Round 2.
Conference Finals.
NBA Finals.
There's all the posts with the betting lines and free throw margins.
Some thoughts on the second coronation of the New NBA Dynasty:
- David Stern is on to Brian and me! Miami was out free-throwed in 6 of the 7 Finals games, and the first five games of the Eastern Conference Finals with Indiana! Memphis had the same in the Western Conference Finals all four games of that sweep.
- Covers were 44-36 ATS.
- Over was 40-38-5 or 40-39-4, depending...
- An interesting couple of pictures posted to many media outlets (this one from the New York Daily News) of Lebron James' new shoes from the Shwoosh-stika. Nike basically trumpeting James as a two-time NBA Champion, Tuesday about 3:30 PM -- BEFORE GAME SIX. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!
- And the post-mortem on what I consider the most telling, daming, and interesting story of Vegas in these NBA playoffs....
Brian Tuohy picked up the story, I found out, and cashed in.
So, with tonight's game thought (by me) to be a foregone conclusion, I checked for any news by him.
Instead of anything, I found the misadventures of a blogger who attempted to get an interview with Incarcerated Bob.
Let his misadventures be a lesson -- there is far more going on in sports than anyone wishes to understand.
David Purdum, formerly of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, started a blog on big bets and the like to work his way through a change in scenery.
So the Incarcerated Bob story (especially when it went berserk (Yahoo picked it up -- I was reading about it two days later in Vegas betting papers!) interested him and he sought an interview.
What resulted was a nice look into the Vegas betting underworld. Read Purdum's blog post I linked to -- I'll give Cliff's Notes here.
Keep in mind what Incarcerated Bob and Pregame_Steam noted at 12:34 PM PDT that day:
"Floyd Mayweather's 5.9Million bet
You see, this is what most of the stories forget on this situation: Most of the laid money was illegal! Vegas tried to use their legal take on the game to deny the betting took place, but anyone who knows their salt on this subject knows most betting on sports is illegal money!
Keep that in mind as we go along.
Purdum has covered sportsbooks for five years, as he reports, and it's no secret that much of it is dirty, slimy, and illegal.
Incarcerated Bob is not new to the bookie/betting game. He was a longtime caller to a WFAN call-in show in New York, and he called in picks. Purdum was able to figure out either who this guy really was (real name, place of residence, other websites and handles, etc. and so forth!) or close associates.
This did not please Incarcerated Bob one bit!
Especially when Purdum (probably triggered by one of the purported persons' Internet circle revealing that person's address in Elmhurst, NY -- either he's in or near Riker's Island Correctional Institution, located in East Elmhurst!!) started seeking criminal background checks on the parties he was locating.
That got one Eastern associate/sock puppet (no one is sure just which!) to post Purdum's address publicly and threaten to out the arrest records of all of Purdum's family -- all in public on Twitter!
The associate's threats spurred Purdum even further! A phone call from a "recreational sports bettor" (given the pseudonym "Steve" by Purdum) pretty much clinched it.
"Steve" was a lot more than a recreational bettor. He was posting his picks on his Twitter, and he was rolling. As a result, he got followers, followers Incarcerated Bob wanted to buy by buying the account, trying to convince "Steve" that "Steve" would only have such value for a short time!
Incarcerated Bob gave "Steve" the same phone number Purdum had tied to a real name and application for being a handicapper or such.
"Steve" declined to sell the account, and was Twitter-attacked with a spoof account and flame wars on "Steve"'s real Twitter.
So why is this important? Purdum backs up to the Game 7 Indiana story.
Pregame_Steam, Purdum reports, also reported a $50,000 bet at the MGM sportsbook on the Heat giving 7 ("normal people" had to give 7.5!), inferring someone "knew something"...
(The only thing they could've "known" was that the game was fixed for a big Heat win.)
And now the stories were changing (especially after the MGM Grand denied the report) -- the bets were now being taken from offshore (hence, illegal to Americans) books. (This would be consistent to the Mayerweather story.)
With the probability this was all a steaming pile of bullshit rising by the moment, the Mayerweather story goes viral. Brian picks it up. I pick it up. Yahoo picks it up. The Chicago Tribune mis-attributes it to a more legitimate site.
Then Purdum basically lays the hammer: All Incarcerated Bob is doing is using this publicity to sucker people to his handicappers, at least so Purdum claims.
It is claimed 3/4 of IBN's followers are fake.
Purdum has matched hashtags to effectively confirm to him that the associate who was threatening him was an IBN sock puppet.
So after all this, Purdum decides to press on and give Incarcerated Bob his side of the story.
Then it got really ugly in e-mails Purdum received: Unannounced skimming of winning weeks was charged, many of the bets were losers (including the next 1 or 2 free ones I saw from his site), and an attempt to phish information from Purdum for IBN's use.
The interview was declined.
---
So why did I just Cliff's Notes a very fascinating story anyone should get from Purdum himself?
1) This is the Vegas culture, and the dark corners thereof.
2) I do believe that Floyd Mayerweather is slimy, dirty, and protected enough to have carried out exactly what Incarcerated Bob reported. It would be right up IBN's alley, and Mayerweather would fit right in if this characterization were true. Hell, would it be out of the question that Mayerweather and his Money Team were in league with IBN?
3) I do still believe the story -- just that the vast majority of the money was illegal.
4) This is another arm of the, as Brian puts it, "Showbiz Manipulations". Once you involve Vegas (and anybody with a clue understands Vegas is involved), this is the dark side of that force, as it were.
5) And it happens ALL THE DAMNED TIME.
6) Perhaps these are more people that the leagues are in contact with to enforce their realities? Take that chilling thought home with you.
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