You have to give Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman an "A" for persistence. Neither the bad economy, nor the bad publicity from the All-Star Game in 2007 -- or even the stepped-up anti-gambling push after the snake-like Tim Donaghy raised his head -- has deterred Goodman from continuing his push for an NBA franchise.
He does make a lot of sense. Las Vegas really would be NBA heaven.
Goodman at his weekly press conference Thursday brought up the issue again of moving forward with plans for a new downtown arena in hopes of luring an NBA franchise to his city.
On Thursday, a memo from the NBA to all 30 teams was leaked and subsequently reported on by Chris Sheridan of ESPN and tweeted about by Chris Mannix of SI. The purpose of the memo was to reiterate a "no-tipping" policy regarding officials and arena or locker room personnel.
Long story short, backstage personnel have long done favors and personal errands for officials before and after games, and in the latest CBA negotiations, a policy was put in place to end it. The memo clearly states that the league does not feel the pre-existing actions have tampered with games, but a conclusion was reached to eliminate it regardless.
"This is an important change to the CBA," the memo states, as reported by ESPN. "While we do not believe that the pre-existing practice of tipping locker room attendants has affected the integrity of the officiating in any way, it could be perceived in a negative light, and it is therefore best to eliminate this practice."
The U.S. Marshals took Donaghy into custody for failing to show up to his job at a Sarasota bottling company, according to the Inquirer's Frank Fitzpatrick. In the two months since being released from federal prison camp, Donaghy has lived in a halfway house, where he was scheduled to stay until October in order to finish out his prison term. In 2008, Donaghy plead guilty to gambling charges, in the process implicating the NBA in a mass game-fixing conspiracy.
Ever since being released from a federal prison camp in June, disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy has enjoyed relative freedom, working during the days and spending his nights in a halfway house in Tampa, Fla., biding his time until his 15-month sentence was complete on Oct. 24.
Or at least, that was the plan; after being arrested by U.S. Marshals on Monday for an undisclosed rule violation, Donaghy may have his release date pushed back, or at the very least, may be forced to spend the balance of his sentence behind bars. [Update: Donaghy's violation is revealed.]
It's too early to say what the repercussions will be until information regarding the severity of his violations is released, but for the time being, he's being held without bail in a Hillsborough County jail.
Let me make one thing clear: I take no joy in the attendance woes of the NBA, or any other league for that matter. And if hockey fans like me are "insecure," it's for a very simple reason: the relentless drumbeat in the mainstream media and on sports blogs that the NHL is irrelevant.
What am I talking about? Well, our friend Enrico Campetelli gave us a nice reminder last week over at The 700 Level, where he posted an interview he did with long-time Flyers beat writer Tim Pannacio. It was Pannacio who left the Philadelphia Inquirer after last season when he demurred after his editor attempted to re-assign him to cover the Eagles. The reason: the editor, an ex-ESPN hand who was responsible for PTI and Around the Horn had declared hockey "an irrelevant sport," this in a town where the Flyers are outdrawing the 76ers despite the fact that the Flyers lost six straight games to start the season.
5. Deseret News: Carlos Boozer "hasn't decided" if he'll opt out this summer. What? You don't believe Boozer when he's talking about his contract?
6. AlanaG.com: A hilarious tale of a trip to the voting booth, which has been taken a little too seriously by at least one other site. (Oh, and it's NBA-related because of the video of Acie Law voting, I guess.)
Perhaps more than any other pro major league, the NBA has flirted with Las Vegas in recent years. The Maloofs, controlling owners of the Kings, are a big part of that. The family's notoriety, fortune and fame come from the Palms Casino. Ever-mindful of the potential or appearance of point shaving or game fixing, the NBA has barred the Palms from offering bets on NBA games in its book. That changed today, when (at the request of the Maloofs) the NBA board of governors voted to allow the league's games on the books at the Palms.
The Maloofs' argument, according to quotes collected by the Associated Press, is that a minority owner of the Celtics runs Harrah's, a casino chain. Harrah's takes bets on all NBA game not involving the C's. There have no problems which game-fixing accusations or whatnot, so the Maloofs feel it's only fair to give the Palms a chance.
