That didn’t take long, did it? So now what? Anyone have a copy of the plan?
My guess is there will be no changes, no effort to rid or even reduce leagues-partnered gambling as there’s too much money to be vacuumed from the jeans of self-imagined slick young fans, especially via parlay bets, the big-payoffs super-sucker bets the leagues’ bookies sell hardest for that cynical reason.
The reason singles tennis became the most suspicious international sport is that it took only one player to attach the con to the piracy, making for a one-pronged conspiracy.
Jontay Porter was banned for life by the NBA. APEven for sports execs who prefer ignorance to caution, Jontay Porter has proven that prop bets, short of leaving computerized paper trails, beckon like Pandora.
And what are the odds, forgive the expression, that Porter is the first to bet the Under on himself in any legal capacity?
More From Phil Mushnick
What the commissioners, their charges and team owners largely don’t understand — or don”t care about for the sake of maximized TV dough — is that proposition bets were rarely available to bettors through illegal bookmakers.
Jontay Porter is pictured during a March 2024 game against the Raptors. USA TODAY SportsIllegal bookies didn’t have marketing departments, advertising agencies, demographic researchers and number-crunchers to create prop bets, then aim them at — as seen on TV — young, thoroughly self-convinced, caps-backwards wise guys.
Prop bets didn’t exist for individual players. That’s what office polls provided. So that the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL eagerly provided their rosters for, say, FanDuel prop bets that included players’ daily Over/Under totals made for a vortex into which its games, players and fans would be swallowed whole.
Thus, this lifetime suspension of Porter is based entirely on his misconduct as sold and promoted to the public by NBA profit design. Adam Silver has borrowed from the old comic strip, Pogo: “We have met the enemy and he is us!”
What did it take to see this as highly flammable material? A league more concerned with caution and credibility rather than profit. Fat chance. Full speed ahead!
And there’s plenty more where this came from.
Reader Stew Summers has applied the common sense that may have gone unused on Rob Manfred’s myopic watch. Summers:
Adam Silver’s NBA has a gambling problem to address after Jontay Porter’s lifetime ban. Getty Images“You know those emails you receive from your bank about how they will provide you with alerts should they detect suspicious activity in your accounts?
“Well, it appears Shohei Ohtani never received those memos while $16 million was being swiped from his accounts. No one — business managers, accountants, lawyers, bank managers, bank security employees — noticed it?”
Still to come, if the day ever arrives, the outcome of an investigation into four highly suspicious line swings and corresponding results produced by Temple’s losing basketball team. The university’s investigation, according to Temple, was launched in early March.
Ah, but the toothpaste is out of the genie. As long as TV ratings and ensuing contracts can be enhanced by gamblers, this is our life. Even if we saw it coming and now see it going. Again, you can’t shame the shameless.
ESPN, CBS give us ‘last’ing impression of Tiger
It has come to this: In order to milk Tiger Woods completely dry — he finished last among those making the cut — ESPN and CBS combined to destroy this year’s Masters by design.
Even the standard Tiger Woods excesses were exceeded, last week, as Woods, just making the cut, surpassed and superseded all else.
But as reader David Distefano noted, Vijay Singh, at 58 — 11 years older than Woods — made the cut but was never seen.
Given that Woods had no shot after 36 holes, live coverage was still fully devoted to him. The leader, Scottie Scheffler, was often shown on tape so that Woods, as much as 16 back and finally finishing 24 back, could be seen live.
Tiger Woods received plenty of broadcast time at the Masters. Getty ImagesThe obnoxious insults to those who had planned or at least wanted to watch the Masters — the fools! — hit them coming and going. Saturday, with Woods tied for 60th, CBS’s website declared,“Tiger Begins Third Round at Masters.”
A quick cut to SiriusXM’s golf channel to learn who was leading brought a screenshot of reader Bill Maroney’s dashboard that read only, “60th, Tiger Woods.” Maroney: “Who cares who’s winning? I need to know who’s in 60th place!”
Naturally, Sunday, as Woods was finishing 27 shots back, Pastor Jim Nantz conducted another maudlin on-course memorial service to the heroic rounds played by Tiger Woods, who withstood hardships — some, physical impairments that were self-inflicted but never, ever mentioned — such as wind, water, bad lies and tough greens.
But TV doesn’t care if it embarrasses itself or betrays its promise to televise a major. And Nantz apparently doesn’t care if his relentlessly obsequious and selective Tiger Woods pandering is a lasting stain on his credibility and legacy.
Tiger Woods continued to receive broadcast time even as he struggled at the Masters. USA TODAY SportsGodspeed to beloved Brooklyn great
I was too young to know the Dodgers before they left Brooklyn, but from the time I became a clerk in The Post’s sports department, nearly 50 years ago, I knew that “Oisk” — Carl Erskine — was a pitcher of high regard and a gracious, engaging man, of the highest regard.
And I knew that those who interviewed Erskine having never before met him came away overwhelmed by his generosity of spirit and time, especially on behalf of organizations that aid the impaired as Betty and Carl Erskine’s fourth child, Jimmy, was born with Down syndrome. The Erskines first stubbornly then successfully mainstreamed Jimmy until his death in 2023.
Carl Erskine died Tuesday, at 97. From what I can gather — and that’s plenty — he didn’t waste a minute being someone less than the best he could be.
Carl Erskine, who died Tuesday at 97, was a pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers. APFor a fellow with admittedly thin skin, Michael Kay seems eager to carry a “Kick Me” sandwich board. Tuesday on YES he excitedly declared that “[Juan] Soto hustles into second with a double!” Hustle? A replay clearly showed Soto stylishly languishing near the plate to watch his shot to center hit the bottom of the wall.
Kay could’ve — should’ve — made good faith with viewers by correcting himself, but apparently chose to pretend that we’re too stupid to know better, to believe what he says, ignore what we see.
Breaking News: OK, NBC and Mike Tirico win. They so much want him to be seen and heard as a grinning, obedient NBC/Peacock shill that he appeared on NBC News this week to reveal the new CCP/Nike U.S. Olympic Team medal stand jackets to be worn during the Paris Olympics — exclusively on NBC and Peacock!
When I nod my head, you hit it, continued: ESPN + is streaming exclusive live coverage of this week’s Chevron Championship, the LPGA’s first major. But now that it will be hidden by a paywall, its existence as a major might end this weekend.
Follow the Money Works Both Ways: Reader Rich Leary’s response to a come-on to purchase a 2024 Jets season-tickets package: “Sorry, I lost interest in season tickets long ago when the Jets decided to charge me $50 annually to remain on their waiting list. Please remove me from your promos list.”
