Seahawks

Raiford G. Trask Coliseum

This is an excerpt from Jon Finkel's new book "Hoops Heist: Seattle, the Sonics, and How a Stolen Team&rsquo;s Legacy Gave Rise to the NBA&rsquo;s Secret Empire" (which was published by Slow Grind Media, 2020). <a href="https://bit.ly/HHBasketballNews" target="_blank" rel="noopener">You can pre-order the book here.</a>
&ldquo;I was born in 1980 but the 1979 championship still resonated while I grew up,&rdquo; Jamal Crawford says. &ldquo;The Sonics were everything to me. In elementary school I remember Dana Barros and Xavier McDaniel coming to our school to be involved in the community. I was lucky that I was able to see these guys growing up. They were like superheroes to me. I remember listening to Barros at school and he&rsquo;d say, &lsquo;We have to leave now because we play Charles Barkley later,&rsquo; and it was just amazing. They had an aura about them.&rdquo;
By the time Crawford was in middle school, the torch had been passed from Barros and the X-Man to Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp in the early &rsquo;90s. This was the Sonics squad that made the deepest impression with Crawford. These were his guys. He watched endless highlights of Kemp posterizing fools on the court and Payton talking trash while picking someone&rsquo;s pocket. Like most kids in Seattle he dreamed of being on the floor and tossing lobs to the Reign Man or draining a three off a dime from the Glove. But unlike most kids in Seattle, by the time Crawford was old enough to get his driver&rsquo;s license, his basketball talent was able to turn most kids&rsquo; fantasy into his reality.
&ldquo;I was invited to the pro-am games as a high schooler and I&rsquo;d be playing in the men&rsquo;s pro league,&rdquo; Crawford said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s when I think I first jumped on the bigger basketball radar. I played for George Karl&rsquo;s Friends of Hoops team. Then I played in tournaments that Nate McMillan sponsored. I played on Gary Payton&rsquo;s teams. I remember playing against guys like Detlef [Schrempf] when I was only 16 or 17 years old.&rdquo;
In the 1990s, while the Sonics were emerging as an iconic NBA team, the Washington basketball scene was still under-appreciated nationally in terms of recruitment to big-time schools and in representation throughout the NBA. It was through the tournaments that Karl and Payton ran that Seattle basketball began to draw the spotlight and the attention it deserved. Crawford says that most people don&rsquo;t realize how instrumental George Karl was in getting Seattle high school basketball known nationally through his camps and teams. Same with Payton.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/sea_lg.jpg" alt="" width="794" height="AUTO" />
Bobby Jones, who grew up in Compton, California, but played basketball for the University of Washington and calls Seattle his second home, says that at that time among West Coast hoopers, Seattle was largely overlooked.
&ldquo;Being a guy from LA, the biggest basketball scene out west, I had my typical thoughts that our city is better than yours, mainly because Seattle wasn&rsquo;t known as a basketball city,&rdquo; Jones says. &ldquo;I mean, we knew about Grunge music and the space needle, but that was it. Seattle was nowhere near as big as Los Angeles, so I just knew LA was better. As the years added on and I met more guys and played with more guys, I got to see that the city has a good basketball culture. I mean, it looks like it might rain every day, so guys are always in the gym working.
&ldquo;I started college in 2002, and for me, there was no big name that I heard of from Seattle until Jamal Crawford. When he went to Michigan and then the NBA right away, that put Seattle on the map. And when I saw how many camps Gary Payton and George Karl ran in the community, it had such a big impact. They helped jumpstart the basketball scene there.&rdquo;
The camps and teams sponsored by the Sonics and their players were long-term investments in the local basketball community. Each initiative was like planting a new hoops seed for the future, and as more and more kids fell in love with the game throughout the &rsquo;90s and had access to NBA-level coaches and players willing to give instruction (and had sponsors donating high-quality gear) the talent began to improve and be nurtured at the grade school level. By the time these kids reached high school, there was a crescendo of All-Americans and Division I talent ready to roll across the country or stay home and attend the University of Washington.
&ldquo;When I was younger, I remember thinking that more people were getting football scholarships than basketball scholarships,&rdquo; Crawford says. &ldquo;If you played football you had a much better chance at going to a bigger school somewhere else. But George Karl took us to tournaments and helped us get seen. And I&rsquo;d pick his brain. I remember we were at a Vegas tournament once and we were just talking about what made John Stockton great and what made Magic Johnson great, and I just filled up on knowledge from him.&rdquo;
Gaining access to tournaments and knowledge from Sonics icons was one huge part of why the Seattle basketball scene began to grow exponentially. Another major reason was due to the snowball effect of the individual athletes from the area taking their responsibilities as role models and mentors seriously. Case in point: the bond shared between Christie and Crawford.
&ldquo;Doug Christie impacted my life so much. He showed me everything. He taught me how to prepare, how to eat right, how to train right, and even how to fix your shoes and socks so you were ready to go,&rdquo; Crawford says. &ldquo;I remember one time we played one-on-one before practice, and I was so tired from that I could barely get through our workout afterward. I knew then, man, there&rsquo;s another level I need to get to. I knew that since he was taking the time to show me the ropes that I was going to do the same thing for the next generation.&rdquo;
A common theme when talking to Christie or Crawford or Jason Terry or any of the Seattle area ballers is how much they say they owe each other for their success. Yes, they&rsquo;re playing for their families and their community, but they&rsquo;re also playing for each other. It&rsquo;s a special camaraderie that brings to mind the three musketeers&rsquo; slogan: all for one and one for all.
&ldquo;I am so proud of what Jamal has done,&rdquo; Gary Payton says. &ldquo;He has taken his Summer League and turned it into something really big. He gets everybody together and brings all these pros in and it&rsquo;s special for the community. It keeps the basketball tradition alive.&rdquo;
Crawford describes the scene in Chicago with the Bulls as one where guys would work out together but not necessarily hang out together. They were doing their own things in the community or in their own lives. He was determined to make sure his Seattle basketball brotherhood back home was different.
&ldquo;When I am back home, I want everybody to be together,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If Nate Robinson has an event, or Isaiah Thomas has a backpack giveaway, or I have a charity game, or Spencer Hawes is doing something for an organization, we&rsquo;re all going to be there. We&rsquo;re all going to be there for each other. It&rsquo;s a brotherhood.&rdquo;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/hh_slow-grind_2560x1600_green-01_lg.jpg" alt="" width="190" height="305" />
For much of this brotherhood&rsquo;s history, the athletes were linked by two things: basketball and their love for the Sonics. With the Sonics gone, a gaping hole exists in the city. Crawford says it still doesn&rsquo;t feel real.
&ldquo;When I first heard rumors that Seattle might lose the team, I didn&rsquo;t believe it,&rdquo; Crawford says. &ldquo;Knowing the city and the fans and how great they are for the Seahawks and the Storm and the Sounders and the Mariners&hellip; I just couldn&rsquo;t believe we wouldn&rsquo;t have the Sonics. Maybe I didn&rsquo;t want to believe it. And then when it happened it was so hard. That last year they were kind of like a lame duck team. You knew it was happening. You knew it was inevitable. You knew they were leaving. And it&rsquo;s still such a bitter feeling.&rdquo;
And yet, without any men&rsquo;s professional basketball team in the area, the collection of NBA stars who remain involved in the city have become a de facto professional team in their own right&mdash;they sponsor community events, hand out their numbers to high school players, speak to grade schools and middle schools and high schools, put on camps, and sponsor teams. The Sonics are gone, sure, but the men who grew up on their legacy make sure it lives on.
&ldquo;In a weird way, we kind of fill that void of not having the Sonics anymore,&rdquo; Crawford says. &ldquo;Without the Sonics, the closest kids can get to NBA players is through our group or a ride to Portland or the television. So, when we put on our pro-am, which I think is needed now more than ever, I ask young kids who they want to see. They might say Kevin Durant or Blake Griffin and I understand that&rsquo;s the bigger picture. I never ask people for anything, and to be honest, I&rsquo;m uncomfortable doing it, but this is the only chance the kids in Seattle will get to see these guys. I remember what it meant to me growing up, so I want to do the same for them. So, I&rsquo;ll reach out and ask players to attend on their behalf. And I&rsquo;m grateful when they can help out. It means so much. We&rsquo;re the men&rsquo;s pro basketball players in the community. It&rsquo;s on us now.&rdquo;
Hoops Heist is the first publication from two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas&rsquo;s Slow Grind Media and it's available wherever books are sold. <a href="https://bit.ly/HHBasketballNews" target="_blank" rel="noopener">You can buy it on Amazon today</a>.
Jon Finkel is the award-winning author of "The Life of Dad," "Jocks In Chief," "The Athlete," "Heart Over Height," &ldquo;'Mean' Joe Greene," "The 'Greatest Stars of the NBA' Series" and other books about sports, fatherhood, fitness and more. His work has been endorsed by Spike Lee, Kevin Durant, Tony Dungy, Jerry Jones, Mark Cuban and Chef Robert Irvine. Follow Jon on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/Jon_Finkel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@Jon_Finkel</a>
Photographs by Dean Rutz of The Seattle Times. Check out <a href="https://deanrutz.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dean's site</a> and follow Dean on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/deanrutz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@DeanRutz</a>