Weird timing, yeah? The league is just now burying the Tim Donaghy headlines. The independent Pedowitz report recommended the NBA crack down on player card games on team planes, for crying out loud. I can't imagine even an investigation as amiable as the Pedowitz report would think opening up the book at the Palms to NBA games could possibly be a good idea, given eternal suspicions about the league. And the fairness argument is a non-starter: the Harrah's CEO (Gary Loveman) owns 2.4% of the Celtics, while the Maloofs own something like 80% of the Kings franchise.
David Stern -- who could have stopped this at any point -- really doesn't care about the league's image when it comes to the Donaghy scandal or the gambling issue. This is a particularly egregious reminder of that fact.
NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.
1. Hoops Addict. Blogger tries out for D-League team. Blogger gets injured within 30 minutes. Blogger still gets a good story with great video out of it. 2. ESPN.com, via FD. Bill Simmons puts together a great Elgin Baylor column.
Today's release of the Pedowitz Report -- which, among other things, backed up the league's assertion that Tim Donaghy was the only one doing what he was doing -- prompted David Stern to take questions from the media via conference call. Here were some of the hightlights:
- The question was asked that if the report found that referees were not manipulating the outcomes of games, how were they able to win between 60 and 70% of their wagers? Stern answered simply, "I don't know," then questioned the reporter on that statistic. He added that he hadn't seen those numbers and that he didn't know if that was accurate. But he guessed that if you start by guessing and you're at 50-50, any additional piece of inside information would be likely to increase your odds of guessing correctly.
- Speaking of inside information, that was the reason the commissioner gave for implementing the game-day release of the names of which officials would be working which games. He said that the more information that's available publicly, the less of a gambler's advantage there is, because there would be almost no inside information anymore. Stern stated that the "gambler's edge would be blunted" by the release of more public information.
Something we touched on briefly in discussing the explanation for the 130 phone calls between NBA referees Tim Donaghy and Scott Foster was the boredom of life on the road. In the independent report on the NBA's referee program, Lawrence Pedowitz goes into a fair bit of detail about the lonely nature of the job.
[M]uch of a referee's life involves travel, and travel involves a great deal of waiting time, so Foster often makes calls to "kill time." Foster is a creature of habit and a basketball and sports junkie. When he is on the road, he works out every morning at 10:00 a.m. He is also an early riser, which means that he has several hours to kill every morning. [...]
Referees have more time on their hands in the afternoon before a night game. Foster described this time as often boring and lonely, because referees rarely spend it together. Therefore, Foster usually returns to his hotel room after lunch and makes more calls to fellow referees. [...] The excitement of officiating an NBA game in the evening typically leaves him "wired" and unable to sleep right away when he gets back to his hotel room after the game, often after midnight. Because it is often too late at night to call his family, Foster calls his fellow referees to discuss the games they have just officiated.
Scott Foster needs a hobby he can take on the road. Online poker? Erm ... maybe not. The league should include some fix for this problem in its restructuring of the referee program. Why not hire a little buddy to hang out with and entertain each ref? Or give the refs supplemental jobs, like transcribing Gilbert Arenas' blog posts. Keep these guys busy. We all know an idle mind is the devil's playground.
You have to give Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman an "A" for persistence. Neither the bad economy, nor the bad publicity from the All-Star Game in 2007 -- or even the stepped-up anti-gambling push after the snake-like Tim Donaghy raised his head -- has deterred Goodman from continuing his push for an NBA franchise.
On Thursday, a memo from the NBA to all 30 teams was leaked and subsequently 
On Tuesday we learned that disgraced former referee 
Ever since being released from a federal prison camp in June, disgraced NBA referee 
I was glad to see my FanHouse colleague Brett Edwards 
Perhaps more than any other pro major league, the NBA has flirted with Las Vegas in recent years. 
Today's release of the Pedowitz Report -- which, among other things, backed up the league's assertion that 
Something we touched on briefly in 
