By Chris Rogers, Quincy Jean-Louis, Terell Wright, Skylar Bass, VOX Media Cafe reporters
There was a lot of controversy surrounding Game Six of the NBA Finals on Thursday night.
The Cleveland Cavaliers won the game, beating the Golden State Warriors 115 to 101, forcing the series to go to a Game Seven. With 4:22 left in the game, Stephen Curry was ejected from the game for throwing his mouthpiece into the crowd after a disqualifying sixth foul. Among the people being critical was Curry’s wife, Ayesha. After the game she tweeted, “I’ve lost all respect sorry this is absolutely rigged for money…Or ratings [I’m] not sure which. I won’t be silent. Just saw it live sry.” She later deleted the tweet.
So we decided to get Atlanta’s opinion about whether they thought the series was rigged in order to extend the series to a seventh game, what they think the outcome of Game Seven will be and why they thought the Warriors lost Game Six.
Retired basketball referee Roger Ware says, “The NBA doesn’t stick to their own rules.” Some people, such as Josh Evans, believed that the series is rigged. Several calls, including the suspension of Draymond Green and the ejection of Stephen Curry, have led many people to question the refereeing in this series, he said.
Other NBA fans, meanwhile, believe that the series has been officiated correctly. A.J., a Cleveland fan, not only believes that the series has been fair, but that the Warriors lost Game Six due to their own lack of scoring. Two Warriors fans, Joel and Taanya, said the Warriors were taking bad shots and coming up short on defense.
“They always treat their star players better than normal players,” added Ware when asked about the treatment of LeBron James and Stephen Curry on Thursday night.
It is worth noting that ABC had 20.70 million viewers watch the game on Thursday night, and this series is one of the highest rated in 11 years. Game Seven will air Sunday at 8 p.m. on ABC. This is the final game of the series, and it is up to the players to decide the outcome.
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