Like JFK or the Beatles, Michael Jordan is so ingrained in the consciousness of American culture that he was bound to be initiated with at least one conspiracy. But he's not the only NBA figure or team that's inspired (relatively) crackpot theories.
1) Michael Jordan was asked by the league office to retire in 1993 due to his gambling problem
The Conspiracy: There are two prevalent conspiracy theories revolving around Jordan, one that's relatively simple and is addressed later in this list. The other is equal parts convoluted, ludicrous, and strangely commonsense. Jordan was already widely considered the greatest player in NBA history when he announced his retirement on October 6th, 1993, with a resume that maybe only Bill Russell or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar could match. He had also expanded his personal brand like no other athlete before or since, conquering the shoe and sports drink markets, opening his own restaurant in Chicago, and starring in video games, cartoons and a Michael Jackson music video. Jordan was also the subject of a much less flattering piece of pop culture when the Richard Esquinas tome Michael & Me: Our Gambling Addiction... My Cry for Help! hit shelves during the 1993 NBA Finals. The book alleged that Jordan owed Esquinas, a San Diego based businessman, over one million dollars in gambling debts incurred during several competitive golf matches. It wasn't the first time that Jordan's gambling had become a topic of public conversation, but it was the most severe and seemed to finally break the star player, who spent those Finals refusing to answer questions from the press. It was the senseless murder of his father, James Jordan, on July 23rd, that was cited as the main reason Michael was stepping aside from the game of basketball, having lost his desire to continue playing. It's appropriate that the news first broke while Jordan was attending a White Sox playoff game to throw out the first pitch, as his quixotic attempt at a baseball career the next spring was in honor of the wishes of his late father. Right after the announcement, the rumors began immediately circulating that Jordan's retirement was actually related to his nasty gambling habit, and James' death may have even been a mob-style debt settler. The conspiracy has persisted to this day, championed especially by noted basketball fanatic and crazy theory philosopher Bill Simmons.
The Verdict: Let's imagine, for a moment, that it's true. David Stern dialed up Michael Jordan in the late summer or early fall of 1993, and told him he had no choice but to suspend him for the '93-'94 season due to his increasingly public gambling addiction becoming a black eye for the NBA. He gives Jordan the option of retiring rather than accepting the suspension, with the implicit agreement that no disciplinary action will be handed out upon his eventual return. That explains why Jordan, in his retirement press conference, curiously specifically states "this doesn't mean I won't be playing basketball anywhere else" (skip to the 2:15 mark of this video, the ultimate smoking gun for Jordan conspiracy theorists). The Austrian philosopher Karl Popper notably asserted the unlikelihood that historical events considered conspiracies could be the direct intended result of individual actions. Whether it's the JFK assassination, the supposed death of Paul McCartney, or the retirement of Jordan, major occurrences of that nature have a multitude of factors leading up to them, and assuming that any individual or group can predict and control the exact fallout and public reaction to those forces is absurd. Stern was a shrewd, hands-on commissioner, but why would he meddle with the career of his sport's all-time greatest star? The headlines after Jordan's retirement in 1993 centered around the inevitable decline of the NBA's popularity and economic viability. Was this really a better alternative to a Jordan suspension? And what if Jordan was actually good at baseball and decided to not come back? As human beings we intrinsically tend to look for added meaning in events where the law of Occam's Razor better applies that the simplest answer is the true one. In October of 1993, Jordan was burned out by the rigors of basketball stardom, the media saturation of his illicit gambling, and grief over the violent and sudden death of his father. He stepped away from the game he loved so as not to sully it with a half-hearted effort.
2) NBA owners maintained a black player quota through the late '60s
The Conspiracy: Five years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, several black players, led by Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitols, made their NBA debut in 1950. It was a slow progression from there, but by the end of the decade three of the league's four best players were black: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and Elgin Baylor. Despite these gains, the league entered the '60s with black players making up only about 35-40% of the roster population, and many NBA-level talents were forced to settle for the more liberal Eastern League, or return to their barnstorming roots. Ask any prominent black star from the era (and some of the white ones) and they'll tell you this was a direct result of an unspoken agreement between owners to keep a cap on the number of black players per roster. There's some dissension over what exactly was the quota, but the general consensus is that owners would only keep three black players employed at any given time. This lasted through the late '60s, when the barrier was organically broken down by the unmitigated success of the Celtics' all-black starting five, by the migration of black talent into the rival ABA, and by the Civil Rights movement in America.
