Secrets The NBA Tried To Hide

James Naismith, a 31-year-old second-year graduate student at Springfield College, ​​invented the game of basketball in the winter of 1891-1892. After the school's superintendent challenged his students to create a new indoor activity that could be played by college students following the end of football season, Naismith combined many sports popular at the time. He wanted to use big square boxes as goals, but the school's janitor brought peach baskets instead. After cutting a hole in the bottom of the two baskets, basketball swept across the nation. 

By 1949, the NBA was born. The sport featured impossibly tall athletes showing off their combination of precision, strength, and speed -– none more popular than the legendary Michael Jordan. Moving into the next era, the NBA introduced fans to other memorable athletes like the teammate duo of big-man Shaquille O'Neal and the late Kobe Bryant on the Los Angeles Lakers. These ballers all paved the way for the next great player in the league, superstar LeBron James.

Many of the best players from the NBA also dominated the sport on an international level, starting with the 1992 Dream Team and rarely losing since then at the Olympics. While the league continued to inspire dreams in fans around the world, it could not avoid nightmarish scandals. Even the biggest names to ever play the game weren't exempt from embarrassing moments the league would rather forget.

There are many fouls to be found in the secrets the NBA tried to hide.

Michael Jordan entered the NBA in 1984, and his rookie season started off with an amazing contract. After passing on Converse — the official sneaker of the league at the time –- and with Adidas unable to make a shoe for him, Jordan signed a sneaker deal with Nike, Marie Claire recapped, via "The Last Dance." "Nike's expectation when we signed the deal was, at the end of year four, they hoped to sell $3 million worth of Air Jordans," David Falk, Jordan's agent, said. "In year one, we sold $126 million," Falk added. 

The first shoe, called the Air Jordan 1, debuted in 1985, per Foot Locker. A decade later, Nike was in the midst of a public relations scandal when news broke that Nike used sweatshops in Indonesia to produce some of its shoes. Furthermore, some factories allegedly used child labor. When reporters asked Jordan about the allegations, he said, "I think that's Nike's decision to do what they can to make sure everything is correctly done. I don't know the complete situation. Why should I? I'm trying to do my job," the Chicago Tribune reported.

In his free time, Jordan still displayed some questionable behavior. He was known to enjoy gambling while playing golf with Richard Esquinas, who claimed that the two would wager $1,000 per hole. In Esquinas' book "Michael & Me: Our gambling addiction ... my cry for help!," Jordan allegedly owed the author $1.2 million but only paid him $200,000, via Golf.

Basketball stars inspire fans around the world, and many become celebrities off the court. While the press is often good, NBA players were once caught using their celebrity status for more seedy applications. In 2001, several players from the league were named in a trial involving a strip club and mob scandal surrounding an establishment called The Gold Club. The strip club in Atlanta paired strippers with professional players in order to attract more high-profile types, The Washington Post reported. The owner of the joint, Steve Kaplan, and six other defendants were charged with a number of crimes, including corruption and prostitution.

A witness testified that Larry Johnson, the forward who played for the Charlotte Hornets and later the New York Knicks, once "begged" Kaplan to provide him with a stripper to join him at a hotel, which was allegedly the inspiration for Kaplan's entire operation. NBA star Patrick Ewing, a 2008 member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, and MLB star Andruw Jones admitted during Kaplan's trial that although no money exchanged hands, the dancers did perform for them sexually, per ABC. None of the NBA players were charged with crimes. Kaplan ultimately paid a $5 million fine and The Gold Club was forced to shut down, CNN reported.

There has been a long history of shady owners in sports, and one of the most disgraced was the former owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling. The billionaire bought the franchise, then the San Diego Clippers, in 1981 for $12.5 million dollars, per Forbes. In 2014, TMZ released a recording of Sterling talking about attendees and players with his girlfriend, V. Stiviano. Among the most racist things he said was for Stiviano to "not to bring them to my games," referring to Black fans. He even specifically called out NBA legend Magic Johnson from the Los Angeles Lakers and said, "don't bring him to my games."

