Welcome back to BASKETBALLWEATHER!!!! Who’s gambling on college basketball this weekend? OKay, onto the show. ☂️
Today’s topic is gambling. Online sports gambling to be precise. Check out this unique quote from J.B. Bickerstaff, coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who has been harassed by gamblers multiple times this season. Keep in mind, this isn’t gambling in a sports book in Las Vegas or on an Indian Reservation. This is about online sports gambling, powered by apps, on your cellphone. Currently 26 states allow it and several NBA stadiums have betting kiosks right there for you during a game, meaning fans inside of the stadium, mere feet from the players, are gambling in real time, during a game, while drinking Long Islands,
Bickerstaff: "Because again, it does carry a weight. A lot of times the people who are gambling like this, money pays their light bill or pay their rent, and then the emotions that come from that. So I do think we're walking a very fine line and we have to be extremely careful in protecting everybody who's involved."
Wow, you think? He also says in the same press conference that he has been getting “crazy messages” regarding his children from gamblers. His children? This doesn’t sound good.
I really should’ve written about this when the NBA decided to permit gambling, but got distracted, and by the time I came around to it I thought it would come off as too corny — sports gambling had obviously become a monster win for the NBA, business wise.
So I left it alone.
I regret this decision (but I don’t regret trying to place a bet in California the other day.)
(Only to find out, of all places, Cali, land of weed stores and neo-liberal progressivism, doesn’t allow it? How could such a smart city, so good at highlighting its bonafides, and being ahead of the curve, fail so miserably in the arena of sports gambling, when in a state like Louisiana where Pornhub is illegal, Pornhub for the love of God, I could open up my FanDuel app on my phone, and place a bet as easily as picking an orange off a tree in Los Angeles.)
It makes no sense.
But honestly here’s what I should’ve said a long time ago: As much as I might enjoy (the potential) of gambling on a game, I think it’s a terrible idea to allow it to happen on our phones, via apps like Fan Duel or BETMGM or any of these:
— it’s poisonous for the purity of the game, and dangerous for our brains, hardly capable of staying off social media, and now fused with gambling?
Addiction x Addiction = 187 I’m an undercover cop
The quote from JB Bickerstaff is one of several I read this week, and this is hardly a few years into the NBA’s pusillanimous bitch walk into the arms of the gambling industry, supported by every reputable (read: questionable) media company, by the way.
Perhaps you’re thinking “it’s just business.”
I wouldn’t blame you, nor do I blame the media companies for doing their part to pollute the sport. I don’t blame them, just like I don’t blame myself for global fucking warming when I take a longer than normal bath.
I blame the spineless people in charge at the NBA for willingly moving forward with such a project when they’re the ones tasked with protecting the game.
Because at what point, what point, I AM asking, does this walk of shame for money end?
Do we need a coach to get kicked in the balls by a gambler upset about the spread for the NBA to make some rules?
Shit is going to go down, and rules will be made once it is, but there need not be a reason for all of this nonsense in the first place.
I mean, I realize it’s hard to say no to profit, and it’s your job to maximize the cash flow, NBA, but come on Adam Silver, what’s it going to take for you to see that the desire to squeeze every dollar out of every possible avenue is eventually going to backfire like a pony in yur kitchen.
Like I’m really trying not to be a socialist here, but this capitalism thing makes it really hard sometimes, Adam Silver, and as the league’s chief capitalist, you’ve really got to chill.
I’m not calling for a revolution.
This is not Karl Marx for the NBA. I love the money the NBA generates for its players and staff, Adam Silver, and
Money is awesome, but we don’t live in the 90’s anymore, Adam Silver. This isn’t Wall Street, or Burning Man even. There are no shareholders except for your fans, fans, fans.
I dare you to burn a Tesla.
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The age-old question of "Am I my brother's keeper?" Capitalists say "no". Christians say "yes". Social Communists say "Only if it benefits the oligarchs and increases their power". ... Gambling and sports don't mix, but neither does pharmaceuticals and television advertising. Glad you are concerned but the ship has sailed.
I’ve been thinking this from the start so it’s nice to finally hear someone else with the same concerns. Addiction, diluted analysis and ad proliferation just don’t seem like they’re worth the trade off.
Do you see an end to to this or is too much money out there to go back?