Phoenix Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek confers with guard Goran Dragic during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, March 24, 2014, in Atlanta. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/MCT)When Phoenix Suns star Goran Dragic stepped forward earlier this week to speculate that the Australian national basketball team had deliberately lost its group stage match against Angola in the FIBA World Cup, the sports world was thrown into flux.
It's easy to appreciate great moments in sports. But it takes character to take a step back to comprehend that something negative has happened, to learn that a cherished pastime has been tainted by scandal.
From baseball's steroid era to the constant legal battle of college football recruiting, to cases of domestic violence and sexual assault, sports has been responsible for plenty of morally questionable decisions.
Relatively quiet for years, international basketball has evolved to become a point of cultural pride, and a hotbed of foreign talent that was developed overseas has become a gold mine for NBA talent, from Peja Stojakovi? to Yao Ming.
This need to investigate and provide clarity mars the reputation of the International Basketball Federation and puts its credibility and decency at stake.
It's incredibly disappointing that in an amalgamation of amateur and professional domestic and foreign talent assembled in Spain as a precursor to another season of NBA basketball to commence in October that yet another accusation of foul play has come to light.
As the captain of the Slovenian national team, Dragic's suggestion that Australia deliberately tanked its group stage game against Angola last week begs the question: Have the NBA and FIBA solved their corruption problem?
While Dragic's claim might just be interpreted as a bitter qualm, expressing his frustration over having to play against Team USA in the first round (essentially, a guaranteed early exit) the manner in which Australia conceded its group stage game to a wholly inferior Angolan squad bears further examining.
Basketball is a beautiful sport, there is no room for fixing the game like today Australia vs Angola!! @FIBA should do something about that!
— Goran Dragic (@Goran_Dragic) September 4, 2014
Some context might help: Angola formed its national team in 1976, and in each of its six international tournament appearances, has finished no better than 10th in a 24 team field. It didn't do much better in two 16-team tournaments, ending 13th and 16th in 1990 and 1994. Notably, it also doesn't have a single NBA player on its roster.
The bottom line? Angola isn't exactly a basketball powerhouse. In Group D, one of the weakest in this year's World Cup, the Angolans fell to Mexico and barely squeaked out a win over Korea, finishing fifth in the group of six.
In principle, it's no different than the disastrous battle to lose the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference that Indiana Pacers eventually "won" out over the Miami Heat, avoiding the winner of a hypothetical Brooklyn-Chicago series.
Plot twist! Brooklyn caught wind of Miami's plan and fell to the No. 6 seed, intent and confident on upsetting Miami in the second round. Alas, the plan backfired, but the significance is the underhanded, dishonest manipulation that took place.
Is this, or Australia's grand scheme, any better than disgraced ex-NBA referee Tim Donaghy betting on and rigging games? Or the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks with their respective "Riggin' for (Andrew) Wiggins" and "Sorry for Jabari (Parker)" in anticipation of one of the deepest NBA Draft classes of the decade?
A team colloquially known as the "United Nations of Basketball" put on a clinic in last year's NBA Finals. It was poetry in motion, universally accepted as the gold standard in teamwork and collaboration.
Australia was bounced out of the first round by Lithuania, perhaps poetic justice.
We're left with mere speculation as to how a Slovenia-Lithuania first round matchup would have played out, and perhaps Team USA's drubbing of Dragic's squad today is enough validation. If Slovenia wasn't slotted in the U.S. bracket (it would have to go through the Americans no matter what), it would have met Brazil, Spain or even Greece and likely met a similar fate.
However, these allegations haven't gone away, perhaps because evidence hasn't (and almost surely won't) surface to contradict Dragic and serve as a foreboding reminder that basketball's dark side is very much alive and hell-bent on once again rearing its ugly head.
Reach the assistant sports editor at smodrich@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter at @StefanJModrich
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