NBA betting probe
The Associated Press reported last week that the FBI is investigating whether National Basketball Association referee Tim Donaghy placed bets on games, including contests he officiated, and whether he used his position to manipulate point spreads. In the days since the story broke, no one with knowledge of the probe has indicated the scandal has any tie to Las Vegas.
This has been cheered as good news by those who hope to bring an NBA franchise to Southern Nevada. They’ve been nearly unanimous in pointing out that Las Vegas’ legal betting operations are built to sniff out such funny business. From their perspective, the investigation won’t hurt the city’s chances of joining the big leagues — it might even help.
“I don’t want anyone’s bad fortune to cause us good fortune, but I think it will cause people to look at Las Vegas in a light perhaps differently than they do, because we do in fact regulate this kind of activity,” Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who longs for an NBA team, told USA Today.
It is indeed good news that Las Vegas apparently has no role in this FBI probe. But come on: This probe is terrible news for anyone who wants this city to one day have an NBA team.
Las Vegas and the NBA, like every other brand in the world, live and die by their image. And the NBA’s popularity was suffering long before this FBI investigation.
NBA Commissioner David Stern has consistently voiced concerns about the threats that gambling — legal and illegal — pose to the NBA. And the NBA has a history of reacting to perceived threats swiftly and harshly, even if its decisions affect the outcome of its contests. Witness the league’s decision to suspend a pair of Phoenix Suns players for a crucial playoff game this year, not for fighting, but for taking a few steps from their bench when a teammate was slammed to the floor and a possibe fight loomed.
If, in the months ahead, evidence is presented in federal court that gamblers and organized crime figures helped fix NBA games, why on earth would the NBA want to respond by establishing a permanent presence in the U.S. city most associated with wagering (not to mention a mobbed-up past) in the public mind? More likely, Mr. Stern would sever ties with the city that only five months ago hosted the NBA All-Star Game.
If that comes to pass, even the valley’s sports fanatics will see the irony. For if there’s shown to be corruption within the NBA, should Las Vegas even want them?
