OT: NBA coach Billups caught in Mafia and sports gambling sting (LINK)

[Pape]

Exactly. Funny how he went to play baseball for the same Owner who owned the bulls.

I did not know this tidbit. thats kinda wow

 

[rkarp1]

Adam silver is a really bad commissioner. The Donagey scandal never went away as so many of those refs he was friends with never were investigated.

All the kawhi stuff the last few months and crickets. Hes not even suspended! Terry rozier.... Silver said they saw his irregular betting but there wasn't anything they could do? What?!?

Nothing personal against Harden but when they started allowing his blatant foul baiting and 20 steps after you gather the ball i just kinda lost my passion for the nba. But all this cheating and sketchy outcomes at the end of games makes me not care at all

yeah, the nba is teetering
unlikable players/faces of the game
poor in game pace
"maintenance games"
now this....
Silver needs a right hand man that is the hard handed guy. league has to send some messages that they aren't going to tolerate things. the card games appear to be ho-hum, everyone does it. the compromising the integrity of the game needs to hard stop.

 

[1960Pats]

yeah, the nba is teetering
unlikable players/faces of the game
poor in game pace
"maintenance games"
now this....
Silver needs a right hand man that is the hard handed guy. league has to send some messages that they aren't going to tolerate things. the card games appear to be ho-hum, everyone does it. the compromising the integrity of the game needs to hard stop.

When owners of teams also started owning gambling sites that should've been a red flag.
Card game cheating is not ho-hum.

 

[lancerman]

Adam silver is a really bad commissioner. The Donagey scandal never went away as so many of those refs he was friends with never were investigated.

All the kawhi stuff the last few months and crickets. Hes not even suspended! Terry rozier.... Silver said they saw his irregular betting but there wasn't anything they could do? What?!?

Nothing personal against Harden but when they started allowing his blatant foul baiting and 20 steps after you gather the ball i just kinda lost my passion for the nba. But all this cheating and sketchy outcomes at the end of games makes me not care at all

Silver is a push over. I get it, he was meant to be the opposite of Stern and be more player friendly and basically won everyone over with how he handled Donald Sterling when prior commissioners would have been less aggressive. But he also can't balance the strong hand he needs against the talent and employees to keep everything on the up and up when they get out of line.

There's a balance between a disciplinarian like Goodell and a doormat like Silver.

 

[1960Pats]

There is nothing about "full time" referees that is going to change anything.

We don't know that if it's never been the case. Maybe they could use some off-season training and become more consistent with the calls. They may also want to do something about the way they swallow their whistles during the playoffs.

 

[Real fan 02]

I did not know this tidbit. thats kinda wow

Yes this was detailed in the documentary on the bulls. Krause owned the bills and the white sox

 

[SlowGettingUp]

Prop bets are the big temptation. Betting on the outcome of a game is much dicier even if you have a player or official in your pocket. Just a lot more variance, and so you'd have to do it a bunch of times to be guaranteed a profit.

 

[1960Pats]

Yes this was detailed in the documentary on the bulls. Krause owned the bills and the white sox

I recently saw that the governor of Illinois claimed to have won 1.4 million playing cards in Vegas.

 

[1960Pats]

Prop bets are the big temptation. Betting on the outcome of a game is much dicier even if you have a player or official in your pocket. Just a lot more variance, and so you'd have to do it a bunch of times to be guaranteed a profit.

A Japanese billionaire bets 100 million with FanDual that Dak Prescott will get 200 yards passing in a game. When Dak gets to 190 yards Jerry Jones calls down to the HC and tells him to pull Dak out.

Of course that sounds crazy but just the idea that it's possible is the reason that sports owners shouldn't own gambling sites. It's also a reason why the only gambling I do is poker with friends and for-fun contests here.

 

[lancerman]

We don't know that if it's never been the case. Maybe they could use some off-season training and become more consistent with the calls. They may also want to do something about the way they swallow their whistles during the playoffs.

We do know. It's been tried. From 2017 to 2018 they tested it out. 21 refs were hired full time. It didn't make a noticeable difference.

Reffing is hard, there will always be the human element, and it's not something that more time makes you better at.

 

[sb1]

I’m curious what the total betting handle was on Goff first TD in that Chiefs game. The league reviewing that play for a penalty violating its own rules and then telling the refs to throw a flag looks dirty AF. Who knows what other communications the league had during that minute delay.

 

[Real fan 02]

I recently saw that the governor of Illinois claimed to have won 1.4 million playing cards in Vegas.

Really!!!! That's news to me. That's crazy. I thought politicians at the state level were prohibited from gambling? I know in Massachusetts the code of ethics restrictions on gambling, ect is very strict. But on the overall thesis here.. billups made 100 plus million in his career.. rozier is on a 96 million contract. What is going through these guy's mind... I don't get it..