The Verdict: Owners from the era predictably denied the quota. Though racial relations in the United States in the late '50s were hardly a beacon of enlightenment, social engineering had advanced enough to the point where racism mostly shifted to a structural force behind the scenes. But despite any advances by that time, the fact remained that a majority of white America preferred to watch white athletes perform, and NBA owners took note of this. Joe Roberts was a solid forward for the Syracuse Nationals in the early '60s, but in the '62-'63 season his playing time was reduced and a year later he was out of a job. When he confronted team owner Dan Biasone over his tenure, the response was that when black fans started to make a majority of attendants at games, black athletes would be allowed to make up a majority of the roster. Stories like this popped up all over the league, anecdotal evidence that was never confirmed by an owner himself. One of the cardinal tenets of conspiracy theory skepticism is that any time there's a group of people engaged in a secret, eventually one would crack and spill the truth. For years it looked as if the black player quota would go forever unfounded, but it was finally confirmed by Fuzzy Levane, a former coach and general manager. Levane helmed the Hawks and Knicks during the height of the black player quota era, and admitted that in both cases he had received walking orders from his owner to cap the amount of black players on the roster at three. Though it came as only a small consolation to the players most negatively affected at the time, it was finally a confirmation of the long-held belief that institutional racism was alive and prevalent in the NBA for a long time.
3) The ending of the 1972 Olympics Gold Medal Game between the USA and USSR was fixed
The Conspiracy: Coming into the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, the United States was undefeated in basketball, having won 63 consecutive games en route to seven gold medals. The Soviet Union won four straight silver medals between 1952 and 1964, then the bronze in 1968. With Cold War tensions cresting after the Space Race and Vietnam War, the Soviets were dedicated to dominating the medal table in 1972. After the 1956, 1960, 1964, and 1968 teams absolutely dominated their respective tournaments, there was some consternation over the U.S. roster in 1972. Lacking a major star like Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson or Spencer Haywood, the roster was built more on depth and chemistry, featuring North Carolina's Bobby Jones, Hawaii's Tom Henderson, Minnesota's Jim Brewer, and Illinois State's Doug Collins. They nevertheless cruised through the opening round, allowing only Cuba and Spain to get within even 20 points in the final score column. The Soviets were equally impressive early, finishing 7-0 in pool play. Their Gold Medal match was a cloud of dust type of affair, with Russia's Sergey Belov the only player on either team scoring in double digits. After Collins hit a pair of free throws to give the U.S. a 51-50 lead with three seconds remaining, the Soviets inbounded the ball for a final play, but coach Vladimir Kondrashin stormed on to the court in protest during a live ball, claiming he had called timeout before Collins' second free throw. Rather than ignore the coach and let the play resume, officials stopped the clock with one second left to discuss the alleged timeout. They eventually reset the clock to three seconds, and allowed the Soviets to inbound again. On their second attempt, the clock did not properly restart, and for a second time an apparent American victory was negated. The officials convened again, and once again awarded the Russians an inbounds play with three seconds left. This time Belov caught the pass and hit a game-winning shot. The Americans immediately protested to no avail, and to this day have still not accepted their silver medals.
The Verdict: On its surface, the events in the 1972 Gold Medal Game appear to be a poorly timed bout of refereeing incompetence. But there was a possibly corrupt and sinister element in connection with then FIBA President Renato William Jones. Though born in Italy and living at the time in England, Jones was sympathetic to the Soviet team and a noted detractor of the American dominance of the sport. He accepted gifts from many international basketball federations, but especially the Russians, who plied him with high-quality vodka and ornate nesting dolls. Jones was sitting court side for the Gold Medal Game, and when the first of three buzzers sounded signaling the U.S. victory, he bounded onto the court, overruling the officials and declaring that three seconds should be placed on the clock rather than one. It was a move so unprecedented that it completely confused and overwhelmed all the involved officials, leading to the time keeping flap that forced a third attempt to play out the final three seconds of the game. There was never any hard evidence or admittance that Jones, who passed away in 1981, was purposefully tilting the game in the favor of the Soviets, though his closeness with the Russian team and his public utterances that American dominance of the sport was hindering its growth were certainly corroborating. The Russian team is still lauded as heroes in their home country, and the Americans still refuse to accept their silver medals, which sit in the Olympic Museum in Switzerland. Ironically, Jones has been proven correct in a nonlinear way, as many international players and fans have noted the 1972 Olympics as a turning point in their interest in the sport of basketball.
