duncan228
05-28-2008, 01:53 PM
This came out before last night's game.
http://www.modbee.com/columnists/agostini/story/308766.html
Stern gambling with NBA's image, future
PR NEWSWIRE
Somewhere down the line, NBA Commissioner David Stern's skin has been replaced by Teflon.
There is no other explanation. Trouble rolls off him like water down a storm drain. He should teach a postgraduate course in slipping punches. Muhammad Ali secured his legacy by making opponents miss, but he could have learned a thing or two from Stern.
The commish is one dandy moving target. Either that, or the sports world has given him one of the all-time free passes.
I mean, Stern and his league should be hunkered underground in some deep cave, hoping for better news by sunrise. Any other commissioner, if he or she were handed the same mudbath of recent developments, would have launched a series of "no comments" and hid behind his or her attorney.
But in this case, the level of outrage somehow has been muted, a mystery worth exploring.
The NBA has been stung by, 1) A former official who's been convicted of taking cash payoffs and betting on games in which he's worked, and 2) Its most popular TV analyst shamed into paying a $400,000 debt this week to a Las Vegas casino.
If you review these events objectively, you might conclude the NBA and gambling are not-so-strange bedfellows. Never mind the fact the league held its 2007 All-Star Game in Las Vegas, where point-spreads and the over-under reign.
Look, I enjoy Charles Barkley's mix of knowledge and irreverence like most viewers. He has a problem, however, one that he can't or won't admit. Here's a former NBA star who reportedly lost $100,000 on this year's Super Bowl and, two years ago, estimated that he had blown $10 million on various wagers.
"For right now, the next year or two, I'm not going to gamble," Barkley said on TNT this week in words that would trigger red flags from any psychologist.
What's especially odd, though, is Stern's high-volume silence so far about Barkley. Clearly, the commissioner is banking on society's 10-second attention span along with Barkley's own well-documented Teflon.
Problem is, Barkley is arguably the NBA's most persuasive mouthpiece, and he's got serious issues when he approaches any sportsbook -- a dangerous and potentially lethal combo in a business that depends on maintaining the public trust.
Then there's Tim Donaghy, Stern's "rogue official." Donaghy will be sentenced in July, but the story regained speed last week when he told investigators that relationships among officials, coaches and players "affected the outcome of games." His attorney also suggested, via a letter in federal court, that Donaghy talked to authorities about a referee who passed confidential information to a coach.
Stern dismissed the allegations as the baying of a convict desperately trying to reduce his prison term but, about one breath later, said he hopes to talk to Donaghy after the sentencing. Does anyone play both ends against the middle better than Stern?
That said, the NBA wishes Donaghy would disappear not unlike the NFL with Spygate. But, like Spygate, the disgraced official remains front and center, at least until he puts on the orange jumpsuit. He's bet on more than 100 games that he's worked (14 during the 2006-07 season), according to federal prosecutors.
Like we've said in the past, any professional sport is reduced to roller derby or wrestling if the final score is tainted. And, in the NBA, we have proof of tainted scores. This is a league veering this close to sustaining long-term damage to its image.
But the way Stern talked in recent years, he entertained the shifting of a franchise to Las Vegas. He wasn't fazed by the perception, one assumed, if the bottom line blinked positive. Only the nasty aftertaste no doubt prevented such an move.
Regardless, he and his league race forward. TV ratings are up, the game is more up-tempo and exciting than a decade ago, and the conference finals series -- Lakers-Spurs and Celtics-Pistons -- promise an increase in interest. Stern's fantasy is a Celtics-Lakers final, and so what if many modern-day NBA fans weren't yet born the last time Magic Johnson and Larry Bird dueled?
Outside the arena, however, storm clouds gather. Stern, the commissioner since 1984, thinks his Teflon again will save him. He might think again. If the public keeps connecting the dots, from betting announcers to crooked officials to Sin City, it eventually will be led to Stern.