In an interview with Anderson Cooper for CNN, Sterling said, "I'm not a racist." The former owner claimed he was set up by his girlfriend to make the comments and explained, "that's not the way I talk." As for Sterling's delayed apology about the entire situation, he said he was "emotionally distraught." Sterling also hoped his 35 years in the NBA would alleviate the situation and asked, "Am I entitled to one mistake?" In the aftermath, Sterling was banned for life from the NBA and fined $2.5 million. Plus, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver requested other team owners in the league to pressure Sterling to sell his team. Though he didn't initially want to separate from his team, Sterling sold the Los Angeles Clippers to ex-​​Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for a staggering $2 billion.

Sports and gambling have long been intertwined. Unfortunately, sometimes this caused sketchy behaviors like Chicago White Sox baseball players throwing the World Series just to earn some extra cash. In 2007, allegations surfaced in the NBA that one of its veteran referees, Tim Donaghy, influenced games to benefit himself or his friends because they'd bet on the outcome, The New York Times reported. Allegedly, for two seasons, Donaghy would make the wrong calls at critical times to try and sway the outcome of the games. Even more, reportedly, he was under pressure from the mob make the crooked calls.

As detailed in the first report of the scandal by the New York Post, Donaghy fixed at least 10 games in connection with mob members. One source called his associates "dangerous people." This was the first time the league publicly dealt with a game-fixing scheme, and the FBI even became involved. The NBA commissioner said that Donaghy acted alone, and the referee admitted to betting on games that he officiated. Yet, Donaghy never admitted that he fixed the games or altered his calls to affect the outcomes. This was also the same conclusion by the FBI. Later, a detailed review by ESPN claimed that Donaghy's bets favored him. In the end, the disgraced ref resigned from the league and was convicted for criminal acts, serving time until 2009.

Basketball has always been a sport with limited equipment. Unlike the NFL with gear featuring the latest technology, like innovative helmets, NBA players just need a pair of sneakers and a ball. In 2006, the NBA tried to show it too could use innovation to improve the game and introduced a revolutionary ball. With official sponsor Spalding, the league introduced the "New Ball," Complex recapped. Following the lead of some high schools and colleges, the NBA replaced the classic leather ball with a synthetic, microfiber material. The non-leather material was cheaper and the balls were supposed to have that broken-in feel, even when new.

The rollout was a disaster. The NBA didn't let players try the new basketball until the summer right before the season started. Most immediately hated the change. "It felt like plastic," one former player remembered about the new ball. More than just affecting grip and shooting, the ball also cut some players' fingers, The New York Times reported. As a result, the NBA continued to use the ball but asked Spalding to conduct further tests on the synthetic version.

The synthetic ball didn't even make it to the end of the calendar year. After fewer than three months on the court, the NBA announced the return to classic leather balls, beginning in January 2007. "Our players' response to this particular composite ball has been consistently negative and we are acting accordingly," the commissioner said, via ESPN.

It can be easy to forget that in the midst of all the action on court, there can be more going on with the players than just basketball. Mental health has been a topic that had long been taboo around sports. For example, Olympic great Michael Phelps helped make a documentary about mental health struggles in professional athletes. In the basketball world, Kevin Love was one of the first huge stars to open up about the hidden difficulties that come with being an NBA player. "Everyone is going through something that we can't see," he wrote for The Players' Tribune.

Love recalled having mental health struggles starting in high school. Though he was a gifted athlete, his depression often drove his performance on the court, and he saw himself as just a basketball player instead of a well-rounded individual, according to CNBC. Love tried to distract himself by focusing even more on being one of the best in basketball but he discovered this wasn't the right approach. "You can't achieve yourself out of depression," Love explained. "You can't achieve yourself out of that high level of anxiety," he added.

As a result of Love's story and others, the NBA became proactive to help its players and further stepped up efforts amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The league issued a statement to its teams recommending "education and awareness materials focused on managing mental health during times of uncertainty and coping strategies for addressing the emotional toll of the pandemic."