4) Len Bias had previously used cocaine before the fateful night of his overdose
The Conspiracy: There is nothing in sports as exciting as potential, and no greater allure in basketball history than that of the dormant pro career of Bias. Coming out of Maryland in 1986, Bias was billed as the only player in the country with the skill set to rival Michael Jordan. The defending champs from Boston landed him with the #2 pick thanks to a shrewd trade with Seattle two years prior. He was to be the heir apparent to Larry Bird, the man who would carry the Celtics dynasty into the '90s as a continuing trophy contender. And then, two days later, he was dead from an apparent cardiac arrest. It was a big enough controversy when the autopsy revealed that Bias had traces of cocaine in his system at the time of his death. A born-again Christian who was already cultivating a role model public persona, Bias' family, friends and fans all seemed shocked by the notion that he would experiment with hardcore recreational drugs. Yet it became increasingly apparent in the coming days that Bias wasn't always living a clean-cut lifestyle. One of his best friends, Brian Tribble, was a drug dealer, and Bias himself seemed to be acting erratically in his final season at Maryland, and was reportedly on track to fail out of school. There was later testimony from another friend, Terry Long, claiming that Bias had introduced him to cocaine, and was a habitual abuser of the substance.
The Verdict: This is an unfortunate case where both sides seem equally implausible and easily discredited. Long's testimony came during Tribble's trial for cocaine distribution, and was at the behest of Tribble's defense team, which also put out unfounded claims that Bias was a part of Tribble's drug dealing operations. On the other end of the spectrum is Bias' mother, Lonise, who immediately began proselytizing her son as a martyr who made one deadly mistake. She has since become a public speaker, traveling around the country with the noble goal of convincing kids to avoid drugs. Her message is a pure if possibly misguided one, but in the hands of the U.S. government it became a dull weaponized instrument in the burgeoning War on Drugs. Democrats, still smarting from their 1984 defeats at the hands of Reaganite moralizing, looked to capitalize on the public outrage over Bias's death by passing the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, an institutionally racist set of codes that included draconian minimum-sentencing statutes. Someone out there has probably already attempted to connect the dots from Bias being murdered to a government cover-up and corresponding opportunistic legislation, so we'll "stick to sports" and avoid that rabbit hole here.
5) Connie Hawkins was unfairly singled out in the 1961 point shaving scandal
The Conspiracy: Hawkins met Jack Molinas one fateful day in 1960, while he was a senior at Boys High School in Brooklyn. Molinas would often loan his shiny Buick out to Hawkins and fellow New York prep star Roger Brown for joy rides, and once even lent Hawkins $250 for college tuition (Hawkins promptly repaid him). What Hawkins was too naive to either realize or reconcile is that Molinas considered him just a future pawn in his mob-affiliated betting ring. After being banned for life by the NBA for betting on games, Molinas was now setting his sights on the college game. Along with his partner, legendary boxing fixer Joey Hacken, Molinas already had his hooks in collegiate players at 27 different schools by 1961, but saw Hawkins and Brown as the centerpiece of future big scores. But while the two potential stars were still mired on their respective freshmen teams at Iowa and Dayton (freshmen couldn't play varsity until more than a decade later), Molinas and Hacken were arrested when a football player at Oregon tipped off police. Due to his association with Molinas, Hawkins was immediately detained by police in Iowa, and forcefully interrogated for hours without the presence of a lawyer. He admitted to borrowing money and receiving favors from Molinas, and falsely stated under coercion that he had introduced Molinas to other players involved in the fixing. Though he faced no formal charges and Molinas repeatedly asserted he was uninvolved, Hawkins was kicked out of Iowa and banned for life from the NBA by then commissioner Maurice Kennedy.
The Verdict: Hawkins did certainly engage in some shady dealings in his prep career, and not just ones involving Molinas. He barely graduated high school, and admitted later that he received special treatment from teachers due to his basketball stardom. He also eventually admitted to attending the college that was most willing to bribe him with both a stipend and a no-show job that he could use to pay tuition, since he was academically ineligible for a scholarship. But there's never been a shred of evidence he was actually involved in point shaving, and the accusation is especially ridiculous when you consider he never even took the court for Iowa's varsity team. So was there a surreptitious reason for Kennedy handing out the NBA expulsion? This is again unlikely, as Kennedy was just trying to avoid the widespread scorn that would arise with allowing the point shaving scandal to spill into his league. The NBA was still fighting rumors that games had been fixed in the mid '50s after Molinas' short stint in the league allowed him to connect his mob ties with his new found NBA ones. With the league just starting to really grow thanks to young superstars like Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, Kennedy could ill afford another scandal, even if it was unfounded. This is no consolation to Hawkins, who spent years drifting between the Globetrotters, ABL and ABA before he was finally able to successfully litigate his way into the NBA in 1969, at the age of 27.
