The Chinese Basketball Association disqualified two of its teams from the playoffs after determining the teams were engaged in match-fixing, according to multiple published reports.
The teams’ head coaches and general managers were banned for three to five years and the teams were fined more than $700,000 each, according to reports.
The league announced on Monday that the teams, the Shanghai Sharks and Jiangsu Dragons, had been found guilty of ‘being negative in competition’ during Games 2 and 3 of their quarterfinal playoff series.
The CBA Disciplinary and Ethics Commission said Shanghai displayed ‘negative contention’ in the second game of the three-game series (which Jiangsu won 97-90), while Jiangsu demonstrated a ‘lack of competitive effort’ in the third game, which Shanghai won 108-104 to advance, according to Mark Dreyer of China Sports Insider.
In the last two minutes of a pivotal game between the teams, the Dragons committed five turnovers and the Sharks went on a 10-0 run and advanced to the semifinals.
‘English-language reports in Chinese state media have referred to this as ‘being negative in competition’ or ‘lack of competitive effort,’ but this is match-fixing plain and simple,’ Dreyer reported.
Yao Ming, the NBA Hall of Famer and president of the Chinese Basketball Association, told ChinaDaily.com, “We conducted a very prudent investigation to help us make the decision based on precise matters. We believe that everybody feels quite distressed about this.’’
Ming played for the Sharks from 1997-2002 before he was taken with the No. 1 pick of the 2002 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets.