Sportsbook Reviews » NBA

Michael Jordan Sons Have Gambling Bug Too

C Costigan — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 02:29:35 +0000

NBA great Michael Jordan was known for his high rolling ways while in Vegas. Now his two sons are taking after him it appears….or at least one of them.

Lebron James Jewish? Oddsmakers Look At Next NBA Player To Convert

C Costigan — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:10:51 +0000

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Lebron James is reportedly consulting with a renowned rabbi and the oddsmakers are so sure the Miami Heat star is going to convert to Judaism that they won’t even offer odds on Lebron.

The Big Apple’s Calling Mello

Mark McKenna — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:45:13 +0000

Around this time next year we may be either be talking about the failed experiment that is the Miami Heat, or the brilliance of Pat Riley in putting together a perennial championship contender. We might also be talking about Carmelo Anthony as a member of the New York Knicks.

We’ve all heard the rumors about Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony going to join Amare Stoudemire in New York, but up until recently, not much credence was given to those rumors. With reports that Carmelo’s Denver home is on the selling block, it does raise eyebrows as to Mello’s future plans. Of course, a house up for sale in US these days isn’t exactly out of the ordinary, but in this case it is peculiar, especially when accompanied by Mello’s apparent reluctance to sign the three year extension that will keep him in Denver.

To be honest, at first glance, it doesn’t look like Carmelo’s reluctance to sign a three year $65 million dollar contract extension has anything to do with money. He’s already gone showtime with his wife, why not go showtime with his life and take it to the Big Apple? Surely Mello saw the media frenzy that surrounded Lebron James, why should Bron Bron have all the fun? This winter will be tough on Mello, I’m sure Mello will be sitting in cold ass Denver, thinking, this is some bullshit, while his Team USA teammates have an absolute ball in South Beach. And you know they’ll be telling him about it, Mello, Wade and James are really good friends, you can see how Mello probably feels like he’s missing out. Imagine them on threeway…

Wade: Hey Mello, we just lit up South Beach tonight, we got a gang of some of the baddest chicks you’ll ever see up in here.

Mello: Word?

Bron: Even Lebron James has to admit that Lebron James is loving South Beach more than Lebron James thought he would! This place is off the chains Mello. What’s going on in Denver bro?

Mello: It’s just fucking snowing.

Wade and Bron : What’s that? Could you repeat that? We couldn’t, hear you over the boobies in our faces.

And let’s keep it as real as possible, a young superstar like Mello, at the pinnacle of his sport, he’s missing out on a shitload. For a basketball player, Madison Square Garden, New York, the Mecca of basketball, you can’t beat it, that is unless you’re going to LA or South Beach.

So, what say you sportsbooks? What are the odds that Carmelo Anthony next year utters the words “I’ll be taking my talents to the Big Apple”?

If you don’t got odds on this, probably should, I know I’ll be finding a sportsbook that’s offering odds on him becoming a Knick.

Sports News

Udonis Haslem catches Heat for pot possession

Mark McKenna — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:48:56 +0000

Was Haslem smoking that ooouueee? His attorney says no, but Haslem was arrested and faces charges of felony possession of marijuana. Here’s a tip, if you’ve got weed in the car and you’ve hot boxed the shit out of your Benze, you might not want to be speeding! Haslem got pulled over for speeding, it was then that a trooper smelled the sticky icky in Haslems ride. Haslem says the chronic belonged to his passenger… The bigger question is how is this negative publicity going to affect the already growing negative buzz towards the Miami Heat? Well, they can look at this way, when the pressure gets too much, they can always head over to Haslem’s crib and free their minds with that Mary J. Security meeting after practice boys! Read more.

Legal News

NBA shuts down Thomas and Knicks consulting connection

Mark McKenna — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:00:56 +0000

Should it really have taken the NBA to step in to stop Isiah Thomas from becoming a consultant for the New York Knicks? Aside from the obvious conflict of interest for Thomas, who is currently the coach at Florida International University, there’s a much glaring issue at hand, didn’t Thomas already wreck the Knicks franchise?

What else could be on Zeke’s Knicks checklist? Let’s see here… Terrible draft picks check, horrible trades and overpriced contracts to shitty players check, piss poor coaching job check, sexual harassment charge costing millions to the franchise check, turning the Knicks into one of the worst teams in the NBA…check.

It baffles me what more Isiah Thomas could do for the Knicks aside from dousing Madison Square Garden with gasoline and C4 before lighting a match…But who’s really to blame? It seems for the Knicks franchise, once bitten by Zeke, twice shy doesn’t apply. Isn’t it a little puzzling how a man who could fuck up so many times could get another chance to fuck up again? Read more.

