ESPN reporter makes bad connection with fan behavior to legalized gambling

ESPN’s top NBA reporter, Adrian Wojnarowski, who is famous for dropping figurative bombs of news on social media, was hit with some of his own shrapnel this week. The sports-betting community was all fired up over comments he made.

Wojnarowski, the network’s senior NBA insider, drew a correlation that the growth of sports betting will lead to more confrontations between fans and players.

Two problems here.

Many sports-betting analysts wrongly jumped on Wojnarowski for using gambling as an explanation for the nasty exchanges this week between Kyrie Irving and Boston Celtics fans at TD Garden Arena. Irving was fined $50,000 for responding to the heckling with obscene gestures and obscenities.

However, Wojnarowski clearly prefaced his point to exclude this particularly ugly saga between former favored-son Irving and a scorned fan base.

“There is a different dynamic with Kyrie Irving and Boston,” he said, alluding to the fact that Irving played for the Celtics for the 2017-19 seasons before signing with Brooklyn. Then Woj went out of bounds.

“But as gambling becomes more prevalent, people [are] gambling with everything that goes on with the game – and they’re drinking. Players, organizations … already feel it in the arena. And when [fans] are losing money in real time, and they’re pointing to a player on the court and saying, ‘Hey, I bet you to score more points in the second quarter than somebody else, and I lost.’ You’re adding an element to that that we’re not talking much about, but is a real factor in this league.”

Sigh.

First of all, second-quarter prop bets aren’t a thing, but Woj’s clumsy example aside, confrontations between fans and players have been going on since James Naismith invented this thing. Heck, the first courts were in cages to keep fans separated from players.

In 1982, Celtics nemesis Cedric Maxwell jumped on a heckling fan at the Spectrum during Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. Maxwell later called it an out-of-body experience, saying he had no recollection of the incident. He was simply reacting.

“I can honestly see why people plead temporary insanity, because I really don’t remember,” he said. “I can remember this guy waving his hand at me, like ‘Get back in there, you bum.’

“Two weeks later, I’m watching Barbara Walters’ show on TV, and she’s saying we had to get the violence out of sports. Who do I see [on videotape] going into the stands? Me. It was just crazy.”

This is 40 years ago, folks. Pretty sure it had nothing to do with gambling.

The NBA, of course, is most vulnerable to these sort of incidents since it allows fans essentially to sit next to players courtside.

So how about they stop selling those thousand-dollar seats, cease selling booze in the arena, and abandon all those partnerships with sports-betting companies. That’ll solve everything.

“You never knew what was going to fly out of the stands [at the Boston Garden],” Billy Cunningham once explained. “One time, I got thrown out of a game and someone threw a quarter, hit me right in the eye, knocked me flat.”

Guess he should have scored more points in the second quarter.

Saturday/All times Eastern

2 p.m.: Sixers (-3) at Toronto (213.5), TNT: The Sixers, who haven’t swept a 7-game series in 41 years, have covered the first three here against Toronto.

4:30 p.m.: Dallas (211) at Utah (-4.5), TNT: Mavs holding a 2-1 lead without Luka Doncic is impressive.

7:30 p.m.: Boston (223.5) at Brooklyn (-4), ESPN: First time Brooklyn’s favored. Desperately need a win to avoid an 0-3 hole.

10 p.m.: Memphis (-3) at Minnesota (233), ESPN: Can the Timberwolves pull themselves together after their horrible collapse? Memphis was +2800 money line at PointsBet when they trailed by 23 in the second half of Game 3. Nah, I didn’t have it, either.

Sunday

1 p.m.: Milwaukee at Chicago, 6abc: No lines yet, playing Friday night. Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton (MCL sprain) not expected back for the remainder of the series.

3:30 p.m.: Golden State (-3.5) at Denver (224), 6abc: Warriors have won and covered the first three. All three have been over.

7 p.m.: Miami at Atlanta, TNT: No lines yet, playing Friday night.

9:30 p.m.: Phoenix at New Orleans, TNT: No lines yet, playing Friday night. Phoenix star Devin Booker (hamstring) is out for the remainder of the series. The Suns’ odds to win the championship dropped from 3-1 to 5-1 at FanDuel.

NBA: BetMGM had the Warriors at +360 to win the championship until a $125,000 play came in. Combined with the Devin Booker injury, Golden State’s odds dropped to +280.

NHL: Impressive $50 parlay hit at FanDuel the other night when someone picked the final scores of the Panthers-Red Wings (Florida, 5-2) and Hurricanes-Jets (Carolina, 4-2). The wager paid $11,000. It needed an empty-netter by Carolina’s Jordan Staal to get home.

FBN: DraftKings has odds – available only in Colorado – on where star wide receiver Deebo Samuel will play this season after recently requesting a trade out of San Francisco. A return to the 49ers remains a heavy favorite at -300, with the Jets (+500), Chiefs (+1000), Colts (+1000), and Eagles (+1200) next on the board.

COLB: Villanova’s odds to win the national title slipped from 18-1 to 22-1 at BetMGM when Jay Wright stepped down.

Sixers elimination odds/via BetMGM:

*Lose in first round: +2000

*Lose next round: +100

*Lose in conference finals: +155

*Lose in NBA Finals: +850

*Win NBA championship: +1000

The pace of the action makes it dangerous, but there have been some real opportunities with in-game wagering during the NBA postseason. First-half blowouts can swing the other way rather quickly.

As Matt Perrault, an executive at PropsUS put it, “If you aren’t betting teams down double digits, you are missing out on some great numbers.”

Moderation is key, of course. And nothing is foolproof.