In an NBA scandal for the ages, shockwaves rippled through the sports and media world when 30 people associated with the league were arrested on insider trading charges brought by the FBI for illegal gambling, and tied to New York mafia families.
What a way to open a basketball season.
These guys make big-time bank, and they seem to be throwing their legacies and careers away on this? It’s an epic epidemic, but in this case, it’s hard to fathom that those who have so much are willing to flush it down the toilet. They’re the ones to blame, yes, but the media routinely talk about gambling on TV.
It used to be taboo. Now it’s a mainstay, which sadly is here to stay.
But the larger blame lies squarely at the feet of media company behemoths that play on people’s addictions in order to line their already gold-lined pockets. This is no slam dunk for anyone.
Three bigwigs received the most media attention: Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, who had been investigated and cleared by the NBA two years ago; Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups; and Damon Jones, a former NBA player and coach. The stings were called “Operation Royal Flush” and “Nothing but Bet.”
It should have been called “Nothing but Greed” by mega-rich media companies and insiders. Billups made over $100 million, Rozier made over $150 million in career earnings, and Jones made around $20 million. Isn’t that enough to live on? The insiders were charged with such offenses as wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, and robbery.
“For most people, you couldn’t spend a hundred fifty million dollars in your lifetime,” said Notre Dame finance professor Richard Sheehan on Fox News.
This whole thing reminds me of when the chief of police in the 1942 movie Casablanca, where Humphrey Bogart’s nightclub clandestinely offers illegal card games in the back room, says, “I’m shocked — shocked — to find that gambling is going on here!” He says it as he collects his winnings.
It’s a perfect metaphor for what is happening today. No one, and I mean no one, could have been truly shocked about the alleged actions of these 30 people. They may have been shocked that they got caught, purportedly playing poker games using high-tech cheating devices like X-ray card tables and rigged shuffling machines. These potential thieves thought of it all.
TV media companies like ESPN, NBC, and FOX were finally called out for “talking out of both sides of their mouths,” as Catherine Rampell, co-anchor of The Weekend on MSNBC, said.
It’s total hypocrisy.
The CBS Sports app provides extensive betting advice from experts and partners with sportsbooks like BetMGM. NBC Sports partners with PointsBet, which features its odds and branding. ESPN/ABC owns ESPN BET, which promotes itself as an app that offers “big odds boosts…and a massive range of player props.” Fox shut down its app formerly known as Fox Bet because it was losing money. But the Fox Sports website and app show odds and bet slips—a digital record of a wager—in states where mobile sports betting is legal.
Global gambling revenue last year was between $182 and $187 billion. These media companies consistently call out the perils of gambling and then run ads for gambling apps at the same time.
As Clay Travis, Fox’s OutKick founder, noted on social media the day the FBI announced the arrests, ESPN touted its own gambling company at a pretty inopportune time, highlighting the duplicity.
“This is pretty funny. ESPN Bet promo is on the screen while ESPN discusses the NBA sports gambling scandal.”
It happened on the network show Get Up, but as Mike Greenberg was partway through talking about it, the ad disappeared. As Jemele Hill aptly noted on MSNBC, “Frankly, it helps them make more money…The hard part about this is that there’s a natural hypocrisy that we all can see.”
The arrests triggered days-long coverage by all of the networks, bringing together a collection of experts and analysts.
Stephen A. Smith, who broadcasts on ESPN’s First Take and has two daily shows on SiriusXM, claimed the arrests were President Trump’s fault. The combative commentator said he’s out to get the NBA. FBI Director Kash Patel fired back, saying it was “the single dumbest thing I’ve ever heard out of anyone in modern history.”
Brian Windhorst, ESPN’s senior NBA analyst, said on the hugely popular Dan Patrick Show, “I had no heads up.” He added, “I don’t think Chauncey [Billups] knew what was coming either…I’m not sure how much heads up the NBA had.”
He is one of the few who doesn’t think the story is as big as the rest of the world. “I don’t think this is a scandal that rocks the NBA to its core. I know that there are people that are going to use it to say that. And certainly their association with sports betting can be called into question, as all people associated with sports can be. ESPN’s can be.”
Pro-poker player Matt Berkey knows the pitfalls and says the high associated with playing at the top is real. He told ESPN that he was invited several times to one of the poker games in question and that his antennae went up. “It just seemed quite suspicious to me, and I was lucky enough to pass. I had a lot of friends who lost hundreds and thousands of dollars in these games just to play with a few celebrities.”
Shaquille O’Neal, the former basketball star for the L.A. Lakers and other teams, and now a sports commentator, said on Inside the NBA that he knows all of the players and doesn’t want to be hypocritical. “I’ve been on teams and played cards…all these guys knew what was at stake.” Shaq said he felt “ashamed” that “they put themselves, their family, and the NBA in this position.”
But he did say they are innocent until proven guilty.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said on Amazon Prime Video, during the streaming service’s first broadcast, that he was stunned by the indictments. “There’s nothing more important to the league and its fans than the integrity of the competition. I had a pit in my stomach. It was very upsetting.”
The top three have been placed on administrative leave pending investigation. The NBA says it’s committed to maintaining the integrity of the game.
The big question is what’s going to happen next, and the answer most likely is nothing. Media companies are not going to give up the revenue that comes with promoting betting. Maybe players and coaches will be scared off high-stakes betting and insider trading for a period of time. But the NBA brand is tarnished—most likely temporarily—as the 24-hour news cycle clamors on.
This debacle wasn’t exactly a game-winning jump shot in the fourth quarter. More like a major defeat handed to the NBA by a scrappy team of losers. Everyone dropped the ball.
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You left out two very important points. If it weren’t for the legal wagering companies, the bad actors wouldn’t have been caught. Without the regulation of legalized wagering companies we could have had another Tim Donaghey situation, which was a far greater embarrassment for the NBA. It’s ok if you are not in favor of wagering on games, but this has gone on long before wagering was legal in this country and making it illegal again will not fix the issue of unethical and greedy people being in positions to affect the outcomes of games.