Does the Donaghy scandal mean no team in Las Vegas?

Regardless of the situation, Las Vegas will never have a team with Stern in place. He always gets his way and does not change his mind unless he is placed in the spotlight like when he introduced the new ball without asking anyone if they liked it.

Seriously, I don't see why so many people like this guy so much. He is anything but a great business leader and seems to not know very much about basketball. He is ruining the game of the basketball and this recent news is more proof that he does not know his business as well as he had thought.

This whole gambling thing goes a lot deeper than a few calls made to Vegas, as we'll see it play out in the news. That being said, I believe Las Vegas would be a great candidate for an NBA team.

 

Yup, Stern is probably more worried about his own job than about a team in Vegas.

Stern will be gone before the season starts. It is one simple way to increase the fans confidence in the game at least a little bit. It is time for a new face.

 

This might be the final nail but the fact taht the ASG was a disaster and the Thomas & Mack Center is a dump sealed LV's fate.

 

Agreed. Just for appearances sake, Vegas has to be considered radioactive.

 

The NBA really needs to keep teams and players away from wherever the mob and/or Gambinos are. From another board:

It brings up a good point. Why blackmail NBA players for one payment when you could put them in your pocket for a few games and make some real money? This could get so much worse. I'm starting to just hope the league survives (or at least there's no need for a stoppage for the investigation).

 

While I understand all things that go along w/ name 'Vegas', I think Vegas will actually be the first to fish out anything suspicious. There's tons of money flowing on every event known to man, and they have the manpower, money, and resources to make sure that the house doesn't get ripped off. They have it broken down to a science. They're probably more reliable than most sports analysts. That's why I'm surprised Vegas odds makers didn't find out about this before the Feds.

With the recent events though any serious talk of a Vegas team will be seriously bad publicity any way you slice it.

 

You can look at it two ways.

First, you can say what most are saying: this scandal is all the reason you need to keep the NBA out of Vegas.

Alternatively, look at it like this: this scandal happened without there being a team in Vegas.

It's naive to think that organized crime can't reach outside of Nevada. The biggest problematic difference (IMHO) btwn LV and the rest of the league is the allure of the nightlife. A lot of guys could get really caught up in the lifestyle (including gambling and other vices) over paying attention to their careers.

But from a strictly PR standpoint, it would be awfully hard for the NBA to anything in that town. Lucky for them this is happening after the All-Star Game and the Vegas Summer league.

Sacramento should be happy about this, as their Kings were the most likely team to move there.

Evan

 

What, you mean like New York City?

Judging from some of the initial reaction, it looks like the NBA will be out of business eventually, so I guess the whole NBA in Vegas topic is really a moot point...

 

David Stern didnt want the Allstar team, so you tell me if theres gonna be a team in las vegas

 

Sarcasm meets sarcasm. Clutchfans.net

 

"Sarcasm is the refuge of ..."

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I agree, David Stern wants no part of LV. From the ridiculous All-Star weekend shenanigans, and now a ref game fixing scandal??

I'm not sure if I agree that he will be fired from his position - he's earned more than a few mulligans with how popular the league has become during his tenure. BUT, Vegas is not (nor was it probably ever) in the NBA's future...

 

I wish the NBA would quit talk about expansion and instead get rid of about six teams. It was so much better when there were only 24 teams. The talent pool is just way too diminished. I mean think about it, there are currently 90 players in the NBA that wouldn't have made the cut before the Heat, Hornets, Raptors, Grizzlies, Magic and Timberwolves became teams. That's 3 players per team who wouldn't have previously been good enough to make the NBA. And people wonder why it's so hard to fill all the holes on your team.

 

The global talent pool is not even close to being diminished, and has enlarged at least as fast, and most likely faster pace than the NBA. Basketball's growth since the 1980's as a global game has been phenomenal.

Pre-expansion, there were only a handful of players not in the NBA who could make it in the big leagues - just a small handful of elite European players. I doubt there was a a single player on the Chinese National Team who was good enough to even be drafted prior to 1990, now there have been at least 4-5, including one superstar. Now we are at the point were even the 10th best Serbian player is good enough to hold down an NBA job.

 

LV had no chance to begin with. For one who on earth was going to pay for a new arena and where in the valley was it going to be built? No one, not even the mayor has asked or will answer these 2 important questions.

It's funny that people think that it would be easy for LV to get a basketball team. We have the same problems every other city has and more.

And anyway, unfortunately, it would be hard to get a majority of people here to stop supporting the Lakers and to a lesser extent the Suns.

 

vegas had nothing to do with this scandal whatsoever... you can bet in Atlantic City legally, or you can go through a private bookie/mobster in NYC with the right connections...

sounds like Donaghy had the right connections in Philly, NJ and NYC...

 

Clay Bennett, owner of the sonics, has given the city until halloween to get him a new building, and he's already said that if they dont stay in seattle, they are moving to OKC. The only problem will be getting out of the lease they have with Key arena, which goes until 2010....

 

I couldn't agree more! The talent pool is overflowing, in my opinion. I know it's hard to compare eras (especially the great ones), but who would you rather have coming off your bench - today's bench players, or sixth men from 20-30 years ago? Give me Deke in his current state than "super-subs" Mitch Kupchak or Greg Kite and his six fouls any day...

 

You're probably right, but it seems that even if there is more NBA quality talent world wide, there are just as few superstars as ever. That seems evident when you have guys like Rashard Lewis getting thrown 100 million dollar contracts.

Overall, I just feel that the quality of the NBA has decreased. I really do. I don't think teams are as good as they used to be. I don't think it's as enjoyable to watch. And I even recently looked at the roster of the Mavs, the regular seasons best team, and compared it to the past rosters of teams like the Bulls, Rockets, Sonics, Suns, Lakers, Pistons & Trailblazers in the late 80s through mid-90's, and I swear to god any one of those teams would have destroyed the Mavs. So if the talent pool isn't diminished, I don't know what the hell is wrong. But I definitely feel strongly that something is.