The NBA's Many Moral Panics

The owner of the New York Knicks uses stunningly invasive facial recognition technology on fans who he thinks may be saying bad things about him. The owner of the Philadelphia 76ers is in the Epstein files (like, a lot). The owner of the Memphis Grizzlies provides tech to the Russian military for its destruction of Ukraine. One of the league's best players is openly a shareholder in a prediction market that can, apparently, do whatever the hell it wants. Multiple players have been welcomed back to the league with open arms after revolting domestic violence charges.

Adam Silver is really concerned about tanking and strip club nights, though.

The former is important enough to get a vote from owners before the end of this season. The latter caused the NBA to make a decision more swiftly than they've made a decision on anything else in years.

If you missed it, the Atlanta Hawks were planning a "Magic City Night" at one of their games to celebrate Magic City, one of the city's famous night clubs. They were going to sell Hawks-branded Magic City sweatshirts and serve the infamous chicken wings sold at the club. They did not (as you may have been led to believe by the outrage this promotion caused) plan on having dancers perform on the court, which would obviously scar any children in attendance for life.

This promotion was scrapped by the NBA shortly after monumental loser and San Antonio Spurs backup center Luke Kornet wrote a blog begging the Hawks to cancel the event because, "We should promote an atmosphere that is protective and respectful of the daughters, wives, sisters, mothers, and partners that we know and love."

Right. So noble of you, Luke. I especially like the part where every description of these women is in relation to a man instead of, you know, letting them have agency and autonomy as people on their own. I digress.

Is there a conversation to be had about how often sex workers are exploited? Sure. Do I think Luke Kornet wants to actually have that conversation? Not even a little bit. This being the first time Kornet wants to speak out about anything is pretty telling.

There are numerous urgent problems in and around the NBA right now. Adam Silver's prioritization of those problems is baffling at best, and intentionally devious at worst. If the league's upper management can rile you up about teams tanking or Magic City, it can take your attention away from the nauseating lack of care for domestic violence, the virtual immunity that owners are awarded, or how quickly Silver and the league have lost their grip on betting among its players, teams, and associates.

Unfortunately, at The Broken Press, we will not let you forget about those things.

"The consequences are enormous"

TW: Domestic violence

Miles Bridges assaulted his partner Mychelle Johnson so violently in front of their two children that he broke her nose and gave her a concussion. A little over a year later, he threw pool balls at Johnson's car with enough force to break the windshield while the same children were sitting in the back seat. He sat out the 2022-23 season because no team signed him during an open investigation — but he never formally served a suspension by the NBA's hand.

When he officially returned to the NBA a year later, he almost immediately re-signed with the Charlotte Hornets. Bridges is making $25 million this season for the upstart Charlotte Hornets.

Kevin Porter Jr struck his girlfriend Kysre Gondrezick, "Repeatedly about the face with a closed fist, causing a laceration above her right eye and bruising and substantial pain to her face," and then choked her so hard that she suffered a fracture in her neck.

Porter Jr. was playing for the Houston Rockets at the time. The team immediately traded him to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who waived him, but paid Porter Jr. the $16.9 million still owed on his contract while Porter Jr. played in China.

He returned to the NBA a year later, and was suspended by the NBA for four games after commissioner Adam Silver decided that his year out of the NBA — in which Porter Jr. earned nearly 17 million dollars, remember — was punishment enough. The proper punishment for breaking your partner's neck, according to the NBA, is being paid 17 million dollars. News to me.

"There’s been a couple disturbing incidents of domestic violence in the NBA right now, what we doing to address that? Because you can’t put your hands on women, man. And we should be on the forefront in sports… What are we as a league doing to do about that?”

That's a question from NBA legend Charles Barkley to Adam Silver in October 2023, during the season in which Porter Jr. was suspended. Silver responded, in part, that, "If a guy does cross the line, the consequences are enormous.”

Enormous. Maybe the NBA and I have differing views on what a "consequence" is, and what an "enormous" one would entail.

The Sportsbook-Sized Elephant in The Room

On the second day of the NBA season, one head coach and one player were both suspended indefinitely by the league for their involvement in rigged poker games, a description that actually doesn't do justice to the absurd specifics of the activities Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups was involved in; X-Ray tables and the Mafia were involved, for those wondering.

Billups and former Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier are both still suspended while the NBA investigates. This isn't the first gambling scandal since the league fully embraced sportsbooks and betting in the 2020s, and it won't be (even close to) the last, either.

Player and coach involvement in betting on sports is the biggest threat to the entire foundation of the NBA — not teams tanking. The "integrity" of the sport is only in real danger if this is allowed to continue.

With Jontay Porter already banned from the league for life after essentially betting against himself in 2024, the NBA has now seen two active players, one head coach, and one assistant coach (Damon Jones) busted for illegal gambling, with both players potentially rigging the games they played in.

Later in the NBA season, rumors (reported mainly by ESPN's NBA insider Shams Charania) circulated about Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo asking the team to trade him.

After the trade deadline (the last day of the season in which teams can trade players) passed, Antetokounmpo announced his new role as shareholder in Kalshi, the wickedly evil "prediction market," which is synonymous with "gambling app," despite the inventors of Kalshi refusing to admit that because then they would have to, like, follow some laws.

Adam Silver brushed off Giannis' deal with Kalshi, calling it "miniscule," even though that minuscule investment could still be worth about $100 million (thank you to Joon Lee for that math).

If you haven't kept up to date with prediction markets, I envy you. Basically, they're unregulated betting apps in which you can place a wager on anything you want. On Polymarket (Kalshi's biggest competitor), someone won $400,000 after they rightly predicted the United States kidnapped Nicolas Maduro the next day.

You can bet on literally anything you want. Giannis Antetokounmpo could go place a wager right now for $1 million dollars that Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to stay with the Milwaukee Bucks this summer, a decision that he holds the power on. Insider trading, says you, and awesome business, say Kalshi and Polymarket.

Where Giannis Antetokounmpo plays basketball next season completely shifts the landscape of the NBA. Having a prediction market potentially involved in that decision quickly leads to some shady territory.

For years, NBA fans have joked about the "script writers" of the NBA. But what if the script is produced by the players and coaches themselves? Will the sports books and prediction markets get writing credits, too?

Tanking is annoying, for the record. When nearly 30% of the league is actively trying to lose games on any given night after January, that's not great for the on-court product. So I'm not condemning Adam Silver for trying to fix tanking (and I actually think a few of his proposed ideas are solid).

But letting fans believe that the integrity of the NBA is at stake because teams are trying to improve their draft position or a team promotes a strip club, and not because of the league's extremely questionable relationship with gambling or its near-complete lack of regulations for player behavior or how owners are treated as Gods among peasants... That just doesn't add up.

Don't let the league tell you what you should be concerned about. It's allowed for James Dolan to spy on anyone he perceives to be an enemy of his. It's allowed for Steve Ballmer to circumvent the rules to sign players he wants. It's allowed for Giannis Antetokounmpo to be a shareholder in Kalshi with virtually no oversight.

What does the NBA gain from being honest with you?