found guilty of several NCAA violations following the murder of Patrick Dennehy. Dennehy was a BYU basketball player who transferred from the University of New Mexico. Carlton Dotson, a friend and teammate of Dennehy, pleaded guilty to the murder of Dennehy and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

The trial led to allegations concerning Dennehy's ability to transfer to BYU without an athletic scholarship. The allegation led to the creation of an investigative panel to screen possible NCAA violations. The panel found that head coach David Bliss ignored reports of abuse of marijuana and alcohol committed by his players, including Dennehy and Dotson. In addition to drug abuse allegations, NCAA also found recruiting violations such as actions that fall under "unauthorized try-outs," and payment of tuition fees by coaches. The NCAA also found that David Bliss lied several times during the investigation and prodded his staff to lie about the team's expense reports. As a result, BYU was slapped with a two-year probation and suspension of post-season play for the 03-04 season.

The BYU scandal was the most recent major scandal of an NCAA member institution. The sensational angles to the stories reached major news headlines all over the country and became a large coffee shop topic in college campuses.

2007 NBA Betting Scandal

One of the biggest, if not the biggest professional sports scandals in the country was the 2007 NBA betting scandal. This scandal brought the integrity of professional basketball into question.

An article in the New York Post reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened an investigation on allegations that a professional basketball referee named Tim Donaghy had bet on games since 2005 and that he was connected to a gambling syndicate. Once the news broke out, NBA Commissioner David Stern launched an internal investigation to "bring justice to an individual who has betrayed the most sacred trust of professional sports."

Although investigators indicated that the acts of Tim Donaghy were an isolated case, it has been proven that the referee can influence the outcome of an NBA game perhaps more so than any other major sport. Tim Donaghy pleaded guilty to two charges by the FBI and was sentenced to 15 months in jail and three years of probationary release. Tim Donaghy could also face trial in state-level courts once the investigation for specific games that he refereed is finished.

Pacers-Pistons Brawl

The Pacers-Pistons brawl is a major sports scandal that involved the players of the opposing teams and the home team's fans. This sports scandal is regarded as the most violent fan-player interaction in professional sports. The brawl began when Ben Wallace of the Detroit Pistons and Ron Artest of the Indiana Pacers confronted each other after a hard foul by Artest with one minute to go in the game. The commotion in the court extended into the stands after an unruly fan threw a beer in a plastic cup to Ron Artest. Artest attacked the fan in the stands which led to a brawl between Pacers players and fans.

The Pacers-Pistons brawl reminded people of the danger of fan-player interaction during intense situations that could lead to a sports scandal. Unlike other major league sports, there is no physical structure to separate NBA fans from the players. Policies were taken to secure the players from unruly fans. The brawl resulted to the suspension of nine players without pay for 146 games and $10 million in lost salary. The fan who threw a plastic beer cup at Artest that escalated the brawl was banned from attending Pistons games.

Kobe Bryant Sexual Assault Case

Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers was brought into the spotlight of one of the most publicized sports scandals of the decade. Kobe Bryant was arrested in connection for a sexual assault complaint filed against him in Eagle, Colorado. The complaint was filed by then 19 year old hotel employee Katelyn Faber. Kobe Bryant admitted that he and Katelyn Faber performed adulterous sex, but insisted that the act was consensual. The sexual assault trial dragged on for a year before the case was dropped after Faber refused to testify.

The sexual assault trial was likened to the highly publicized O.J. Simpson murder trial during the 90's. Before the trial, Kobe Bryant was regarded as the face of the NBA, with scores of commercial endorsements and sponsorships. The public image hit that came as a result of the trial led to the withdrawal of these endorsements. Kobe Bryant went on to win the NBA Most Valuable Player award for the 2007-2008 season, less than four years after charges against him were dismissed.