Random Biggest Sports-Related Conspiracy Theories (21 items)

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  (#6) Delonte West Hooked Up With LeBron James's Mom

  One of the strangest rumors to hit pro sports in recent years is that former Cleveland Cavaliers player Delonte West was carrying on affair with LeBron James’s mother – and that when it came to light, it destroyed the team and ended West’s NBA career. The source of the rumor was an email that started going around the day after the Cavs were eliminated from the 2010 NBA playoffs by Boston.

  As with almost all chain emails, its original source is lost to history, with the whistleblower being anyone from a contractor at the Cavs home arena to a relative of James to some guy somebody knew. The fact that it was impossible to attribute also made it impossible to kill, and it went from chain email to national news in a week. Since then James left, and then went back to the Cavs, while West bombed out of the NBA and started playing in China. 
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  (#8) #Deflategate

  Immediately after flattening the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 and earning yet another trip to the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots were accused of intentionally deflating their game balls to give themselves an advantage. A subsequent investigation found that the Patriots had indeed played with 11 of their 12 allotted game balls deflated slightly. But it’s also apparent that the under-inflated balls had little to no effect on the game itself, considering the score was 45-7.
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  (#15) Jimmy Hoffa Is Buried Under The Old Giants Stadium

  More of an old fashioned urban legend than a rumor, this theory holds that the famously disappeared union boss was killed by the mob and buried somewhere under Giants Stadium in New Jersey. It would theoretically be possible to prove this, by digging up every inch of the old stadium.

  But the fact that the police have never bothered should tell you everything you need to know about what they think of the theory.
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  (#19) Magic Johnson Booted Donald Sterling

  After former Clippers owner Donald Sterling was banned by the NBA, a conspiracy that Magic Johnson set him up took off thanks to Rush Limbaugh, who said: “What if the reason Sterling told [his mistress] that he didn’t want her showing up in pictures with Magic is that he knew Magic was going to make a play for his team?! What if he knew that?!”

  Of course, Johnson didn’t end up buying the Clippers, so the whole conspiracy almost instantly became moot.
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  (#1) The 1972 US Basketball Team Got Robbed

  One of the most controversial endings in sports history, the US Men’s Basketball team lost to the Soviet team in the Finals of the 1972 Olympics, with Russia getting three chances to score a winning basket.

  A combination of unclear rules, seemingly random clock stoppages and bizarre referee decisions gave the Soviet team enough chances to win 51-50, kicking off 40 years of accusations and denials, with the American team never having accepted their silver medals.
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  (#5) The Head Of Maradona, The Hand Of God

  Was the most famous goal in world soccer history, Diego Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” goal in the 1986 World Cup against England, actually punched in by the Argentinian striker?

  Maradona has, in his usual gadfly style, fanned the flames of the controversy, while subsequent photographic evidence has shown pretty clearly that Maradona palmed the ball in, meaning it shouldn’t have counted. But it did, and a legend was born.

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