Former NBA players Eric Bledsoe and Michael Beasley find their current team, the Shanghai Sharks, wrapped up in a mighty controversy as Chinese basketball authorities have ordered an investigation into a questionable outcome of a recently played CBA championship-round game.
The investigation centers on the Shark's late-game comeback against the Jiangsu Dragons. Leading the contest by a score of 100-96 with less than two minutes remaining in regulation, the Dragons would conveniently go on to commit five consecutive turnovers which led to a 10-point advantage for Shanghai. They eventually would go on to win by a final score of 108-104 to clinch the best-of-four series 2-1 and, in turn, were slated to advance to the quarter-finals.
However, with the accusation of game-fixing, Eric Bledsoe, Michael Beasley, and the Shanghai Sharks have officially been disqualified from the CBA playoffs.
Along with this, the head coaches and general managers from both ball clubs were banned from the CBA and significantly fined, as per a Tweet by Legion Hoops.
This is yet another investigation into suspicions regarding widespread corruption in Chinese sports, with the Associated Press noting that China's “top-flight professional soccer league” was “particularly hard-hit” for said suspicions.
The Sharks ended their season with the fifth-best record in the league at 26-16 and accumulated the most points scored with 4,470.
For the two former NBA studs, Eric Bledsoe would finish off his first season with Shanghai boasting averages of 17.6 points, 6.1 assists, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.6 steals through 29 games played while Michael Beasley held averages of 11.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks in four games.
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