6) Game six of the 2002 Western Conference Finals was fixed in favor of the Lakers
The Conspiracy: The Sacramento Kings were a diverse and exciting team when they attained relevancy in the late '90s. Featuring Jason Williams, Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, and Peja Stojakovic, the roster seemed indicative of the changing NBA landscape, and the local fan base, in one of the league's smallest markets, became rabidly enthralled. After the Kings lost a second round series to the Lakers in 2001, a California-based rivalry seemed to be born, but as noted philosopher Shaquille O'Neal flippantly implied when he called them "The Queens," this was a decidedly one-sided affair. However, the '01-'02 season was shaping up as a sea change. Cracks were starting to show in the Lakers' infallible facade, as the Shaq-Kobe feud spilled out into the media. The Kings took full advantage in the regular season, winning the Pacific Division and the West's top seed, then cruising to a Conference Finals showdown where the winner would be heavily favored over the East champs in the NBA Finals. The Kings probably should have the series put away by game five, but thanks to an incredible Robert Horry buzzer beater, they instead trudged back to L.A. for game six with a 3-2 series lead. According to Tim Donaghy, a former NBA referee who was being arraigned at the time for participating in a gambling scandal, two of the referees working that game six purposefully slanted their calls against Sacramento to ensure a game seven.
The Verdict: The evidence from that night is damning, but no proof exists that it's part of a nefarious NBA executive plot rather than just plain-old incompetent officiating. It's long been begrudgingly accepted that superstars get their own set of rules in playoff games. The two biggest stars on the court that night, O'Neal and Bryant, were both getting the benefit of the doubt from officials on almost every play. And overall the Lakers shot an incredible 40 free throws to just 25 for the Kings. The idea of David Stern meddling in a game to make sure the preferred team from a league standpoint advances is an old and varied one, trite enough to the point where it's almost accepted. And Donaghy's testimony is certainly incriminating. Of course, in any case like this, there has to be a balance of scrutiny between a whistle blower speaking truths and a mob-associated criminal seeking infamy and a book deal. Studies of the subject since this game have proven that home teams enjoy a decided advantage in officiating, and that may have been at play here in extreme measures more than any other factor. Sacramento still had a chance to win the series at home in game seven, but with no apparent officiating advantage either way, the Kings couldn't get it done and the Lakers went on to win the title. Similar conspiracy theories have endured for years for Bucks fans over the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals, and Mavericks fans over the 2006 NBA Finals.
7) LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh made a pact during the 2008 Olympics to one day become teammates
The Conspiracy: After the embarrassing LeBron James "Decision" spectacle, a healthy dose of media backlash went into immediate effect. It reached a fever pitch days later, when the new Heat teammates James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh threw a glorified pep rally, during which Bosh let slip that they had been discussing the possibility of becoming teammates for "months." Bosh immediately retracted the statement, understanding that a discussion of free agency during the season would constitute a violation of NBA rules, but Pandora's Box was opened. The supposed narrative is as follows: the three stars became close while playing for Team U.S.A. at the 2006 FIBA World Championships in Japan. They made a pact that in the summer of 2007 they would all accept three-year extensions making them free agents at the same time in 2010. After teaming up again at the 2008 Olympics, they possibly pulled Chris Paul into the agreement as well, though knowing that Paul wouldn't be able to join up until 2012, and realistically no team could afford four superstars like that. As free agency loomed during the '09-'10 season, Wade and Pat Riley went into full recruitment mode, and eventually lured James and Bosh to Miami.
The Verdict: There's damning evidence all over this one, well beyond Bosh's incriminating comment. Riley visited James in Cleveland early in the '09-'10 season with Michael Jordan in tow, leading to LeBron's emotional announcement that he would no longer wear jersey #23. The Cavs could have raised a fuss with the league office over tampering at that point, but decided to let it go. There have also been anonymous sources planting the idea before the announcement even took place. And then there's the possible involvement of Nick Arison, son of Heat owner Micky Arison, and heavily involved with U.S. basketball when the supposed free agency summit went down. The Cavs had their chance to challenge all this, but lost their potential legal high ground when they agreed to a sign-and-trade with the Heat, rather than letting James just walk as a free agent. The NBA eventually officially ruled that they could find no evidence of punishable collusion or tampering, and the Heat won titles in 2012 and 2013 before their "big three" broke up, with James returning to Cleveland.
