I'm not sure it's a particularly IMPORTANT story (from an FBI perspective), but it's certainly a huge story based on media coverage.Quote:
Originally Posted by RedTeamGo!
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I'm not sure it's a particularly IMPORTANT story (from an FBI perspective), but it's certainly a huge story based on media coverage.Quote:
Originally Posted by RedTeamGo!
I agree about the media coverage and I don’t understand why. It’s not the first sports gambling story and won’t be last. Still not seeing connection between Billups and Rozier
I'll bet Adam Silver is pulling his hair out. :p
Just saw this from the WSJ. The cases are somewhat related but clearly distinct:Quote:
Originally Posted by RedTeamGo!
A second indictment charged six defendants including Rozier with a criminal betting scheme using insider information and performance-manipulation to profit off NBA games.
Billups wasn’t charged with participating in the sports-betting scheme, but some of the other gamblers from the rigged poker games were—and prosecutors said that Billups gave them insider information.
Ah, I see - interesting. Can't wait for the HBO series on this.
How many players (or people connected to the NBA) have been arrested so far? Down here in Houston, they are announcing that Damon Jones has been arrested in connection with gambling on games or rigged poker? Stephen A. Smith believes this is just the tip of the iceberg. Whoa. I just came across an article that says there have been at least 31 arrests.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other...5676a02b2&ei=9
Quote:
The 31 suspects — who also include members of America’s most notorious crime families, including the Bonanno, Genovese, and Gambino — allegedly used X-ray poker tables and special contact lenses to read others players’ cards.
As I understand it, they're not charging the people who just showed up to the play at the poker games. It's the organizers who rigged the games and those who knew about and profited from the rigged games (Jones and Billups being in that latter category).
I simply cannot understand why Chauncey Billups would get involved in something like this.
With the mob connections there could be a bunch of reasons.Quote:
Originally Posted by texasdave
Just, "Wow!"
He was setting up "fish" to lose tens of millions of dollars. He added the "legitimacy element" to the con and did so for a fee.Quote:
Originally Posted by RedTeamGo!
Billups came into the job with a history of red flags. There were protests regarding his hiring.
Four teams named in the indictment: Lakers, Hornets, Raptors, Trail Blazers. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other...bc868c1c&ei=30
Damon Jones with the double whammy. He was named in both indictments.
These seven games were allegedly "tainted". https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba...0afe9200&ei=13
Billups was involved in one of the games.
Quote:
he FBI’s indictment alleges that Billups, who is identified only as “Co-Conspirator 8,” told a defendant that “the Trail Blazers were going to be tanking” to improve their draft lottery position and informed him of the decision not to play several players, including Lillard, against the Bulls before that information was made public. The information was allegedly relayed to gamblers who placed bets on the Blazers to lose the game totaling roughly $100,000.
They won't have to worry about Chauncey coaching them any longer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingspoint
Just when he was getting good at it. The interim has no experience. They played really well last night. Grant's best game since he was a Nugget. It's Chauncey's style, so I have no idea about the short-term future. The guy who bought the team was charged in the past with money-lending fraud.Quote:
Originally Posted by texasdave
NBA is fixed? Never would have guessed.
The league was already in shambles and now this. Glad I quit watching 10 or 15 years ago. Sad, because I used to love the NBA, but that’s been many moons ago.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/bas...al/ar-AA1P4VLO
Adam Silver learned from the Master - David Stern.
Two games and 2 double-overtime wins for the Thunder. SGA drops 55. Load management coming up.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba...b8a1707d&ei=12
Quote:
BA insider Brian Windhorst made an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show on Thursday to offer some insight into the situation, and he made some pretty damning claims about the league. Windhorst explained that sportsbooks had tipped the NBA off to irregular sports betting activity on Rozier unders on the day it happened, and suggested the league attempted to sweep the situation under the rug. "The NBA at some point is going to have to explain why Terry Rozier was allowed to keep playing. I just want to point something out, the sportsbooks caught the irregular betting on Terry Rozier the day it happened... when all of a sudden there were hundreds of thousands of dollars coming in on Terry Rozier unders," explained Windhorst. "The sportsbooks caught it. They told the NBA right away, and guess what? Rozier didn't play the rest of the season. And he had faked the injury so it wasn't because of the injury. The NBA pulled him. They pulled Jontay Porter, too..."
