Why the Mavs have Hot Cheerleaders

I would never say the Mavs have the best cheerleaders (ok, dancers, whatever) in pro sports; however, as evidenced by the picture and video below they can certainly compete with almost any team. So where do the Mavs find their talent? As evidenced by an email I received from them the other day...off the street.

Subject: Dancer Auditions

Attention all ladies! Want to be part of the hottest dance team in the NBA? If you are a high school graduate, at least 18 years old, energetic and love to perform in front of large crowds - the Mavs want YOU to tryout to be a part of the Dallas Mavericks Dancers.

Auditions will be held on Sat., Aug. 11 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel.

Also, don't forget to take advantage of the prep classes being offered at the Dallas Power House of Dance.

I guess, when you're openly inviting everyone in the 8th largest city in the United States, you're bound to end up with hot cheerleaders. We should tell the Orlando Magic should follow suit.

Maybe that's why that despite being ousted embarrassingly early in the 2007 playoffs by the run-and-gun Warriors, the Mavericks had one of the highest season ticket renewal rates ever - and I remain stuck on the waitlist. Say what you want about Mark Cuban, but everything he touches turns to gold (except the Benefactor). Perhaps more fans should look to him as a role model instead of the athletes.

How to Fix the NBA's Gambling Problem

A lot has been made of the Donaghy point-shaving scandal. Some have eagerly offered suggestions to Stern on how to fix it, others don't know what to think and some have taken a much more collected approach while Stern already overreacted. Despite all the news coverage, what most of the public doesn't understand is that if Donagal is indeed guilty, it's highly probable that his actions primarily affected the Over/Under of basketball games, which are substantially easier to control than win-loss outcomes.

Although to some the situation certainly appears dire, it's not near as hard to fix as some people are making it out to be. What the ordeal hinges on is David Stern and his merry band of TPS Report-bearing yes-man, and their willingness to listen to others' ideas while being sure to not overreact. As the Sports Law Professor eloquently points out: this game fixing scandal really isn't that big of a deal, especially considered the amount of times similar situations have happened in NCAA basketball.

With all that said, here are my relatively easy to execute suggestions on how to fix the NBA's gambling problem:

1) Copy the NFL. As Brandon Lang mentions in his interview with Wayne Drehs "In the NFL, there's a task force that on Monday reviews every critical call that came anywhere near the point spread. I don't believe that's ever been done in the NBA." Sure there would be a lot more games to review, but the NBA certainly has the resources to make this happen - why aren't they doing this?

2) Pay the Refs more. As I discussed in a prior post, if you pay the referees more money, they have significantly less incentive to cheat. There's a reason players are rarely involved in these type of scandals: it isn't worth it. Pay the refs $500,000 to $1.5 million. Not only will this help recruit better talent (more people will want to become referees because it pays so well), the incentive to cheat will be greatly diminished. I promise the league can afford it.

3) Finally, hold David Stern to his words and make the NBA truly transparent. In a recent article, Chris Sheridan mentioned posting all NBA referee statistics online. This is a brilliant idea and one I wanted to elaborate on. Not only would this action add transparency, but it would also outsource a significant amount of the work. Stats geeks like John Hollinger, David Berri, Mark Cuban et al. along with numerous bloggers would be all over this data. There'd constantly be outside articles and analysis going on throughout the season in addition to the NBA's own inhouse team.

Vick Isn't Just Hurting Doggies

Dogs aren't the only thing Michael "Ookie" Vick has been hurting. Speculators who invested in Falcons Super Bowl futures on Trade Sports have been getting absolutely hammered over the course of the past few month. Prices have fallen from a high of 2.5 in March 2007 (and 2.4 in May) to a current price of 0.8 as of July 25, 2007.




Additionally, prices for Falcons tickets on Stubhub have been leveling off as well. Michael Vick might not win football games, complete passes or wear protection, but he does draw a large crowd and have fun nick names. Unfortunately for Michael Vick, even at this stage in his career he remains exactly what he was when he entered the league - a below average quarterback and an above average running back who also happens to only have one legitimately good season under his belt (2004). Ironically, had the Falcons, kept Matt Schaub, the Falcons might have been a great value play for this upcoming season.

I was actually extremely close to purchasing Falcons season tickets (to scalp of course) due to the Falcons great draft, solid 2006 attendance and over-hyped, attendance-drawing quarterback, Michael Vick. Fortunately, I was wait-listed.

Stein Misses the Point

Earlier today, Marc Stein of ESPN wrote this in his Donaghy Questions & Answers article:

"If salaries were raised, would that reduce the possibility of referees being lured into the sort of activities Donaghy is accused of?

Referees make only a fraction of what NBA players earn, true, in a league in which the average player salary tops $5 million.

Yet it's a significant stretch to suggest they're all desperate for dollars -- even if you want to overstate things and make it sound as though fighting off such temptations is a common problem.

Entry-level referees are paid in the $85,000 area, according to league sources, but the overwhelming majority are six-figure earners. At the high end of the scale, salaries surpass $300,000.

It's believed that a referee with Donaghy's experience makes more than $200,000 annually, with extra cash coming in the playoffs.

The median wage and salary income in this country in 2005, according to U.S. Census data, was $34,926 for men and $23,546 for women."

I usually like Stein, but he completely misses the mark here. With regards to NBA basketball and gambling it doesn't matter how much the average person in the U.S. earns - these players, coaches and even referees are in a different world. What matters is that referees can easily earn more than 1x-5x their salary in a week long stretch of games without drawing any bookie-based red flags ( i.e. in Vegas people wouldn't look twice at mid five to low six figure bets).

In contrast, an NBA player, with an average single year salary of over $5.0 million would rarely risk millions upon millions of dollars in current and future salary along with endorsement opportunities and royalties payments for relative chump change point shaving. Additionally, if they wanted to reap rewards greater than their salary their bets would almost certainly draw scrutiny.

Money provides with people with incentive even if they aren't "desperate for dollars". Additionally, this situation exemplifies why having a team in Vegas shouldn't be a concern - at least as far as gambling goes. The internet is ubiquitous; people can place a bet anywhere as it doesn't matter where the team is playing. Generally speaking, players make too much money to ever risk it all wagering on games or point shaving. And the players who don't usually aren't significant enough factors alter the game outcome.