Hoops

Goran Dragic tweets alleging Boomers fixed match

Trying to understand such action may be easier if put into perspective. I have thought about these scenarios.

1. Aus lose and give Lith incentive to go top, Lith and Aus avoid US early in finals, Slov miss out ending up second.

2. Aus win and give Lith no incentive so they lose and go third with Slov first, they avoid US and we end up second.

Hmmm, given the choice it may in fact be that we just got in before Lith did, we took one for them if you like...

Just sayin'

So much white noise here, yes well then we shall see how it goes at that tournament I guess?

@Isaac, I think there could be more options with a 4 team pool system, even if the top two go into a secondary pool against the cross pool bottom two for another round before deciding on an overall win/loss system prior to knock out games...

The more random and complex the initial pool games the less attractive it should be to even contemplate losing a game during the event.

I know it can't be totally avoided, but we seem to be upset at the symptoms, not the cause of the issue!

Bear, Fiba is introducing a 32-team format at the 2019 World Cup: 8 pools of 4 teams where the top 2 teams from each pool advance, similar to the Fifa World Cup. Tanking should, if nothing else, become less prevalent in this instance.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/basketball/story/_/id/8619674/fiba-pushes-2020-olympic-qualifier-world-cup-basketball-back-2019

Just a thought, maybe it is a thread on its own, but what about the cause of all this being the draw and the system, not so much the teams who by default are by products or symptoms, if you will, of this cause.

Could the draw and the whole set up of the draw improve to alleviate this issue?

My proposal would be to look at the Soccer WC draw and how they pool 4 teams into groups where the top two go through to the knock out rounds.

Would something like this work for the hoops WC, I am sure it has been thought of but it now seems to be a bigger issue than it should, so perhaps this is a way out of the wilderness...

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/09/04/goran-dragic-calls-out-australia-for-fixing-game-against-angola-to-avoid-usa-down-line/

Probably the most balanced article I've seen. It opens and closes with the following two sections.

"Goran Dragic is right — Australia rested key guys to “fix” their game Thursday against Angola and lose. But really, Dragic is pissed because Australia just put his Slovenian team in a bind.

Welcome to FIBA, Goran."


"Dragic is right, Australia tanked.

Welcome to FIBA, where it is common and, by system, almost encouraged."

The final line of the SI article is gold. After questioning if tanking tactics "stain the credibility of the entire event"

"Those questions will linger until the Round of 16 opens in Spain on Saturday"

Essentially admitting that this issue prompts short term outrage but...meh, what are you gonna do?

Eurobasket 2013

http://www.eurobasket2013.org/en/default.asp?cid={221A6A0E-D8D6-4016-B84F-1CC6CF17A09F}&compID={D166E39E-2323-4863-B229-76357A926FA2}&season=2013&roundID=8722&gameID=8731-F-9-3

Slovenia, playing in a dead rubber (playing in the last game and had a losing tie-breaker against Croatia) against Finland are "shock" 16 point losers. One Goran Dragic plays just 5 minutes. The smaller Finnish team win the boards, and make 17 of 32 threes... they shot 54 of 194 (~28%) from deep for the rest of the tournament.

Goran Dragic (paraphrase) - "I am frustrated that Lithuana will now play to win instead of tanking... sorry 'match fixing', against my team later today. This also means that I won't get an extra rest day like I was hoping for."

I'm against what Australia did, but seriously, Dragic is being an over-inflammatory tool.

Basketball is a beautiful sport, there is no room for fixing the game like today Australia vs Angola!! @FIBA should do something about that!

Poor choice of words by someone who should know better than to stir the pot like this. Agree that Euro teams have done this plenty of times before, it isn't an Aussie invention like he pretends it to be and it isn't technically match fixing either, that is a slanderous comment really...

They were in the same spot last game vs angola

If Kiwi's can beat Lithuania and Australia can take care of Turkey, Australia and NZ scheduled to meet in the quarter finals!

Yep - Slovenia would have done the same thing. Any Euro team would have done the same thing.

Funny thing is that if Slovenia were in the same position, they would have done exactly the same thing.

Lithuania came from behind to defeat Slovenia and do exactly what the Boomers wanted!

Group D standings are like this:
1. Lithuania
2. Slovenia
3. Australia
4. Mexico

The result was nothing new at a World Champs or Olympics. Been done before plenty of times by Euro teams.