They don’t call him Adam Copper like some broke sports commissioner

He says whatever he can PR wise until he gets marching orders from the owners who actually make these calls

Yes exactly. I’m sure there were people arguing at the time that “he’s pointing out real issues in regards to regulation, and once those policies are in place, this will all be handled with care by the utmost professionals.” Then, those plans dont happen as promised, it leads to where it leads, and that will be thought of as an unexpected consequence and not the plan working as intended.

Honestly prohibition worked pretty well for a long time! Growing up outside of a state that allowed gambling, it simply was not a thing people really did. I’m sure it happened sometimes in certain places but for the most part it was a non-existent practice for most of my life.

So like… Idk let’s try it again!

Sports betting seems to be the one and only go to for any non TV platform. Not saying i support or promote sports betting but it’s clearly the must have thing for profit today. How it affects the league is considered conspiracy today as well. But the unsung highlight of the most recent finals is just how much sports betting was eating a loss if Knicks won a game. So many ppl bet on the Knicks disproportionate to spurs odds was insane. Live betting in particular was the goat of massive losses allowing spurs to have massive leads and players ink a bet on them only to see a turn around 4th. Uncommon. Alltime. Was it spurs being trash? Or was it sports betting money reducing loses? Who knows

in this same interview he says that sports betting can support the nba infrastructure. So it sure sounds like nowadays that w/o it the nba would be in a bad financial position

It already has a sunburn

Okay but this interview was conducted before sports betting was legalized in 2018, so that’s probably what he meant first by bringing it into the sunlight since a lot of gambling prior to this was via shady bookies if not in Vegas alone, basically.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_and_Amateur_Sports_Protection_Act_of_1992

Well legalization was going ahead regardless of what they did.

I think they also need the gambling money more than people think. The collapse of cable has been real bad for the media sector in general and I think sports has mostly avoided that because of gambling advertisements. I’m not sure the growth they need is there in the other advertising segments. Gen Z seems a lot less into sports than older generations and I think that becomes a structural problem as we go through the final death of cable in the 2030s. I think by 2040 cable TV will no longer exist.

What I think about is when Cuban said the issue wasn’t this media deal (the one they just inked), but the next one. The collapse of cable and increased competition for attention from other leagues and also other mediums is a major threat to sports media rights in the 2030s.

So to me I read the gambling stuff less as pure greed and more as desperation for leagues trying to survive a 2026 attention economy with sports that are 100+ years old and optimized for the TV age.