An excerpt from Jon Finkel's book (Hoops Heist: Seattle, the Sonics, and How a Stolen Team’s Legacy Gave Rise to the NBA’s Secret Empire).

How the Sonics helped Seattle become a hoops hotbed

New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado&rsquo;s drifting 3-pointer clinched a 25-20 win for Team Pau (Gasol) over Team Joakim (Noah) in the title game of the Rising Stars event Friday at All-Star weekend.
Alvarado, who was named the Most Valuable Player, had five points in the title game.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
A certified bucket getter. Peep Jose Alvarado's <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JordanRisingStars?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JordanRisingStars</a> MVP mixtape 🔥 <a href="https://t.co/6SoruJRNsP">pic.twitter.com/6SoruJRNsP</a>
&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1626800481539354630?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2023</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

The win capped a memorable day for Gasol, who was named a Basketball Hall of Fame finalist earlier Friday.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going out on top. It may be one and done for me,&rdquo; Gasol said of his coaching debut.
New York&rsquo;s Quentin Grimes scored 14 points in the final but was wrapped up &mdash; literally held at times &mdash; by Alvarado down the stretch.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know you could do that in the Rising Stars game. I should have alerted the refs to call a technical or something,&rdquo; Grimes said. &ldquo;It was all fun but I was going for the win tonight.&rdquo;
Said Alvarado: &ldquo;It might not have been (legal), but he was doing good.&rdquo;
The four teams, comprised of 21 first- and second-year NBA players along with seven G League players, competed in semifinals games to a target score of 40.
Alvarado&rsquo;s 13 points helped Team Pau top Team Deron (Williams) in the first game 40-27, despite an array of spectacular dunks by Trey Murphy III.
In the second semifinal, Grimes scored 13 points including the winning 3 to power Team Joakim over Team Jason (Terry), composed of the G Leaguers. Mac McClung, who is competing in Saturday&rsquo;s Dunk Contest, nearly stole the show with 10 points in the comeback bid but missed a jam on his last attempt.
CELEBRITY GAME
Team Dwyane rallied in the fourth quarter to beat Team Ryan 81-78 in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game on Friday night. Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith and Basketball Hall of Fame finalist Dwyane Wade served as honorary captains of the celebrity teams.
Seattle Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf paced Team Dwyane with 20 points and 10 rebounds &mdash; but he&rsquo;ll be best remembered for an array of dunks. Actor Everett Osbourne led Team Ryan with 23 points, 12 rebounds and three assists. Metcalf was named the game&rsquo;s MVP.
Each celebrity team included a WNBA All-Star. Phoenix Mercury guard Diamond DeShields played for Team Ryan. Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale played for Team Dwyane. Other notable athletes participating included former NFL player Calvin Johnson and former MLB player Albert Pujols.
Wade added former NBA player Carlos Boozer to his team in the second half. Smith countered by adding former NBA player Richard Jefferson. Jefferson served as part of the officiating crew during the first half; he also worked as an official for one quarter of a Summer League game in Las Vegas last year.
Between the game, and a 3-point shootout between Smith and Wade, $142,000 was raised for 5 for the Fight, a charitable foundation devoted to funding cancer research.
Smith said the funds raised on Friday would benefit the Huntsman Cancer Institute on the University of Utah campus.
JABARI ON JORDAN
Houston&rsquo;s Jabari Smith Jr. was asked if Michael Jordan &mdash; who turned 60 on Friday &mdash; could compete if they were were to play 1-on-1 now.
Smith was pretty sure Jordan wouldn&rsquo;t be getting buckets.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not beating me right now. If a 60-year-old is hooping on me, I need to hang it up,&rdquo; Smith said. He then added, &ldquo;Happy Birthday, MJ!&rdquo;
SHORT STUFF
Alvarado is listed at 6 feet, which might be a tiny bit generous.
He doesn&rsquo;t mind.
When told before Friday&rsquo;s Rising Stars event that he was a hero for the undersized, Alvarado had a message for others who consider themselves vertically challenged.
&ldquo;Hey short people, I&rsquo;m just like y&rsquo;all. We got a lot of heart,&rdquo; Alvarado said. &ldquo;I see lots of other little guys tagging me on Instagram. I see your love. Keep being yourself, don&rsquo;t try to be nobody else.&rdquo;
Alvarado admitted that the highlights of him hiding behind bigger players to get steals in the backcourt is making it tougher to surprise opponents.
&ldquo;Everybody seen those clips. Now, so I just got to find another way, but I&rsquo;m crafty,&rdquo; he said.
WELCOME MOMENT
Oklahoma City&rsquo;s Jalen Williams said the season has been like a dream. He used to wear Derrick Rose&rsquo;s shoes constantly when he was younger and then found himself guarding D-Rose in Madison Square Garden.
&ldquo;So wild,&rdquo; Williams said before the Rising Stars games. &ldquo;Going up against people that I watched on TV is definitely kind of surreal.&rdquo;

Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado’s drifting three clinched a 25-20 win for Team Pau over Team Joakim in the Rising Stars title game.

Jose Alvarado wins Rising Stars MVP, leads Team Pau over Team Joakim

ATLANTA (AP) &mdash; Hawks guard Dejounte Murray is expected to miss about two weeks with a sprained left ankle, the third Atlanta starter to go down with an injury in the past week.
Murray was hurt Wednesday night early in the first quarter of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/atlanta-hawks-seattle-seahawks-new-york-knicks-sports-julius-randle-8007c9abe8774c4ba3289d0395213ea9">a 113-89 loss</a> to the New York Knicks.
The Hawks announced his prognosis after he underwent an MRI in New York on Thursday.
<a href="https://apnews.com/article/atlanta-hawks-nba-sports-john-collins-0f7d24158e5236b28ab1772bfdc4c760">Atlanta was already missing</a> forwards John Collins (spained left ankle) and De'Andre Hunter (right hip flexor strain).
The Hawks have lost five of seven games.

Dejounte Murray was hurt Wednesday night early in the first quarter of a 113-89 loss to the Knicks.

Hawks' Murray to miss about 2 weeks with sprained left ankle

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) &mdash; Caleb Love and RJ Davis scored 17 points apiece and No. 1 North Carolina began a season of grand expectations by pulling away from UNC Wilmington with a 69-56 victory Monday night.
Armando Bacot added 16 points and nine rebounds for the Tar Heels, who were perhaps most impressive at the defensive end. UNCW shot just 29.8 % from the field.
The Tar Heels, who were the NCAA Tournament runner-up in April, began the new season with the top ranking for the first time in seven years. It&rsquo;s a record 10th time that North Carolina has been ranked No. 1 to start a season &ndash; one more than rival Duke.
Trazarien White scored 19 points for UNCW, which faced a top-ranked team for the first time in program history. Skykeim Phillips had 11 points and Donovan Newby added 10. The Seahawks went 4-for-16 on 3-pointers.
North Carolina led 32-21 at halftime behind Davis&rsquo; 11 points, but it wasn&rsquo;t easy.
It was tied 17-17 with six minutes to go in the first half before a 12-2 run for the Tar Heels, who missed 10 of their first 14 shots prior to that spurt.
The Tar Heels have won their first game of a season for 18 years in a row. North Carolina has won 21 consecutive Smith Center openers.
North Carolina reserves managed only six points. UNCW held a 37-32 rebounding edge.
BIG PICTURE
UNCW: The Seahawks were competitive for most of the game and provided a good deal of the physicality in the game. They pulled in 16 offensive rebounds, though they had lots of opportunities for those considering their horrid shooting touch. It was probably a good barometer for the Seahawks while they fell to 0-6 all-time vs. North Carolina.
North Carolina: This wasn&rsquo;t the smoothest performance for the Tar Heels, but they&rsquo;ll have time to address glitches as they&rsquo;ll play their first four games at home. With four starters returning from last season&rsquo;s team, there&rsquo;s plenty of experience in the lineup. Northwestern transfer Pete Nance completed the starting five. This was the 47th straight win against in-state, non-conference competition for the Tar Heels.
UP NEXT
UNCW: Friday at home vs. Allen
North Carolina: Friday at home vs. College of Charleston