8) David Stern rigged the 1985 draft lottery for the Knicks to get Patrick Ewing
The Conspiracy: Trying to assuage teams from purposefully tanking to secure higher draft picks, the NBA instituted the Draft Lottery in 1985. When we think of the lottery now the mental image is the little ping pong balls bouncing around in a hopper, but it was originally envelopes with the team's names written inside. And contrary to the current system where teams with a worse record have a better chance of winning, back in 1985 every non-playoff team had an equal chance of lottery success. The Pacers and Warriors finished the '84-'85 season tied for the worst record at 22-60, and under the previous system the first pick would have been decided with a coin flip. But instead their envelopes were tossed into the hopper with everyone else, and it was the Knicks, with the league's third worst record, that wound up with the top pick (the Pacers got pick #2, while the Warriors were dropped to #7). Just like James Worthy in 1982, Ralph Sampson in 1983, and Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon in 1984, the 1985 Draft had a can't-miss prospect at the top in Georgetown's Ewing. Expected to be the successor to Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ewing would no doubt be the crown jewel of whatever lucky franchise landed him. A powerhouse throughout the '70s with Willis Reed and Walt Frazier leading the way, the Knicks had fallen on hard times by the mid '80s, despite the presence of scoring champ Bernard King. The dormant basketball Mecca could use a star like Ewing to boost fan interest, something Stern knew as well as anybody.
The Verdict: Though many claim it was a frozen envelope that tipped off Stern, when you watch the video closely, it's actually an envelope whose corner is bent ever so slightly that would have to qualify as the smoking gun. It's a fun conspiracy to consider, with Stern as a Nixon-like figure scheming not just behind the scenes but in broad daylight on TV, but it doesn't hold up under even the slightest scrutiny. First of all, the NBA wasn't exactly in trouble in 1985. The three best teams were all playing in big markets: Boston, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Two other huge stars had just joined big market teams in Chicago (Jordan) and Houston (Olajuwon). Second, the Knicks weren't quite as bad off heading in '85-'86 as people remember. Sure, the '84-'85 season was a disaster, but New York reached the second round of the playoffs in 1983 and 1984, so it wasn't like they were mired in a prolonged slump. Third, when considering this conspiracy or the other serious one involving Stern, Jordan's retirement, one has to take into account Stern's motivations. Or, more accurately, his fears. Because imagine if he was caught trying to pull this off. The league was becoming a financial behemoth in the mid '80s, and if Stern was caught rigging the lottery it could all come crashing down in a tidal wave of lawsuits and public disgust from which the league would probably never recover. Is it really worth risking all that just to put Ewing in New York?
9) Michael Jordan kept Isiah Thomas off the 1992 Dream Team
The Conspiracy: The 1992 U.S. Olympic Team seemingly featured all the top NBA talent at the time, with one conspicuous absence. When the initial 10-man roster was announced in the summer of 1991, Thomas had to be shocked to hear John Stockton's name and not his own, especially considering that Pistons coach Chuck Daly was helming the U.S. team. There was still one final NBA spot to be portioned out at that time (Christian Laettner would eventually score the NCAA position), it eventually went to Clyde Drexler over Thomas. Though Thomas had lost a step or two by '91-'92, he was arguably still the league's best pure point guard. During Detroit's contentious playoff battles with the Bulls in the late '80s and early '90s, Thomas had cemented his reputation as a petulant malcontent, especially when he led his teammates on a boycott of the post-series handshakes when the Bulls finally prevailed in the 1991 Conference Finals. It became quickly apparent that Jordan's presence on the team was a mitigating factor in Thomas' absence.
The Verdict: The innuendo and hearsay persisted for 20 years, until the Jack McCallum book on the Dream Team finally set the record straight. Sort of. "This was one of the stipulations put to me," said Jordan in the book. "That Isiah wasn't part of the team." Notice that Jordan doesn't specifically say that it was his stipulation for joining, instead he skirts the issue by implying that the arrangement may have been just offered to him and accepted without protest. Pippen is a little less diplomatic, bluntly stating "I didn't want [Thomas] on the Dream Team." It's readily apparent that almost everyone involved with the Dream Team - from the selection committee to the coach to the players - were worried about the animosity Thomas could possibly engender. Whether or not Jordan is the one who made the call to keep him out of Barcelona, the fact remains even if Jordan didn't make a specific provision, Thomas would have been left off the roster anyway.