Micheal Ray Richardson was an All-Star with the New York Knicks in the 1980s before drug use derailed his career. But Richardson denies claims that the 1981-82 Knicks team of which he was a member fixed games for a cocaine dealer.
The New York Post gave us a headline over the weekend: “Knicks fixed games for drug dealers: FBI probe.”
Sounds steamy, doesn’t it? Oh, my God! Which Knicks are on drugs? Which games did they throw?
Well, as it turns out, it was more than 30 years ago … a fact conveniently omitted from the Post’s headline (not that this would be the first time the New York Post wrote a headline that was sensational in nature).
And as you get into the story—the devil always being in the details, after all—you learn that, yes, the FBI did investigate a possible link between the Knicks and a cocaine dealer who was also a heavy gambler. And you learn that, because of a lack of physical evidence, the case crumpled and was closed in 1986 without any arrests being made.
Did it happen? It could have. It was a different time and certainly a different NBA. The team at the heart of the controversy was the 1981-82 New York Knicks, a team that finished last in the Atlantic Division at 33-49 a year after winning 50 games and reaching the playoffs.
The team was led in scoring, assists and steals by former All-Star Micheal Ray Richardson, a player who was banned from the NBA for life in 1986 for a third violation of the NBA’s drug policy.
The NBA of the late 1970s and early 1980s was not the NBA of the early 21st century … not even close. I remember having to stay up late, late at night to watch the NBA Finals.
Why so late? Because they were not aired live. No, the NBA Finals—the showcase event for the Association—came on CBS on tape delay, right after the late local news.
Games were often played in arenas that were half-filled at best. Players were accused of merely going through the motions, particularly late in the season when their teams were out of contention. It wasn’t the so-called “tanking” that we talk about today. No, this was just plain old-fashioned, don’t give a rat’s hind end apathy.
And cocaine was everywhere. It was in the NBA, it was in Major League Baseball, it was in the NFL, it was in the entertainment world, it was on the streets, in the night clubs, in the schools … it was everywhere.
Richardson, now 58, told the Post that the point-shaving never happened.
“Hell, no!” Richardson said. “We never did anything like that.”
The Knicks had no comment on the story. That season, 1981-82, ended up the last in the storied career of coach Red Holzman, who retired after the dismal showing.
Alex Bradley, who was a rookie on the ’81-82 Knicks, told the Post that the team didn’t always give its best effort, but not because of any money being laid on the games.
“At times the coach was a little lax and he didn’t put enough pressure on those guys,” Bradley said. “At certain times, when we needed to turn it up, it just wasn’t there.”
Brian Tuohy’s book, “Larceny Games: Sports Gambling, Game Fixing and the FBI,” was released earlier this month and I’m sure the coverage of the sensational nature of some of the book’s tales will prompt some people to shell out some cash and give it a read.
The problem I have is with the sensational nature of that coverage, however. The FBI dismissed the case. No one was ever charged with a crime, despite the FBI spending years attempting to build a case. So why does all of the coverage imply differently?
Because it sells books, it sells newspapers and it gets Internet clicks. That fact (well, except the Internet clicks thing) remains as true today as it was in 1982.
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