NBA: Who’s making the call?
As the new NBA betting season approaches us, there’s usually a tangible amount of excitement in the air. Less than a month out from pre-season, seeing all those familiar faces on new teams and new faces in the league gives us gamblers a chance to scout how everything’s coming together. We can see the rookies take shape, peek in on the big stars (Shaq, AI) lacing it up in a new jersey, and begin putting together our game plan during breaks between updating our fantasy football teams.
But there’s something quite different this year, isn’t there? We don’t know who’s going to be calling the games once the regular season begins. Although, currently, it looks like it won’t be the referees we’ve all come to know and hate. As always, it’s about money, and the union and the league seem to be so far apart, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were replacements in place all the way through June and beyond.
Having said that, I would take a cautious approach to gambling on the NBA during the first month, but not avoid the games altogether. For as much as we complain about the pro’s when they’re out there doing their thing, we all know having second-tier talent in any job is going to hurt the product as a whole, and in our case, we have to wonder if our lines will be handicapped by bad calls or vice versa.
It’s a legitimate concern, especially with the NBA’s heavy-handed home court advantage. What’s to say these other refs won’t get caught up in the moment of a crowd (you know it happens) and swing a call once way that leads to a team not covering.
There are some great stories in the NBA Odds this year, so it’s a shame that right now we have this overshadowing what should be speculation on whether Kobe can repeat, whether Lebron/Shaq is enough to get them past a healthy Celtics team, and who the next Chris Paul might be? Instead, we hear that David Stern has backed out of talks, and if they do resume, it’ll be without his presence. Nice, huh?
So take it slow, pick a game here or there as a test, bet maybe half what you’d normally put up, and we’ll all see how things go together. But don’t plan on these new refs calling traveling much, either.
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