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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:03 >> And what's really fascinating about this story, as we bring in Mike Mazzeo
00:06 from Legal Sports Report, is that the NBA analysts on the NBA shows are not
00:10 shying away from this at all.
00:12 And I can appreciate that, but generally speaking, Mike,
00:15 I thought that this would be an open and shut case.
00:17 And people like Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley wouldn't even be talking
00:21 about it, and that would be it, but that's not the case.
00:24 So that's what has me impressed since last week,
00:26 to hear the different opinions on this situation.
00:30 Mike, thanks for coming on.
00:30 I'm sure that that's part of the discussion right now.
00:33 >> Yeah, Craig, like you said, you went over the nuts and
00:36 bolts right last week, like everybody else, of what he did.
00:38 I think the more interesting thing is what comes out of this, right?
00:41 And I was talking to Doug Smith, who covers the Rafters for
00:44 the Toronto Star, on a separate podcast.
00:46 And we both agreed the NBA has to do something in terms of offering player
00:50 props, or in this case, prohibiting them, in terms of what players are offered.
00:55 Max players, your all-star players can be offered, but
00:58 those lower money players, we don't know exactly how you're gonna do this.
01:02 Is it gonna be all rookies?
01:03 Is it gonna be guys that make less than eight figures?
01:05 Something to that extent, where players that may have a reason to do this for
01:10 monetary gain, they aren't allowed to be bet at these legal sports books.
01:14 Yes, you potentially risk the idea of them going offshore,
01:17 like the college player props.
01:19 People can't bet them here, cuz they're not legal at our books.
01:23 Where else am I gonna wanna bet them?
01:24 But it's just such a low percentage that the legal books can say, well,
01:28 it's only 1% of, and then 99% is elsewhere.
01:32 So that's something interesting.
01:34 And then just the idea of the NBA, obviously, caring about this issue very
01:38 much for integrity reasons, but then you've got all these teams being fined for
01:42 improper injury reporting.
01:43 I mean, what are we doing here?
01:44 These fines aren't doing anything.
01:46 Whether they have to be harsher or a third party has to monitor them,
01:50 the team's send it into the third party, whether it's US Integrity or
01:53 somebody else, and they clear it with an independent doctor,
01:55 or whatever the case may be.
01:57 There's gotta be something done here, cuz that's really unacceptable to me.
02:01 Just as somebody who has covered the NBA for a long time, and
02:04 you've got the ticket buying public, you've got your media partners,
02:07 you've got the betting public.
02:09 The NBA has shown in various instances they don't really care about these people,
02:13 whether it comes to tanking, star players sitting in national televised games.
02:18 They just have this track record where they haven't cared about the people that
02:20 are essentially paying their salaries.
02:23 Maybe fans don't do it directly, but through the media deals,
02:26 all these people that come and form a piece of that pie have been
02:30 screwed to an extent for some way or another.
02:33 So yeah, I just think we'll see what the player profit issue is, and
02:36 then again with the injury reporting, gotta be better.
02:40 There's gotta be a better way to do this.
02:42 And the NBA needs to come down harder on these teams that don't follow the rules
02:45 here, cuz the lines are gonna be affected, and there's people that
02:47 can have that inside information and give it to the wrong people.
02:50 [MUSIC]