Caleb Love and RJ Davis scored 17 points apiece and No. 1 North Carolina began a season of grand expectations.

No. 1 Tar Heels hold down UNCW in opening win

The NFL&rsquo;s Seattle Seahawks and NBA&rsquo;s Portland Trail Blazers are not currently for sale, the chairwoman of both franchises said Tuesday.
Jody Allen&rsquo;s statement came amid growing speculation about the future ownership of the teams due to stipulations in Paul Allen&rsquo;s will that called for both teams to eventually be sold and the proceeds given to philanthropic endeavors. Most of the speculation has centered on the future of the Trail Blazers.
&ldquo;As chair of both the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Seahawks, my long-term focus is building championship teams that our communities are proud of,&rdquo; Jody Allen said in her statement. &ldquo;Like my brother Paul, I trust and expect our leaders and coaches to build winning teams that deliver results on and off the court and field. As we&rsquo;ve stated before, neither of the teams is for sale and there are no sales discussions happening.&rdquo;
Allen has overseen both teams since her brother died in 2018 and is the trustee for his estate. She acknowledged the teams will eventually be put up for sale but said there is no set timeline.
&ldquo;A time will come when that changes given Paul&rsquo;s plans to dedicate the vast majority of his wealth to philanthropy, but estates of this size and complexity can take 10 to 20 years to wind down. There is no pre-ordained timeline but which the teams must be sold,&rdquo; Allen said.
Paul Allen purchased the Trail Blazers in 1988 and bought the Seahawks in 1997 to help keep the NFL franchise in his hometown. He also had a minority stake in the Seattle Sounders of MLS.&nbsp;

The Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers are not currently for sale, the chairwoman of both franchises said Tuesday.

Jody Allen: Seahawks, Blazers not for sale at this time

The <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/lebron-revealed-which-two-nfl-teams-offered-him-a-contract-during-the-2011-lockout/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">following article</a> first appeared on <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BasketballNetwork.net</a>:
A lot of great NBA players were multi-sport stars in high school and college, but only the best could play in any of the major sports at the professional level. Wilt Chamberlain, possibly the greatest athlete in NBA history, was offered a spot on the Kansas City Chiefs in the early 1960s. About 50 years later, during the 2011 lockout, LeBron James received similar interest and seriously considered signing with an NFL team.
In his prime, James was often described as the best athlete in all of sports. At 6-foot-9 and 250 pounds, with an insane combination of speed, strength and agility, you&rsquo;d be hard-pressed to find a better athlete. He stepped away from football during his senior year in high school to focus on basketball, but the football bug never left James. His friends actually made him drop football to not get injured, and told LeBron they would &ldquo;jump me every day of practice until I had enough!"
Then, the 2011 NBA lockout happened, and the best athlete in the U.S. was sitting at home. Two NFL teams saw their chance and made a call to LeBron, each offering him a contract to play professional football. James shared the details on Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli Manning.
&ldquo;Jerry Jones offered me a contract, Pete Carroll did as well in Seattle," LeBron <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZIdOdITruY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said on the Manning Bros. broadcast</a>. "It definitely got my blood flowing again, got my mind racing again thinking about the game of football. But, we were able to get a deal done in the NBA and I was back on the court in no time. But I definitely thought about it.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
LeBron James on the Cowboys and the Seahawks offering him an NFL contract during the NBA lockout. <a href="https://t.co/MkvZdCRaZz">pic.twitter.com/MkvZdCRaZz</a>
&mdash; Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArashMarkazi/status/1442660277137248258?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 28, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