And he's already used his last free pass.
http://www.modbee.com/columnists/agostini/story/308766.html
Stern gambling with NBA's image, future
PR NEWSWIRE
Somewhere down the line, NBA Commissioner David Stern's skin has been replaced by Teflon.
There is no other explanation. Trouble rolls off him like water down a storm drain. He should teach a postgraduate course in slipping punches. Muhammad Ali secured his legacy by making opponents miss, but he could have learned a thing or two from Stern.
The commish is one dandy moving target. Either that, or the sports world has given him one of the all-time free passes.
I mean, Stern and his league should be hunkered underground in some deep cave, hoping for better news by sunrise. Any other commissioner, if he or she were handed the same mudbath of recent developments, would have launched a series of "no comments" and hid behind his or her attorney.
But in this case, the level of outrage somehow has been muted, a mystery worth exploring.
The NBA has been stung by, 1) A former official who's been convicted of taking cash payoffs and betting on games in which he's worked, and 2) Its most popular TV analyst shamed into paying a $400,000 debt this week to a Las Vegas casino.
If you review these events objectively, you might conclude the NBA and gambling are not-so-strange bedfellows. Never mind the fact the league held its 2007 All-Star Game in Las Vegas, where point-spreads and the over-under reign.
Look, I enjoy Charles Barkley's mix of knowledge and irreverence like most viewers. He has a problem, however, one that he can't or won't admit. Here's a former NBA star who reportedly lost $100,000 on this year's Super Bowl and, two years ago, estimated that he had blown $10 million on various wagers.
"For right now, the next year or two, I'm not going to gamble," Barkley said on TNT this week in words that would trigger red flags from any psychologist.
What's especially odd, though, is Stern's high-volume silence so far about Barkley. Clearly, the commissioner is banking on society's 10-second attention span along with Barkley's own well-documented Teflon.
Problem is, Barkley is arguably the NBA's most persuasive mouthpiece, and he's got serious issues when he approaches any sportsbook -- a dangerous and potentially lethal combo in a business that depends on maintaining the public trust.
Then there's Tim Donaghy, Stern's "rogue official." Donaghy will be sentenced in July, but the story regained speed last week when he told investigators that relationships among officials, coaches and players "affected the outcome of games." His attorney also suggested, via a letter in federal court, that Donaghy talked to authorities about a referee who passed confidential information to a coach.
Stern dismissed the allegations as the baying of a convict desperately trying to reduce his prison term but, about one breath later, said he hopes to talk to Donaghy after the sentencing. Does anyone play both ends against the middle better than Stern?
That said, the NBA wishes Donaghy would disappear not unlike the NFL with Spygate. But, like Spygate, the disgraced official remains front and center, at least until he puts on the orange jumpsuit. He's bet on more than 100 games that he's worked (14 during the 2006-07 season), according to federal prosecutors.
Like we've said in the past, any professional sport is reduced to roller derby or wrestling if the final score is tainted. And, in the NBA, we have proof of tainted scores. This is a league veering this close to sustaining long-term damage to its image.
But the way Stern talked in recent years, he entertained the shifting of a franchise to Las Vegas. He wasn't fazed by the perception, one assumed, if the bottom line blinked positive. Only the nasty aftertaste no doubt prevented such an move.
Regardless, he and his league race forward. TV ratings are up, the game is more up-tempo and exciting than a decade ago, and the conference finals series -- Lakers-Spurs and Celtics-Pistons -- promise an increase in interest. Stern's fantasy is a Celtics-Lakers final, and so what if many modern-day NBA fans weren't yet born the last time Magic Johnson and Larry Bird dueled?
Outside the arena, however, storm clouds gather. Stern, the commissioner since 1984, thinks his Teflon again will save him. He might think again. If the public keeps connecting the dots, from betting announcers to crooked officials to Sin City, it eventually will be led to Stern.
And he's already used his last free pass.