The promise of Thomas delivering Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks as a consultant is about as solid as a marathon runner guaranteeing victory in the Boston Marathon while running with shards of glass up his ass. He was part of the group that attempted to woo Lebron James over to New York, and we all know how that played out. If there’s one thing that has been consistent about Thomas and his management skills, it’s that he has no management skills and he’s likely to try and hump the secretary.

What exactly does Isiah Thomas have on Knicks owner James Dolan? Current GM Donnie Walsh certainly didn’t want Thomas on board as a consultant, and I’m sure few executives in the Knicks franchise did, aside from Dolan, and yet Thomas was a shoe in. The entire tenure Thomas served under the Knicks did nothing but cost Dolan money and yet he was quick to bring Thomas back as a consultant? Baffling. Thomas must have a sex tape and some negatives locked in some safety deposit box in Manhattan of Dolan and a dead or missing stripper, either that or Thomas has somehow learned and perfected the ancient art of the Jedi mind trick.

I’m wondering what Thomas is going to accomplish as coach at Florida International. Shortly after he arrived around this time last year he was able to land a huge blue chipper in Dominique Ferguson, a 6-foot-8 skywalker who was being recruited by Arizona, Indiana, and Kentucky. You wonder if all of this publicity for the school, whether construed as negative or not, will attract other high caliber players to take their talents to FIU.

College basketball bettors shouldn’t get excited though, it’s still Isiah Thomas coaching the team, and he hasn’t proven he’s a winning coach at any level.

Sports News

T-Mac aka Mr. Glass signs with the Pistons

Mark McKenna — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:56:16 +0000

The Detroit Pistons have come to terms with on a contract with former Knickerbocker Tracy McGrady. McGrady has signed on for one year with the Pistons for $1.3 million.

I almost couldn’t believe it when I read it, but his website, McGrady is already talking about bringing a championship to Detroit. He was probably high on pain killers!

C’mon T-smack, let’s be serious. T-Mac bringing a championship to the Detroit Pistons is about as likely to happen as the Detroit Lions winning the Superbowl this year. How about just making playoffs? For record, T-Mac is still yet to win a playoff series in his career, the one series his Houston Rockets won, McGrady was out of the lineup.

At this point, T-Mac, Aka Mr. Glass should just be concentrating on playing as many regular season games as possible. T-Mac is quickly joining that infamous group of overpaid sports athletes that never panned out. Last year his play was pathetic for the Knicks, which allowed him to fit in just nicely on that pathetic team. Even though Detroit didn’t break the bank in signing T-Mac, it’s still a gamble. There’s no guarantee that T-Mac will even make it to the allstar break without injury. In his last five seasons, McGrady has been healthy enough to play over 70 games just once in 2006-2007 season.

The upside for the Pistons is that if healthy and if in game shape, there’s one thing that T-Mac can do, and that’s score. He’s a former two time NBA scoring leader and his size and shooting ability keeps defenses honest and when he’s on, he commands a double team. The major question is what happens to guys like Hamilton and Prince? For T-Mac to be effective he’ll need shots, and since this year should be Rodney Stuckey’s coming out party, something on that Detroit perimeter has to give. Could we about to see the Pistons unload what was once the nucleus of their championship team? Frankly, it would be about time.

With McGrady back in the NBA, the obvious betting prop for him would be an over and under bet on how many games he’ll actually play this season. I have a hard time seeing T-Mac making a huge impact on the Pistons and I have an even harder time believing that he’ll be healthy the entire season, it just wouldn’t be T-Mac like.

How many games do you think T-Mac will play in this year?

Sports News

Europe to get its taste of NBA regular season action

Mark McKenna — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:16:47 +0000

We all saw this coming, the NBA for many years has been expanding its market overseas and the game has benefited from the exposure. The next logical step was to have a regular season game played on European soil, well, David Stern can check that off his to-do list. Read more.

There’s just one problem I see with the NBA holding its first regular season game on European soil, it’s the two teams that will be playing, the Nets and the Raptors. The Nets and the Raptors have to be the two least exciting and among the two least talented teams with the fewest marquee names in the Eastern Conference. I know it’s all about exposure, but seriously, who is getting excited to watch the New Jersey Nets play the Toronto Raptors? Let’s be honest, sure, myself and other degenerate bettors will wager on the game, but I’ll be damned if I watch it.

It’s not like the folks in London don’t know what the hell is going on in the NBA. Instead of sending teams like Miami, Boston, Orlando or even the Lakers, teams that the good basketball loving fans of London can appreciate, they get the chopped liver of the NBA. The Nets had one of the worst seasons in NBA history last year and the Raptors didn’t even make the playoffs. Neither team has made any significant improvements in the offseason, if anything, the Raptors managed to get worse.

So my question is why? Why send two of the worst teams the league has to offer to promote the game in London? Stern could have generated more excitement by just having Lebron James and Kobe Bryant show up for a game of horse!