The lockout began on July 1, 2011, meaning LeBron was recovering from a dramatic loss to the Dallas Mavericks at the time. He was still without an NBA ring, so putting that in jeopardy to play some football was probably out of the question. Still, that doesn&rsquo;t mean the teams didn&rsquo;t try.
&ldquo;I still have the jerseys that Jerry and Pete Carroll sent me in 2011,&rdquo; LeBron <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZIdOdITruY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
The position both teams had in mind for LeBron was tight end, which makes sense given LeBron&rsquo;s size. James said he wanted to be a Gronk-like red-zone specialist, and Peyton agreed that would&rsquo;ve been the right decision. Imagine LeBron out wide running a fade route &mdash; it would&rsquo;ve been unstoppable. Still, we&rsquo;re happy he stayed on the court and left the football field for other players. The NBA is better for it.
Check out more articles from BasketballNetwork.net <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

LeBron James shared on Monday Night Football that he had multiple opportunities to sign with an NFL team during the 2011 NBA lockout.

LeBron reveals 2 NFL teams offered him a contract during 2011 lockout

Alex Kennedy examines which NBA players could have played professional football if they had seriously pursued it.

Which NBA players could have realistically played in the NFL?

Legalized sports gambling is coming to New York sometime this year. Whether it will work and exactly when it will be up and operating remain open questions. That means New Yorkers will have to drive to New Jersey if they want to wager on the Brooklyn Nets to win the NBA championship.
Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow, a Democrat who works with state governor Andrew Cuomo, has some serious doubts and concerns about the law. He wonders whether New Yorkers will even want to use the new system whenever it is up and running.
&ldquo;New Hampshire did not make a single dollar on Super Bowl Sunday, and Governor Cuomo is using New Hampshire as his model,&rdquo; said Pretlow, whose own proposed legislation calling for a responsible gambling law (which included a &ldquo;kill switch&rdquo; for problem gamblers) did not get enacted during the prolonged budget process in the State Capitol of Albany.
As a result, the exact dates and rules for New York&rsquo;s new law are complicated and fluid.&nbsp;
There will be at least two operators that will be issued licenses through an auction process, but what that process will look like remains vague. There will be at least four &ldquo;skins&rdquo; &ndash; lingo for smartphone gambling apps on which New Yorkers can wager -- by the time the system becomes operative.&nbsp;
Exactly how many skins? Nobody knows. The proper acronym is TBD (to be determined).
The Nets are currently the favorite to win the title, listed Wednesday at +250 (wager $100 to win $250). The Los Angeles Lakers are +350, and the New York Knicks are 250-1. Julius Randle of the Knicks is the favorite to win the Most Improved Player award at -200. Michael Porter Jr. of Denver, who was 150-1 Sunday when this site <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/can-michael-porter-jr-beat-the-odds-and-win-most-improved-player" target="_blank" rel="noopener">highlighted his recent surge</a>, dropped from 100-1 to 20-1 on Wednesday following the news that teammate Jamal Murray is out for the season with a torn ACL.
New York politics are complicated, and Cuomo is fighting for his political life after several former female staffers accused him of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/19/nyregion/alyssa-mcgrath-cuomo-harassment.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inappropriate comments and sexual advances</a>. But he retains enormous power, and as a practical matter, he gets whatever he wants in the state budget process. That budget was passed on April 7 &ndash; seven days late.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
The gambling law negotiations included a number of compromises and verbal agreements, but the 3,000-page state budget document includes pages and pages and pages of vague language. The process now goes to the state lottery commission, which falls under the auspices of the state gaming commission (which is run by Pretlow but has several members appointed by Cuomo who answer to gaming commission executive director Rob Williams, a Cuomo ally who earned $166,393 in 2019, <a href="https://govsalaries.com/williams-robert-t-89173702" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to a state website</a>).
The commission has up to 180 days to set rules for a public auction of operating licenses, and Cuomo&rsquo;s press office has said the state will earn $50 million from the auction process.&nbsp;
But if it is an auction, how could anybody know the price?&nbsp;
