Stern's gambling comments...

[Splute]

Did anyone catch this article on Stern & gambling in the NBA?
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/7377144?MSNHPHMA
Seems nearly ALL of the NBA refs have made a wager or two... ya think?

[Scrapper1]

Several of us predicted that this would be the outcome of the league's internal investigation. No surprise, to be honest. Yes, technically they broke the collective bargaining agreement. But they'll all get a slap on the wrist and they're actually going to change the guidelines on gambling. Seems perfectly rational to me.

[Splute]

Perhaps... I expect the guidelines will be very detailed as to what, when & where it will be allowed. Certainly monitoring must continue. It only takes one picture of a known NBA ref in the casino, plastered on the news, to bring misery to all basketball venues, imo.

[Adam]

I disagree. Just being in the casino is easy to explain, and completely out in the open.

I found it interesting that Stern referred to the gambling restrictions as out-dated. How old is the CB agreement? It makes me wonder if the clause wasn't some hold-over from the 60s or something. Maybe they'll look at the whole thing a little closer next time around.

[Mark Padgett]

I think Stern's making sense here. Back in the day, when I used to visit Vegas as a kid in the 60s (my grandparents lived there) you couldn't really be in a casino without being around a lot of mob types so there was a lot of opportunity for stuff to happen. That's really not the case now, since the bean-counting corporate types have taken over the town. Too bad.

[Splute]

I didnt mean to imply that I think NBA Ref gambling shouldnt be allowed. The point I hoped to make is the media can take a simple situation and cause a public outcry. Seldom do the news stories share all sides of the story; rather they want the readers to lean a specific way. When I first heard ALL gambling wasnt allowed; I thought that was absurd. I seldom gamble, but I like knowing I have a choice and my profession doesnt restrain me from doing so.