Cuban provides the voice of reason

Basketball Betting Lines

10/21/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - I get the feeling NBA commissioner David Stern cringes every time Mark Cuban opens his mouth.

The Mavericks owner strikes me as a contrarian, a guy who pulls no punches and isn't all that interested in the political correctness that pervades virtually all American discourse these days.

As the public face of one of the country's major sports organizations, Stern lives by the PC doctrine, unable to deviate from accepted populist views for fear of losing valuable marketing partnerships.

As of 2009, Forbes Magazine listed Cuban's net worth at $2.3 billion. a tidy little nest egg even in this economy, so the Pittsburgh native isn't all that interested in placating other people's views.

"Steroids" is the dirtiest word in sports these days so I wasn't all that surprised when Cuban took on the issue when queried at a University of Pittsburgh forum on Tuesday.

Even though many performance-enhancing drugs have significant therapeutic value, the general public has been taught they are a pariah.

"We are caught in a moral myth," Matt Chaney, a former college football player and author of Spiral of Denial: Muscle Doping in American Football, said. "If they (steroids) are used in a therapeutic fashion, they can be helpful. I am convinced we are in some sort of hysteria."

"It's the silver bullet theory," Chaney continued. "That if you take it once something horrible will happen. It's ridiculous. People get in trouble when they abuse them."

While no expert, Cuban echoed that sentiment when asked about Orlando Magic forward Rashard Lewis's 10-game PED suspension at the forum on Tuesday,

"I'm not an expert in the subject, but if we get to the point where there aren't long-term negative health impacts, why wouldn't you do it?" Cuban said. "We do performance-enhancing things all the time, just not steroids.

"If you administer them properly and fairly and set the rules strictly, as long as in doing so we recognize there are no negative long-term health-impact issues."

Lewis was suspended after testing positive for an elevated testosterone level, and claimed he took an over-the-counter supplement that included a banned substance.

"I'll get killed for saying this but I'm not so against steroids if they're administered under proper supervision and there is no long-term damage," Cuban added.

He also recognized just how that statement would be taken.

"If somebody thinks it's controversial, fine," Cuban said. "To me, it's just common sense. I'm sure I'll hear about it that 'Cuban is for steroids.' "

To me, Cuban is on the right track.

"There is a thought that we can do something about it. We can't," Chaney said. "We will never eradicate it. Sports should have a big disclaimer -- there are drugs here."

If that's true, instead of the current witch hunt that focuses purely on punishment and hasn't been all that effective, moderation and education may be a better approach to the problem.

Let's face it, enhancing one's performance is not necessarily a bad thing. If it were, we would have to ban all vitamins and supplements, not to mention weightlifting and eating right.

In a society that is caught in right vs. left and conservative vs. liberal, that view is may be a little too nuanced. A quick Google search confirmed that most mainstream media outlets are indeed playing up the 'Cuban is for steroids' angle.

And I'm sure Cuban could care less.

After all, the "Maverick" owner is right.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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