Latest NBA-to-LV rumor quashed in a hurry

Friday, July 25, 2003 | 9:03 a.m.

A National Basketball Association franchise for Las Vegas? Don't bet on it.

In fact, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman says the longtime sticking point of legalized sports betting has slam dunked the latest speculation of an NBA franchise for Southern Nevada.

Goodman said he was contacted by former NBA great Bill Walton earlier this week regarding Walton and a group of former NBA player investors bringing an NBA franchise to Las Vegas.

The mayor said a conversation Thursday with NBA Commissioner David Stern did not give that proposal much hope.

"He said the NBA currently has no plans for expansion and (regarding an existing team moving here) the NBA does not accept cities that allow the taking of bets on NBA games," Goodman said.

Goodman said he was contacted by Walton, who is friends with former UNLV basketball star of the 1970s Jackie Robinson, an ex-NBA player who is a longtime friend of Goodman's.

"It got my juices flowing," Goodman said a couple of hours after his weekly news conference, where he announced he would be talking to Stern by phone from his New York offices later in the day.

Goodman said Stern praised the regulatory agencies that monitor the legal books, but he said the NBA's policy against legalized gambling remains firm.

"If something is available in the future, then we will talk again and I could try to lobby them (the sports book industry)," Goodman said.

That would be a difficult -- if not impossible sell -- for Goodman as the NBA accounts for 13 percent of the legal sports books wagering.

Jay Kornegay, race and sports book director for the Imperial Palace, says the legal bookies are not the villain in keeping the NBA out of Las Vegas.

"I would love to see an NBA franchise here and it's unfortunate that they point the finger at the legal bookmakers," Kornegay said.

"I would say that 99 percent of the bets made on the NBA in America is illegal. (Illegal) bookies in New York, Chicago, Miami and other big cities where there are NBA teams take far more action on the NBA than we do."

Kornegay noted that it has been inconsistencies in the movement of the legally posted Las Vegas line that has alerted book operators who have helped state gaming regulators and federal authorities capture those who tried to fix games, most notably the early 1990s Arizona State college basketball betting scandal.

"Without us, what are they (law enforcement authorities) going to do, go to some guy in a basement in New York and ask him if there have been any unusual sways in the line?" Kornegay said.

Kornegay also noted that since books have been allowed to take bets on UNLV the past two years, there have been no problems and that the games have drawn no more action than other college games on the board.

Lines also were posted on the old Las Vegas Thunder minor league hockey team, but they did not get much action, Kornegay said, noting that the Thunder and UNLV demonstrate that a game here is not negatively affected by betting.

Calls to the NBA offices in New York were not returned Thursday.

A secretary in the office of NBA spokesman Tim Frank said he was out of the office attending a meeting with other NBA public relations officials.

For more than 20 years, the NBA vs. legalized gaming has been a sticking point.

A truce came in the early 1980s that allowed the Utah Jazz to play a half dozen home games at the Thomas & Mack Center each season, as the local legal books agreed not to post lines on the Jazz games played in Las Vegas.

When the books decided to stop that practice and treat the Jazz like every other pro team, the Jazz stopped playing home games in Las Vegas.

In 2001, Goodman pushed to bring the then-Vancouver Grizzlies to town. The betting issue again surfaced and the Grizzlies eventually moved to Memphis.

At his televised news conference Thursday, Goodman prepared fellow supporters of an NBA franchise for potential bad news.

He warned that when he last talked with Stern in 2001, Stern had made it clear that "under no circumstances" would an NBA team be allowed to relocate to a city where there is sports betting.

Goodman indicated it might be easier getting a Major League Baseball franchise to relocate here, noting, "I think Las Vegas is thirsting for a major-league team."