NBA, Guns & Gambling: NBA players like to gamble. There's a shock. Athletes who are fiercely competitive and ridiculously wealthy like to place wagers on card games ... or anything. "Cedric Ceballos allegedly divorced a teammate from $50,000 by hitting a halfcourt shot." There's the Charles Oakley-Tyrone Hill story. And Arenas-Crittenton. "A savvy Detroit player had allegedly cheated Jerry Stackhouse out of $2,000 in a card game. Stackhouse erroneously fingered Christian Laettner and cold-cocked him." So the Nets have banned gambling on team flights. Brooke Lopez, who went to Stanford, immediately laughed at the hypocrisy. “You see all this Harrah’s stuff around here and you go in the locker room and they have four different basketball points having to do with gambling and 21. I guess it’s still frowned upon.” [SI] (25)
NFL Playoffs: The lines for all four games this past weekend were four points or less. Only one favorite was victorious (Dallas) while the underdogs howled. The spreads are much wider this weekend: San Diego is favored by nine over the Jets, Indy is favored by 6.5 over the Ravens, the Saints are favored by seven over the Cardinals, and the Vikings are 2.5-point favorites against the Cowboys. Through the first 14 weeks of the season, the Chargers, Colts, and Saints were widely considered to be the best teams in the league, so the wide spreads are no surprise. Worth noting: Indy's starters haven't played a full game in three weeks; the Chargers and Colts starters have had two weeks off. (79)
The NBA has suspended Gilbert Arenas indefinitely, without pay, for bringing unloaded guns into the Wizards’ locker room as part of “a joke” on teammate Javaris Crittenton. Stern stated that the league could hand Arenas a “substantial suspension and perhapse worse.” Lifetime ban? This could lead to the Wizards, conveniently, voiding the remaining four-years and $96 million from Arenas’ atrocious contract.
Fair punishment? Stern laying down the hammer Ron Artest-style to eradicate a problem affecting the league’s image? In what other profession could you bring guns into the workplace and not be fired immediately?
The NBA has suspended Gilbert Arenas indefinitely, without pay, for bringing unloaded guns into the Wizards’ locker room as part of “a joke” on teammate Javaris Crittenton. Stern stated that the league could hand Arenas a “substantial suspension and perhapse worse.” Lifetime ban? This could lead to the Wizards, conveniently, voiding the remaining four-years and $96 million from Arenas’ atrocious contract.
Fair punishment? Stern laying down the hammer Ron Artest-style to eradicate an unsavory problem affecting the league’s image? In what other profession could you whip out firearms in the workplace and not be fired immediately?
“It was like a kid finding Batman’s belt in the lost and found. No point in giving it back until you’ve tried all your new powers.” On athletes scoring off the field. (NYT) Read the rest of this entry »
“During a year-long gambling binge at the Caesars Palace and Rio casinos in 2007, Terrance Watanabe managed to lose nearly $127 million. The run is believed to be one of the biggest losing streaks by an individual in Las Vegas history. It devoured much of Mr. Watanabe’s personal fortune, he says, which he built up over more than two decades running his family’s party-favor import business in Omaha, Neb.” Read the rest of this entry »
Reaction to “The Legend of Jimmy the Greek” was generally positive. Mike Florio tweeted “Usually I can work while watching TV. During this Jimmy the Greek documentary on ESPN, I have yet to write a single word.” Fang’s Bites described it as “close to perfect on its storytelling.” I didn’t agree, but perhaps I was not the intended audience.
The NBA has suspended Gilbert Arenas indefinitely, without pay, for bringing unloaded guns into the Wizards’ locker room as part of “a joke” on teammate Javaris Crittenton. Stern stated that the league could hand Arenas a “substantial suspension and perhapse worse.” Lifetime ban? This could lead to the Wizards, conveniently, voiding the remaining four-years and $96 million from Arenas’ atrocious contract.
