Above All, the NBA Will Protect the Gambling Industry

Two weeks ago, when a betting scandal rocked the National Basketball Association, the headlines were so bright you needed UV sunglasses to read the text. Stories about Hall of Fame player-turned-head coach Chauncey Billups being the face of corrupt, Mafia-run poker games alongside people with names like “Albanian Bruce” and “Black Tony” guaranteed maximum attention. The other part of the story involves Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat, who the NBA previously investigated and found no wrongdoing, but authorities say he gave inside information to friends who made bets based on his information. Kash Patel, head of the FBI, children’s book author and free-flying enthusiast, said this would only be the beginning of the investigation.

Now that the dust has settled, it’s time to also get rid of the bullshit and talk about what’s really at stake. First, let’s clear up Billups’ involvement in rigged poker games. Let’s face it, if these accusations are true, getting involved with the “smoking” mafia – suburban New York slang for illegal card games – is a bad idea for a head coach. It’s also been around since organized crime existed, which roughly coincides with the start of professional sports. If that sounds dismissive, it’s because these “smokers” have nothing to do with the real deal of this matter. This story isn’t about “Albanian Bruce” and high-tech card cheating. This concerns the fear that the “federal investigation” is really just code for “revenge.” And it’s about the NBA’s fear that if fans begin to doubt the legitimacy of the sport, it could put billions of dollars in revenue from legal gambling at risk.

The investigation dates back to the Biden administration, but there was no doubt when the indictments were made public: the opening week of the NBA season. We live under a regime that practices a policy of vengeance against American businesses and citizens. And during Trump’s first term, the NBA was a thorn in his side, with social media comments from many players, including LeBron James, angering him. The champion teams of Trump’s first term refused to come to the White House, even though the irritable Trump shouted online that they were never invited. The NBA also led a massive get-out-the-vote campaign and even opened arenas as voting locations. Given the political leanings of the NBA public and the players’ opposition to Trump, this was a thinly veiled effort to push the president out of the White House.

Even more than the men’s league, the WNBA – supervised by the NBA – thwarted Trump’s electoral plans. The players helped prevent Atlanta Dream franchise owner, Trumpist Kelly Loeffler, from becoming a Georgia senator and encouraged their Peach State fans to vote for Rev. Raphael Warnock, who won by the slimmest of margins. They even managed to get Loeffler, an outspoken critic of players’ resistance to racist police violence, to sell the franchise. It doesn’t take a tinfoil hat to believe that Trump’s desire for revenge may have played a role in Patel’s announcement. Even ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, an increasingly frequent Fox News guest whose politics continue to stomp to the right, said this is all about Trump putting his foot on the NBA’s neck and harpooning it from the start of the season. Patel took the time to criticize Smith, denying that the exquisite timing was anything but a coincidence.

But it is neither the crooked poker games nor the clumsy timing of the FBI that now raises the fine eyebrow of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. It’s about the fear that the legalization of the gambling he so fiercely defended more than a decade ago could affect the way fans perceive the legitimacy of games. However, his puzzle is not how to bring the game to heel, but how to keep the windfall afloat without government intervention or fan revolt.

Across the sports world, gambling apps have colonized commercial coverage and generated billions in revenue, eating into league profits and sending top players’ salaries through the roof. In doing so, it has created an economy of dependency, particularly preying on young men whose brains still lack impulse control. The ubiquitous advertisements for betting apps, which always end with a quick repeat of the gambling addict helpline, feed the idea that you are limiting your enjoyment by not “participating in the game.” The leagues engaged in a parasitic practice, targeting the young and most vulnerable and drying up their finances. Somewhere in the afterlife, wherever he resides, Pete Rose is very confused.

Silver’s initial arguments in favor of legalization, made public on November 13, 2014, in The New York Times– that people were playing anyway so that it would be highlighted so well and that cheating would be much easier to detect – were convincing at the time but seem ridiculous today. With the explosion of gaming apps, anyone can play as easily as liking an Instagram post. When it comes to players, the high-stakes gambling that takes place on team planes and in locker rooms has resulted in legendary stories far beyond those involving Michael Jordan. Across all sports, these are communities of hyper-competitive people with disposable income and plenty of downtime. The idea that no professional athlete would participate in this national sporting bacchanal is incredibly naive.

The league, if you read between the lines, could also be waging a full-scale attack on player speech in order to continue to greedily feed the money troughs of gambling apps. Telling a family member or friend that you won’t be playing that night would amount to some sort of “insider trading” in the eyes of the league, leading to some sort of punishment. Don’t share anything or risk the “integrity of the game.” This kind of innocuous information is what Terry Rozier, so much dragged through the mud by Patel, is accused of sharing. Hopefully the union is paying attention to this, because a serious restriction on players’ freedom of speech and movement, in order to protect the hollow, is coming.

If you watch the sports media cover this story, it turns into a farce. The shows are sponsored by the apps. Sports presenters are now breaking into live coverage to talk about betting lines. ESPN even has its own sportsbook, ESPNBet. Sports journalists are increasingly the new bookmakers.

Under authoritarianism, shit always flows downhill. Patel’s FBI is on the attack on the NBA, and the league, instead of retaliating, will definitely go after the players. Everything to protect the real goose that lays the golden eggs: sports fans who need to stay addicted to gambling.