Always love when people throw out statements like this without providing any evidence to back the statement up. If you quit watching 10 to 15 years ago, how do you know the NBA is presently “in shambles “?Quote:
Originally Posted by LiferJim
The facts according to Chat:
Attendance
In the 2024-25 regular season, the NBA averaged 18,147 fans per game, which is the second-highest mark ever for the league.
SportsEpreneur
+3
theScore.com
+3
Sports Business Journal
+3
Total regular-season attendance exceeded 22.3 million for only the second time in league history.
Sports Business Journal
+1
Per one analysis: “arenas filled to a 97% capacity for the third time ever.”
Sports Business Journal
Despite the strong in-person numbers, attendance is described as “holding near record highs” rather than continuing large growth.
SportsEpreneur
Takeaway: The NBA is doing very well in terms of fans showing up at games. The live-event product appears robust.
TV / Viewership / Ratings
For the 2024-25 regular season across national networks (ABC, ESPN, TNT), the league averaged about 1.53 million viewers per game, which is down ~2% from the prior year (1.56 million) in that package.
Front Office Sports
+1
More broadly: the regular season viewership has hovered around 1.5-1.6 million for several years, and is notably below levels of past peaks (e.g., the late ’10s when rivalries and star players were drawing more).
Sports Media Watch
+1
The 2025 playoffs (on ESPN/ABC) saw a stronger picture: across some packages, viewership was up ~12% vs. the prior year.
Sports Video Group
The recent 2025 Finals: Game 7 between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers had strong peek numbers (in the news) despite the series average being down overall.
Hardly "in shambles".
Two of the smallest NBA markets faced off in the Finals last June.Quote:
Originally Posted by plantmanky
Yeah, it’s really fixed. *eye roll *
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Facts are such stupid things.Quote:
Originally Posted by Revering4Blue
But Fox News said the NBA is in shambles.
This is pretty serious for the NBA and Silver. It may not all be his fault but he's the guy in charge that initiated the investigations which cleared everyone. NBA reporter Brian Windhorst said the NBA tried to sweep this under the rug. I'm not saying Silver is in immediate danger of losing his job but he may start investing in asbestos lined underwear.
On Amazon Prime tonight:
Celtics at Knicks
7:30 p.m.
Prime Video
Timberwolves at Lakers
10 p.m.
Prime Video
Cool. Apparently it’s just my circle that refuses to watch or attendQuote:
Originally Posted by Mutaman
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm not particularly interested in the NBA these days, but it's predominatly because my team of choice is on about year 5 of a tank of indeterminate length.
Wait a minute, are we in the political forum? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Mutaman
I think it’s year 45 for mine. To be fair, about half that time, the tanking has been unintentional.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boston Red
Back to the NBA...
MIN looked really good Opening Night. One of the most difficult places in sports to get a win is in POR on opening night. Over the last 40 years, I'd be surprised if they didn't have the best record in the league. It has to be a winning percentage of over .800.
POR played very well, despite 10-35 shooting from Holiday and Sharpe, with Deni Avdija 0-6 from "3".
POR led the whole game, only from 1 to 7 points though.
Edwards was fantastic. Randle was a major force on Offense. McDaniels was very good. They got great play from two bench players.
MIN showed why they have as much of a chance as anyone to reach the Conference Finals, which would be the 3rd year in a row, a monumental feat in the West.
I find the NBA wholly uninteresting except for the playoffs. Last year was a fun watch, especially since I kinda gravitated to the Pacers during their run.
But this gambling thing is, wow. On one hand I am surprised it doesn't happen more, especially with live in game betting and player props, but on the other hand, why risk something when you are making $20+ mil a year?
At the same time, in a grind of an 82 game season, when teams have "rest" days, someone goes to a player and says, here is $50K, make sure the 1st quarter goes under. You can rationalize it by saying, it won't effect the outcome of a game and I am getting 50K.
I'll be watching more now that Prime and Peacock have games.Quote:
Originally Posted by LiferJim
Would like to see the Blazers get Michael Malone for their Head Coach.
Kevin Garnett, come on down. We have an empty seat at the poker table.
Giannis Antetokounmpo becomes the FIRST player in NBA history to open a season with 60+ PTS, 30+ REB, and 10+ AST through two games!
After his debut and learning more about his coaching history, I'd rather have Tiago Splitter than anyone else I can think of.
And now he breaks the 76ers record for most points in the first two games. Nice win again. Another come back in the 4th quarter.Quote:
Originally Posted by goreds2