The Importance Of Rebound-Effect In Sports

In almost any major sport, from the collegiate level to the professional level, the question is always asked, is it rigged? I am a huge sports fan and I hear this question all too often. Every year in the playoffs of the NFL (National Football League), and the NBA (National Basketball Association) there’s major talk about how the outcomes of games are staged. The only big sports league that has come out as staged for entertainment is the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). The proof is in research. These major sports leagues can’t rig game-winning plays, from a game-winning three-pointer, a touchdown pass, or even a home run. For example, in basketball, any shot, requires a certain angle of arc, spin, and distance to go in the hoop (Zhijun).
There is no way to control another person in science yet, so how could these variables be forced? During the 2013 NBA Finals, I heard rumors of how it was rigged for the Miami Heat (Reeves). The most popular rumors I heard were “they are calling every foul for Miami” or “the league wants to help LeBron James build his legacy”. This argument doesn’t make sense because, in order for the Miami Heat to win the finals, they would still need to execute. There is no better proof of that than the shot made in game 6 of the finals. With less than 15 seconds left, LeBron James shoots a three-pointer and it misses, but the ball bounces to another Miami Heat player and he passes it out Ray Allen as he makes the game-tying three-pointer(NBA). The angle of the rebound and shot could not be manipulated in the air due to the Newton’s First Law of Motion. Newton's First Law states that every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force (NASA). Not even a league as rich as the NBA can change the laws of physics.
Another reason why sports aren’t rigged is because of the level of control that would be necessary to accomplish such a feat.
Out of everyone, is it plausible to believe there has not been a single whistle-blower? According to the “rebound-effect”, it’s highly unlikely. A good explanation of the rebound-effect is this quote: “The idea is that a person trying to ditch a thought will look around for something to displace it — first at the ceiling fan, then a candle, then a remote control. Soon the mind forms a latent bond between the unwanted thought and the surrounding items, so that everything now reminds the person of what he is trying to forget, exacerbating the original frustration”(Jaffe). Having the thought of a secret in the back of the mind would cause the person to try to avoid the topic in their mind; only causing it to come back over and over(Jaffe). Another piece of psychological research shows that revealing a secret, which can be verbal or even on a piece of paper, draws a correlation to both physical and mental health improvements (Jaffe). With that being said, there would be more motivation to tell than there would be to keep the whole thing secret. This relates to sports because of the large group people that have been in and out of the sports industry, and how not one athlete, commentator, coach, or team owner has come out with proof that the sports industry is rigged. A counter-argument that I have heard is how nobody has had a true motive to spill the
secret. This doesn’t make sense either because of think about all the people that have been cut from teams, fined by a league, lost their ego or fortune due to the nature of the sports industry. Lastly, another one of the reasons why people always declare sports are rigged is because their favorite team is losing or things aren’t going right for them.
For example, Ayesha Curry (Steph Curry’s wife) said in a tweet: “I’ve lost all respect sorry this is absolutely rigged for money… Or ratings in not sure which. I won’t be silent. Just saw it live sry.”(Isola) Ayesha said this immediately after her husband fouled out of game 6 of the 2016 NBA Finals. Ayesha even apologized by saying “Tweeted in the heat of the moment because the call was uncalled for”(Isola). Ayesha also later tweeted how she was emotional at the time of the tweet due to her father being racial profiled (Isola). A Harvard University essay on emotion and decision making says that they directly correlate (Lerner et al.). In this essay, Lerner et al. describes this type of emotion as “incidental emotion”. Incidental emotion could be best defined as emotions that “pervasively carry over from one situation to the next, affecting decisions that should, from a normative perspective, be unrelated to that emotion. “(Lerner et al.) This research shows how Ayesha Curry and many other believers in the “sports are rigged” group are victims of incidental emotion. “Don’t make a permanent decision from your temporary emotion”-
Unknown. In conclusion, professional sports are not rigged. Our society is quick to draw conclusions with really having any proof to back it up. Some accuse big games of being rigged without looking at the science behind it. Others believe the entire sports industry is keeping a huge secret. The most common of the three make emotional decisions when things aren’t going their way. By using relevant previous situations, science, and social psychology, each of the three most important arguments listed has been put to rest.