The Raptors experimented with having a lineup full of European players last season and Toronto is the type of market that may be the most suitable for a player from Europe, so it does make sense for the Raptors to play in London. It also makes sense for New Jersey to be there now with a Russian billionaire owner at the helm. But what doesn’t make sense is the timing. For the first official regular season game ever to be played overseas, shouldn’t there at least be one NBA allstar playing in the game?

The people of London might just realize what NBA fans have known for years, the only true value when watching two of the shittiest teams in the league play against each other is the value in betting on those teams. Surely European sportsbooks can find a way to hype this event and generate buzz around NBA betting. There are plenty of NBA fans in Europe and with a regular season game about to be played on European soil, it seems very plausible that European sportsbooks can truly benefit if they can channel some of the soccer bettors into betting on the NBA. Again, all of this would have been much easier if say the Miami Heat were playing the Celtics instead of the Craptors and the 12-70 Nets!

Sports News

Celtics Signing of Shaquille O’Neal Does Little to Improve Odds

C Costigan — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:42:35 +0000

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The Boston Celtics have signed center Shaquille O’Neal but this is not the year 2000 and the folks at Sportsbetting.com (see odds here) really don’t think Shaq will have much of an impact. Odds of the Celtics winning the 2011 NBA Championship were still long at 10/1. Remember, this is a team that took it down to the wire in this year’s finals. But alas, everyone is focused on the “super team” Miami Heat.

Is Shaq joining the rest of the senior citizens in Boston?

Mark McKenna — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:34:06 +0000

The rumors have been flying that Shaquille O’Neal is close to signing with the Boston Celtics. Read more.

Previously, the word was the Celtics and pretty much everyone else didn’t want the aging Shaq, it had also been rumored that Shaq was entertaining ideas of playing overseas, but of course no one believed that one. But if indeed the Boston Celtics have acquired Shaq, they might have to change their name to the Boston geriatrics.

With Shaq in the lineup, the Boston Celtics are beyond old. They will be veteran, but very, very old and to some degree, rickety. Clearly there are teams that believe Shaq is done, no doubt that’s why he’s on the market to begin with, but let’s be clear, O’Neal was probably the second best player on the floor for the Cavaliers in the playoffs last year. While the King was doing his thing, Shaq was quietly showing that he can still score and dominate rebounds in the paint.

If the Celtics have picked up Shaq, they now officially have the most solid front court in the East. Albeit, they also have the oldest one, and Father Time is ruthless against aging low post players. Shaq does sure up some holes though, with Rasheed retiring and question marks surrounding Kendrick Perkins and his injured knee, the Celtics now have a proven veteran to sure up the frontcourt, that is, if Shaq is in shape in time for training camp. You have to feel for a guy like Rondo, he seems a little introverted or nerdy, whatever you want to call it, you can’t really picture him being taken seriously in that locker-room. So much for Rondo being the floor general, he might make a better floor deputy. There’s no way he’s getting any respect in that locker-room!

I have to hand it to Boston though, if they do have Shaq, they’ve successfully put themselves back into the conversation again, now, if only they can stay healthy for an entire season they’ll…wait a minute, let’s be real, all the Celtics really want to do is play well enough to get a decent seed in the playoffs so that they don’t have to play Orlando or Miami first, that’s it. If they can do that, they know with the veteran leadership of Garnett, Pierce, Allen, and now Shaq, they’ll be in the hunt for another championship.

Raise your hand if you can’t wait to see Shaq in a Celtic uniform playing against the Lakers!

Sports News

Lebron’s return to Cleveland scheduled

Mark McKenna — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:00:54 +0000

I know it’s the NBA off-season and it’s probably way too early to even be talking about this, but, seeing how this is the summer of Lebron, we might as well keep the NBA and the Miami Heat relevant. So, if there is one game you want to mark down on your calendar in advance of the NBA season, it’s December 2, the day the Miami Heat and the King James, the prodigal son, returns to Cleveland. Let’s hope and pray that it’s not the day that some lunatic pulls a Monica Seles and rushes the court with a shank. I saw images of LBJ’s jersey burning in Cleveland, he better be bringing some added security on that road trip. Read more.

Sports News

Another Ugly Chapter in Disgraced NBA Ref’s Tale

C Costigan — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:00:39 +0000

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Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy hoped his book, showing how he became the "central figure in a Mafia-controlled gambling ring," would earn enough to pay off a $200,000 debt. He also hoped it would provide some financial security for himself and four daughters.

Miami Heat Incredible Value to Win 2011 NBA Championship

C Costigan — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:43:34 +0000

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With the addition of Eddie House to a two-year contract worth $2.8 million, joining superstars Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the Miami Heat should win every game next season and the 2011 NBA Championship (at least in theory).