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Stern advice for James, Gilbert and JesseBasketball Betting Lines07/13/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It took the death of a true sports legend, Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner, to finally knock LeBron James and the NBA from the top of every sportscast across the country. Conventional wisdom says David Stern was thrilled the LeBron sweepstakes kept people talking about his league during the first two weeks of July, but the commish made it clear Monday that he wasn't on board with the way his biggest star dissed the Cleveland Cavaliers. Stern had no problem with James' change of address to Miami but wasn't thrilled with the two-time MVP's public announcement during the made-for- television special called "The Decision." "The advice that he received on this was poor," Stern said after NBA owners meeting in Las Vegas. "The performance was fine. His honesty and his integrity, I think, shined through. But this decision was ill-conceived." Stern was much harder on Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, fining him $100,000 for a tirade that the commissioner called "a little bit extreme." After being spurned on national television, Gilbert released a visceral statement calling James' behavior during the special "narcissistic" and "cowardly." He followed that by telling The Associated Press in a phone interview that James quit on the Cavs during the playoffs. It's hard to argue with narcissistic but Gilbert certainly went over the line when he called James' behavior cowardly and his decision to leave Cleveland as disloyal, charges that didn't go unnoticed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Jackson, perhaps the country's leading civil rights activist, responded to Gilbert's ill-advised remarks by upping the ante with even more explosive and ill-conceived rhetoric. Jackson said the Cavs owner sees James as a "runaway slave" and spoke as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, perhaps the silliest comment of all-time since I don't know many slave owners that paid their property over $62 million dollars. "However well-meaning Jesse may be in the premise on this one, he is, as he rarely is, mistaken," Stern said. "And I would have told him so had he called me before he issued his statement. But he is a good friend of the NBA and our players. Has worked arduously on many good causes and we work together in many matters." The James-Gilbert-Jackson fiasco may have been the front page fodder but when it comes to basketball the real story coming from all of this was possible collusion -- not from the owners but the players. When James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all decided to play together in South Beach after communicating with each other during the free-agent process. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban cried foul and wanted the league to examine the process. Most feel the plan by the three to join forces on a so-called "Super Team" had dated all the way back to 2006 when the trio each signed shorter-than- available contracts with an eye on free agency in 2010. "The three players are totally, as our system has evolved, within their rights to talk to each other," Stern said. "That is not tampering or collusion that is prohibited. That's our rule, right now." According to Stern, Cuban was a lone voice and no formal complaints were levied at the Board of Governors meeting on Monday. "Our players, having negotiated for the right to be free agents at some point in their career, are totally within their rights to seek employment with any other team," Stern said. "That's something we agreed to. That's something we embrace. That's our system."
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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?" A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook. In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small. "Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets." But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?" Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year. This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here. Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions. In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries. No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning. And that's all any bettor can ask for. To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. |
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