 

[1960Pats]

We do know. It's been tried. From 2017 to 2018 they tested it out. 21 refs were hired full time. It didn't make a noticeable difference.

Reffing is hard, there will always be the human element, and it's not something that more time makes you better at.

How many refs are required for the games? 21 is pretty short.

I don't know how committed the owners were to it then, but if the officials spent the off-season watching videos of how plays should be called then they'd have to become better and more consistent. It's called training and it works in all jobs, hard or not.

Whatever they're doing clearly isn't working and the officiating is worse now than ever.

 

[XLIX]

We don't know that if it's never been the case.

Let’s put it this way: basketball and baseball each have full time officials. Is that the standard you want the NFL to aspire to?

Maybe they could use some off-season training and become more consistent with the calls.

They already get offseason training.

 

[1960Pats]

Really!!!! That's news to me. That's crazy. I thought politicians at the state level were prohibited from gambling? I know in Massachusetts the code of ethics restrictions on gambling, ect is very strict. But on the overall thesis here.. billups made 100 plus million in his career.. rozier is on a 96 million contract. What is going through these guy's mind... I don't get it..

Yeah, I saw him say 1.4 million playing cards. I think it was Vegas but I forget the card game. I'll see if I can dig up the video somewhere. It's Illinois though and I don't think they have rules about anything.

When the gambling bug hits you and you end up owing money then the criminals own you. That's probably what happened. I remember reading stories about entertainers who had to work in Vegas to pay back gambling debts.

I'm so glad I stopped gambling on sports back in the 80's. It was fun for a few years but I saw that it was a very slippery slope.

 

[1960Pats]

Let’s put it this way: basketball and baseball each have full time officials. Is that the standard you want the NFL to aspire to?

They already get offseason training.

What kind of training? They send them a video or a letter telling them what to do? Whatever it is it isn't working. They're worse now than ever.

Basketball officiating (in spite of the many changes over the years) and baseball officiating are far more consistent than football.

 

[Real fan 02]

Yeah, I saw him say 1.4 million playing cards. I think it was Vegas but I forget the card game. I'll see if I can dig up the video somewhere. It's Illinois though and I don't think they have rules about anything.

When the gambling bug hits you and you end up owing money then the criminals own you. That's probably what happened. I remember reading stories about entertainers who had to work in Vegas to pay back gambling debts.

I'm so glad I stopped gambling on sports back in the 80's. It was fun for a few years but I saw that it was a very slippery slope.

Thank you! for sharing this. Very interesting! Outside of lottery I never got into the gambling thing. It's a path I've seen friends, coworkers fo down and it's never good. I've seen people come to the job looking for a co worker for a gambling debt owed. Yes Jordan, Barkley, Ewing, Payton and many others in the 90s were said to have bad gambling addictions.. Jordan was said to have ignored his gambling debts and that may have had something to do with his father's passing.

 

[1960Pats]

Thank you! for sharing this. Very interesting! Outside of lottery I never got into the gambling thing. It's a path I've seen friends, coworkers fo down and it's never good. I've seen people come to the job looking for a co worker for a gambling debt owed. Yes Jordan, Barkley, Ewing, Payton and many others in the 90s were said to have bad gambling addictions.. Jordan was said to have ignored his gambling debts and that may have had something to do with his father's passing.

Wouldn't you love to know the whole story behind that? Amazing.

One of my neighbors had a gambling problem and owed so much that his mother sold her home to give him the money. He then used some of that to make an in-law apartment for her. I remember talking to their young son about it and he said that he wasn't into gambling. A few minutes later I heard him talking about the spread in a game with another person at the party.

Eventually, his wife ended up in a hospital and her husband took the kid after accusing her of child abandonment. Him and his son moved to Florida and I never heard from them again.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

Chauncy Billups was not the big draw to these cards games, it is someone much bigger! This is eeringly similar to the Molly Blume story.

The True Story Behind the Movie Molly's Game

Separating the fact from the fiction

time.com

Where she had big time actors at her weekly game (Affleck, Toby McGuire, etc.) and the game was on the level, and then somehow the mob got in, and then everything went to ****.

My bet would be on Michael Jordon, hopefully not Barkley or Shaq (cuz I really like those guys). But nobody was lining up to play card with Chauncy Billips, you can bet on that.

 

[XLIX]

What kind of training? They send them a video or a letter telling them what to do?

They do the exact thing you say they should be doing. They watch videos, have seminars, meet to go over the rules, new rules, etc.

Whatever it is it isn't working. They're worse now than ever.

This shows a phenomenal ignorance of history.

Basketball officiating (in spite of the many changes over the years) and baseball officiating is far more consistent than football.