Is the game rigged? Yes.
Is there a conspiracy? No.
Does the league have preferences on the outcomes? Yes.
Stupid Analogy Time:
You and I make a bet on the outcome of a coin flip. You always get heads, I always get tails. However, I make sure we use a special coin that lands on tails 60% of the time. We flip it and it lands on heads, you win and I claim that there is no conspiracy. Then I say, OK, we will play the same game 10,000 times. You will win between 0 and 10,000 times and I will win between 0 and 10,000 times, but the LIKELY result is that I will win about 6,000 times and lose 4,000 times and results in a net profit for me.
Is this game "rigged"? Yes, it is. Basically, it's the same in the NBA. The Portlands and Utahs of the league can't play only a small amount better than the NYs and LAs of the league. They must clearly outplay them.
Some may think this advantage is minimal and not worth thinking or talking about. However, (especially after reading "Outliers") it seems like the big market teams get "accumulated advantage" which becomes significant over a season. A small advantage over each game adds up to a several extra wins, which results in more home court advantage, which results in more bias.
Some biases:
Small market teams vs. Large market teams
West coast teams vs. East Coast teams
Star/Superstar players vs. Average Players
Aggressive Players vs. passive players
Veteran Players vs. Young players
Preferred Players vs. Hated players
Basically, if you are a Portland Fan you are a masochist. A small market, west coast team, meh. However, we can overcome some of that by utilizing the other biases.
1) Superstar players. We suffer in multiple ways by losing Oden. When healthy, he is an undeniable superstar. Without him, we are on the wrong side of ref bias. Why did the blazers send all of the media Brandon Roy Ipods? The message is clear, we want the media convinced that he is a superstar. If they are convinced, they will write about it convincing the fans, who will convince the league/refs.
2) "Portland is a jump shooting team" Charles Barkley. Teams that shoot too many jump shots don't force the ref to make decisions and the other team doesn't get into foul trouble. Again, the loss of Oden hurts us in yet another way.
3) We are one of the youngest teams in the league, so we don't get the benefits of any doubts. Bayless drives into the pain, gets bumped, misses - no foul call. Sorry young man! The good news is that 2 or 3 years from now, he will get those calls. Of course, if we let Bayless go he will "mysteriously" blow up with another team.
4) "You can't touch Joe Dumars" NBA ref. The biggest damnation of the league made by Donahy that I am aware of is that he was able to determine which team would beat the point spread by knowing how the officials liked the star players of the other team. Ref preference is a STATISTICALLY MEASURABLE bias. Go ahead Michael Jordan, take 3 steps! The blazers are hoping that by being "nice guys" (like Dumars) that they will cash in on this ref preference. For the most part it isn't working. What does work? Ask the Suns coach who complained on every call (which really drove Mike Barrett crazy, lol).
Conclusion:
The game has many biases and in that sense it is rigged. However, it is not rigged in the sense that the outcome is predetermined. Part of the "game" is trying to become one of the teams in which the bias is for you instead of against you. Portland as a small market, west coast team has some special disadvantages, but we can overcome them! Go Blazers.
). While certainly not a revenue gusher, they aren't exactly the Milwaukee Bucks either. Timmy is an All time talent and some of those Spurs clubs were dominant, but it could also be argued that they won their titles in down years for the other contending major markets. 