It is all very complicated, and as a practical matter, we will continue to see New Yorkers wager tremendous amounts of money across state lines in New Jersey. Officials at various U.S. sportsbooks say the amount of money being wagered daily in New Jersey is astonishing. (New Jersey and Michigan allow online sports gambling and online casino gambling). Sports gambling stocks have been rallying since the pandemic began, and is an enormous growth industry in America.
New York remains in a state of semi-lockdown, with bars and restaurants continuing to close at 11 p.m. under an executive order issued by Cuomo early in the pandemic.&nbsp;
So New Yorkers have been watching a lot of basketball.
New York has an acute information void caused by a 13-month suspension of traditional news meetings at mainstream media entities whose employees have been working remotely for more than a year. Pretlow complained that when it comes to media coverage of this story, roughly 60% of what he reads in articles and sees on television includes blatant inaccuracies. He tried to explain this legalized gambling story to all of the major New York newspapers, but he was met with disinterest, which is astonishing given the growth of the legalized sports gambling industry in U.S. states where it has been legalized.
The District of Columbia and 20 states now have various sports gambling laws.&nbsp;
New Jersey&rsquo;s law allows gamblers to wager on just about anything with the exception of New Jersey's college teams (such as Rutgers and Seton Hall). It is also illegal in West Virginia, which basically copied and pasted New Jersey&rsquo;s law and enacted it.&nbsp;
Since the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 14, 2018, New Jersey has processed $13,548,845,123 in wagers, just shy of Nevada&rsquo;s $13,881,507,631. Gambling has been legal inside several of New York&rsquo;s upstate Native American casinos, and Pretlow cast the first legal bet in New York. But when he went to check the ticket (a $20 wager on the Seattle Seahawks), it was unreadable because someone had forgotten to change the ink cartridge at the casino&rsquo;s ticket printing machine.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Legal gambling in New York &ldquo;is not going to start for a while,&rdquo; Pretlow said, adding that Cuomo wanted to allow only one licensed operator, but yielded during budget negotiations.&nbsp;
&ldquo;The state, being the bookie, actually can lose money,&rdquo; Pretlow added. &ldquo;There is no enthusiasm for this new law from the betting public, and everybody I have spoken to in the gambling industry said this just won&rsquo;t work.&rdquo;
The legislation includes language calling for a &ldquo;minimum&rdquo; of two licenses, which in actuality could become as many as 10 or 20 licenses depending upon how the process evolves. Gambling apps (a.k.a. skins) were going to be limited to four. But after reviewing the legal documents during a three-and-a-half-hour interview at Pretlow&rsquo;s office in Mount Vernon, N.Y., it was discovered that the language could allow many more.&nbsp;
The gaming commission has until July 1 to set the auction rules and alert all of the sportsbooks about what the exact rules will be, and the sportsbooks will then have 30 days to apply for a license. After that, the commission has up to 150 days to accept bids.
The political appointees on the gaming and lottery commissions can speed up the process if they choose, so all dates remain fluid. But given that many industries in New York are not operating at optimal efficiency because of the number of people working remotely, having a wagering system that is up and running efficiently will likely take several months.
Pretlow said the goal was to have the system running by the beginning of the NFL season. But because of the peculiarities of New York politics, he does not expect that to happen. Sometime around Thanksgiving is more likely, he told BasketballNews.com.
And if it fails, it might be fixed next year when the legislature reconvenes in January.
&ldquo;I hate to wish against myself, but I just don&rsquo;t see this working. But we do have a built-in fail-safe that if this is not successful under the governor&rsquo;s proposal, we can revert back to the legislative proposal, which is all-inclusive,&rdquo; Pretlow said.
In the meantime, New Yorkers who choose to gamble will continue to place their bets across the Hudson River in New Jersey for the forseeable future. And the tax dollars from those wagers will go to the State Capitol instead of Albany.&nbsp;
Clearly, this story will evolve over the remainder of the NBA season and beyond.&nbsp;

Chris Sheridan spoke to Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow about the future of sports gambling in New York and his concerns about the law.

North Carolina-Wilmington Seahawks