Bill Burr on Gambling in the NBA - The Joe Rogan Experience

Hello freak bitches. Listen, the fucking, the NBA had that mobbed up ref and he said that he fucked the Warriors out of, I mean the, uh, the Kings out of that series against the Lakers. No one's gonna take the fucking Lakers title away for that year. What happened? Really? Yeah. Is that real? Yeah. What is it? He was a referee who was fucking fixing games. No. Yep. Really? That's how much you don't watch sports, you're like- I don't watch sports at all. No, it was fixed. Tim Donahue, 100% of NBA refs gamble. What? What? That's crazy. No, but he's also like, he's in jail now, he's just trying to say shit, but like I don't- This is the guy that was the ref that was in jail? Yeah, but like he- Is that him right there? Yeah, he fixed game. He used to say, from in jail, he goes, you tell me who's ref in the game and I'll tell you who wins. Wow, he spent 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to two charges of the case, he's out for- How much do you think he made? He joined Colin Cauherd Wednesday afternoon, had a fascinating answer, went to ask what percentage. He said 100. Wow. No, that's- No. No? That's not true? No, that's just a fucking jailbird talking. I used to gamble on UFC fights way back in the early days. When I first started working for them, I was like, who gives a shit? I can't really affect the outcome. So like, many, many years ago, like I would- They would bring in these guys, like they'd bring in some guy from like Brazil that I knew about and I would look at the line and I'd be like, you guys are out of your fucking mind. This guy should be like a 10 to 1 favorite and you got him an underdog. I'm like, oh, I'm putting some money on that and I'd put some money on it. But then after a while I was like, this is probably not smart. You know, I don't think it's illegal because I can't- It's not good for the company. No, it's also not good for me if I come off as biased anyway. You know, I've been accused of being a biased commentator anyway, even worse. He didn't tap out. Come on, keep it going. Come on. Yeah, but that's a different kind of thing though. Gambling when you're a referee is a big deal. Yeah, and that's a game that's easily fixed. How do they fix it? What do they do? Because you can take stars out of the game by giving them fouls. Oh, is that what they did? Yeah, you just- So what did this guy mobbed up guy do? You just sit people down. It's just like if you're the best player on the team in the first quarter, I give you two quick fouls. I'm not going to see you again until the second quarter. I've never fixed a fucking game, but I mean, I'm just, you know, I give you another one in the second quarter. I don't see you till the next half, and at some point you're going to get mad. If I keep calling bullshit fouls, I might get you on a technical foul. That saves me a Tiki-tac foul, and then that counts towards your fouls, and then two technicals, you're out of the game, you're ejected. So was it obvious that this guy was doing fouls? That it was good calling fake fouls? I thought it was obvious that the NBA was kind of fixed for a while. Like I was sitting going like, yeah, I went to a game one time, the Celtics vs. Utah Jazz, and I'm watching the fucking game, and like, just like, the game starts, they're letting them play, and then they're calling it tight, and then they're letting them play, then they're calling it tight. And it's like there was never an ebb and flow in how they were calling the game. It's like an umpire. You know, you see in the first inning, the guy will step out of the box going, okay, that's a strike tonight? Okay, cool. Just finding out where your strike zone is. But like an umpire, if you start changing the strike zone, kind of changing sports on you here. Like it's like people are going to know like, what the fuck's going on? You got to be consistent. And so like with NBA refs, NBA games, you would watch, and it's just like, oh, they're calling it close tonight. Oh, he's letting the boys play. And like that was the game. They wouldn't just keep, obviously if it got really out of hand, they would tighten down. But I never saw a game where it was just like you're pulling back on the range, you're letting them run, you're pulling back, you're letting them run. And it just made me feel like they were shaving points or something. I remember for years I said the game was fixed, and everybody said I was out of my fucking mind. And then they find a guy who's all mobbed up. And I go, damn, vindication. They go, oh, it's just one guy. Now when you say mobbed up, like how was he mobbed up? What was the issue with that guy? It's just an expression. I don't want to get in trouble with anybody. But he was basically working for other people that were part of a gambling, that took bookies or whatever. Right. And he did something to make sure that the game leaned in that direction. Like you couldn't totally fix it. So if a team was favored by eight and they want him to win by eight, he'd make sure it happened. It's probably easier to make sure they didn't by fucking over their offense. And then they would just, they try to get money. Like look, if you're a legit bookie, all you're trying to do is get an even amount of money on each side. Right. Okay. Because with the combination of people teasing it and plus the juice and all of that, you're going to end up on top. You don't want a bunch of money all on one side and losing your fucking shirt. So what these guys would do is you get greedy after a while. It's like, I'm sick of this tiki-tack shit. Let's go for a big fucking score. They wouldn't do it every game. They just, every once in a while, be like, all right, listen, here's a game probably, you know, I don't, I don't know. I've never fixed a fucking