Ben Lyons 5/15/12

Business Ethics Essay I am an NBA referee and recently someone offered me $750,000 to throw an upcoming game in one teams favor and guaranteed that no one could ever find out. The money is temping, but I am not sure if it conflicts with my business ethics. I need to weigh my options and use the ETHICS model to make my decision on if I will throw the game or not. First off I need to evaluate my problem. I must decide if throwing a basketball game in one teams favor for money is within my business ethics. The options I have are either take the money and throw the game, dont take the money and throw the game, take the money and dont throw the game, or dont throw the game and dont take the money. The people that would be affected by my decision are the players, the person who offered me the money, the coaches, the fans, and the NBA as a whole. The players would obviously be refereed unfairly if I decided to throw the game. The person who offered me the money would likely make a lot of money if I decide to throw the game. The coaches, fans, and the NBA as a whole would be compromised by my actions if I throw the game. The common good of the NBA and the people involved in it is at stake. If I decide to throw a game then the common good of those people would be in jeopardy. They work very hard to keep the league clean from these types of things so it can flourish, and throwing a game would hurt all of that.

The wisest option for me is to not throw the game and not take the money. It aligns with my ethical principles, and harms the least amount of people. Only the person offering the money would be upset by this decision. I know that if I decide to throw the game and my decision comes out into the public I would be ashamed, and I also know that if my decision of not throwing the game came out into the public id be proud. My morals are the reason I will not throw this game. The decision I am making is the only decision I can make an argument for doing. The other ones conflict with my business ethics. My critic will be the man who offered me the money, but I will convince him I am making the right choice by telling him what my morals are and that I cannot break those for money.