Chinese Basketball Association Expels Two Teams From Playoffs Over Match Fixing

CBA president Yao Ming announced the punishment Monday amid a match-fixing scandal.

The Chinese Basketball Association disqualified the Shanghai Sharks and Jiangsu Dragons on Monday after they engaged in fixing matches during the playoffs, the league announced. Shanghai and Jiangsu were playing each other in a quarterfinal series, with the Sharks defeating the Dragons two games to one.

One of the Sharks top players is former NBA guard Eric Bledsoe, but he was suspended for four games before the playoffs started. Consequently, the Sharks were found to have given up in the second half of Game 2 against Jiansu so they could play a Game 3, which would get Bledsoe back sooner in the next round.

Then, in the last two minutes of Game 3, the Dragons were up four with 97 seconds left when they turned the ball over five times, leading to a 10-0 Sharks run. The Dragons did not appear to try to stop the run, and Shanghai won the game, 108-104.

In the CBA playoffs play-in tournament, Shanghai Sharks defeated Jiangsu Dragons 108:104 to win a playoffs berth (aggregate 2：1). Shanghai mounted a comeback to go from trailing by 4 pts within few secs. It appears Jiangsu threw the game - CBA is investigating it. pic.twitter.com/h358tcfZXz

— China Sports Vision 2050 (@CSV2050) April 14, 2023

As a result, the CBA fined each team the equivalent of $750,000 and suspended Sharks head coach Li Chunjiang for five years, Sharks GM Jiang Yusheng for three years, Dragons GM Shi Linjie for five years and Dragons coach Li Nan for three years.

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.

— Mark Dreyer (@DreyerChina) April 17, 2023

In addition to Bledsoe, the Sharks roster also boasts former NBA players Michael Beasley, Jamaal Franklin and Johnny O’Bryant. Jiansu has one former NBA player in Antonio Blakeney.

Basketball Hall of Famer Yao Ming is currently the president of the CBA, and he commented on the situation following the punishment.

“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,” Yao said, via ChinaDaily.com. “For sports games, the most important thing is reputation, rather than ability. Credit is what everybody, every team, the league, and the association is based on. We need to draw a profound lesson from this and change some things in the future to make what we have paid for valuable.”