Yao Ming, the CBA’s president, called it a “saddening” week for the league.
Two basketball teams in the Chinese Basketball Association, the Shanghai Sharks and the Jiangsu Dragons, were thrown out of the ongoing playoffs for match-fixing.
The Sharks have several players with NBA experience including Eric Bledsoe, Johnny O’Bryant, and Jamaal Franklin (who last played in March). Antonio Blakeney is the only player with NBA experience on the Dragons, although a few other players on the roster have played NBA Summer League.
Findings from an investigation from the CBA Disciplinary and Ethics Commission concluded that Shangai showed “negative contention” during the second game of a three-game series, which Jiangsu won.
Bledsoe was serving a four-game suspension for the Sharks, and he served all three during the three-game series against the Dragons. But the team was accused of “giving up” during the second game, forcing a third game, so that he could return for the second game if his team advanced to the semifinals.
Jiangsu then demonstrated a “lack of competitive effort” in the third and final game of the series, in which Shanghai won 108-104.
Jiangsu had several “unexpected errors” in the final few minutes of the game and coach Li Nan failed to call a timeout that could have at least kept them in contention.
Here is a video summary of the pivotal moments in question:
According to Mark Dreyer, each club was fined approximately the equivalent of $727,000. Shanghai coach Li Chunjiang and Jiangsu GM Shi Linjie were each given a 5-year ban from the league.
Jiangsu coach Li Nan and Shanghai GM Jiang Yusheng, meanwhile, were both handed 3-year bans.
Shanghai was scheduled to play the Shenzhen Aviators (who have former NBA and G League players Jared Sullinger, Justin Wright-Foreman, and Askia Booker on their roster). Shenzhen will now advance to the semifinals now that Shanghai was ruled ineligible.
Yao Ming, who played for the Sharks before coming to the United States, is now the president of the Chinese Basketball Association. He called it a “quite saddening” week.
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