game. I'm just guessing how they would go about doing it. Fix this one. All right. Make sure these guys don't win by eight. So did this guy admit that he fixed it? Yeah. Oh yeah. He went to jail. What's up? He went to jail for gambling on it, right? But he went to jail for fixing it. So what did he say? He said like he made fouls that weren't really fouls. Well, yeah. Yeah. You do whatever you had to do. This is what his attorney submitted saying the manipulation that happened during one game. Okay. So officiating a playoff series between team five and team six in May of 2002 is a six game of a seven game series and a team five victory that night would have ended the series. However, Tim learned from referee A that referees A and F wanted to extend the series of seven games. Tim knew referees A and F to be company men in quotes, always acting in the interest of the NBA. And that night it was in the NBA's interest to add another game. So the NBA wanted to fix it. Yeah, for money. Oh, the NBA fix it. Referees A and F heavily favored team six. Personal fouls resulting in obviously injured players were ignored even when they occurred in full view of the referees. Conversely, the referees called made up fouls on team five. Look up the highlights of the Lakers Kings game. It was ridiculous. The fouls that they will call them. But that's my thing is when they said it was just one guy, it's like, how long could you be on an officiating crew while in one of your guys is dirty before you'd realize like, what the fuck is this guy doing? Yeah. Well, what about the guys that were betting on the other team? I'd want to kill that fucking referee. Can you imagine if you saw him call fouls that weren't really fouls and you knew what was going on, you knew your money was going out the window. But I think they're really susceptible to it because like the amount of money that NBA players make is fucking insane. They make like, you know, some of the contracts that they have coming up and there's so few guys on the team and there's like every year the draft is like two rounds in the draft. Like fucking NFL goes on forever. There's 40 something guys on a team in the NFL. There's 20 something in baseball, 20 something in the NHL. And I think basketball, it's no more than 11 or 12 guys. So it's a very small group of people and the income that they're generating, like their revenue share. I think that's all like super sports nerd shit. Like I don't know how that works, but some of the contracts that some of these guys have been signing, like they can afford to fucking pay that guy that. So now you're a ref and you're running with your fucking black aerobic Reebok sneakers up and down the court. You know, the Velcro closures. Yeah. Yes. And you're seeing the cars these guys are getting in and all the women hanging out and you're on the stage too. You're running up and down. No one gives a fuck about you. And I don't know what the pension is for the NBA, but like if I was in the NBA, if I was running, I'd be like, we got to fucking triple these guys salary. Is this the salaries of the players or the referees? NBA player salaries for right. What about the referees though? So look at that. Way less. 35 million a year for LeBron. That's just, that's just what he makes to play hoop. Right. Not about most of the sneaker contracts are like more than what they make. It's fucking nuts. It's nuts. It's a lot of cash. Hey, good for them. I'm not like saying they should make the money. Obviously if people are putting it out there, earning it for them, but like fine. Can you put up what a ref makes? Do you know who Mike Conley is? That's what's hilarious. I only know like the biggest guys like that. Mike Conley. Ooh, that's Mike Conley. I don't know who that is either. I don't know who that is either. Guy made $30 million last year. He's the highest played player in the NBA. He's just because the contract is a guy named Mike Conley. Yeah. He was, he's the starting point guard for the Memphis Grizzlies. Yeah. Oh, there you go. Just amount of time like his contract came up at the time last year and the, uh, when the rest of the guys are going to get more this coming year and the following year, the TV contracts have gone up and there's a percentage they're going up each year based off of the TV rights. And that's why it. I watched almost every Celtic game last year. I never heard Mike Con, Mike Conley. That sounds like a fucking politician. He went to Ohio State. He went to Ohio State same year as Greg Oden, who was that big bust and he was just the point guard. Is he still playing in China or no? No, he's actually Ohio State assistant coach right now. He went back to school for playing in China. That's when it gets weird, right? And you got to go overseas to Europe and playing for a hundred grand a year. You're like, whoa. I don't know. Sometimes if you're famous enough, they'll, they'll give you a little more. I don't know how that works either. I don't know how a lot of shit works. I just know I have a show coming out called Fs for Family. That's why I'm here. The average salary of NBA rep is from 150 grand to 550 grand. That's a big spread. What about the guy who's making the extra four? How's he getting extra four? Average salaries have spiked considerably since 1983 when NBA officials made between 18,000 and 78,000 each season. 550 grand is not bad. That's a lot of scratch. So you'd have to give them enough money where they don't feel tempted to cheat. Right? Yeah. That's the problem with politicians. Right. You make 550 grand a year, you're making 50 grand a year more than the president. So you're kind of like, those guys are like set up to be like his, a job that cost a hundred million to get, and you're going to get paid 500 grand. So you're just setting them up to have to cut deals with people.