2 Chinese Basketball Association teams kicked out of playoffs for fixing matches
Two Chinese Basketball Association teams were disqualified from the playoffs after an investigation determined both teams engaged in match-fixing, the league announced Monday. The teams were also fined, and their head coaches and general managers were banned for three to five years.
The Shanghai Sharks and Jiangsu Dragons were found guilty of "being negative in competition" during Games 2 and 3 of their quarterfinal playoff series.
The Sharks were accused of "giving up" in the second half of Game 2 so that ex-NBA star Eric Bledsoe would miss only one quarterfinal match if the team won Game 3. Bledsoe was suspended for four games prior to the playoffs series with Jiangsu. The Dragons, meanwhile, committed five consecutive turnovers in the final two minutes of the game that helped the Sharks mount a 10-0 comeback win to advance to the semifinals.
In the CBA playoffs play-in tournament, Shanghai Sharks defeated Jiangsu Dragons 108:104 to win a playoffs berth (aggregate 2：1). Shanghai mounted a comeback to go from trailing by 4 pts within few secs. It appears Jiangsu threw the game - CBA is investigating it. pic.twitter.com/h358tcfZXz
— China Sports Vision 2050 (@CSV2050) April 14, 2023
Each club was fined five million Chinese yuan (roughly $727,000), according to Chinese sports journalist Mark Dreyer. Shanghai coach Li Chunjiang was given a five-year ban, Jiangsu coach Li Nan was given a three-year ban, Jiangsu GM Shi Linjie was given a five-year ban and Shanghai GM Jiang Yusheng was given a three-year ban.
NBA Hall of Famer Yao Ming, the president of the Chinese Basketball Association, called the news "quite saddening," during a news conference Monday. Ming played for the Sharks from 1997-2002 before the Houston Rockets drafted him No. 1 in 2002.
"We conducted a very prudent investigation to help us make the decision based on precise matters," Ming said, per ChinaDaily.com. "We believe that everybody feels quite distressed about this.
"For sports games, the most important thing is reputation, rather than ability. Credit is what everybody, every team, the league, and the association is based on. We need to draw a profound lesson from this and change some things in the future to make what we have paid for valuable."
