wutang112878 said:
I could continue to defend my point and say things like EY is really taking virtually zero risk because if it was proven they completely f'd up the NBA 'audit' it would have virtually zero affect on their overall revenue.
I will say while I love professional basketball, I hate all things NBA from Stern, to the cap structure, and most of the NBA league rules. Basically anytime I get the opportunity to trash the NBA I will, so take my comments with a grain of salt.
Why would it not effect their revenue? First, they'd get sued for consumer fraud, and it would certainly be a class action. They'd certainly lose millions, at least in attorney fees. Also, they'd certainly take a reputational hit and they'd lose the NBA account and possibly any other pro sports franchises, whatever that is worth.
They aren't going to do it. Your point that E&Y has no risk is wrong, and frankly, the converse is a better question - what does E&Y get out of participating in the fraud? I mean really, if they don't get fees for doing it, what is the point?
snowmanny said:
What does this even mean? Cuban wasn't around then. It was a different time with different economics and dynamics. Also in 1985 many of us actually could recall league owners pooling their money to try to get another franchise center to New York, so it's not all as fantasy-land as you imply.
Sorry, I was on a bad connection and thought the short-hand would work but it obviously didn't.
The point is this. If you agree that E&Y would only allow a draft to be fixed if they were paid enormous amounts of money to do so (although admittedly WT does not agree with this and he believes that E&Y is going to participate in this fraud for at their regular billing rate) the 30 owners would have to know that the NBA is paying an exorbitant fee to E&Y. Do we really think that the owners are going to allow this fee to pass unnoticed? Isn't someone going to question why the fee is so high? Because basically, this fee is being financed 1/30th by each owner.
In other words, the 30 NBA owners are not going to sign off on an exorbitant accounting fee unless they know exactly why they are paying it. And once they learn why the fee is being charged, they just aren't going to pay it.