Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff says he was personally threatened and harassed by gamblers who lost bets they made on the Cavs.
From the Associated Press (via ESPN):
"They got my telephone number and were sending me crazy messages about where I live and my kids and all that stuff," Bickerstaff said before the Cavs hosted the Miami Heat. "So it is a dangerous game and a fine line that we're walking for sure."
Bickerstaff said he told security and that the gambler was located.
"No charges," Bickerstaff said. "But they found him."
…
"It brings added pressure," he said. "It brings a distraction to the game that can be difficult for players, coaches, referees, everybody that's involved in it. And I think that we really have to be careful with how close we let it get to the game and the security of the people who are involved in it.
"Because again, it does carry a weight. A lot of times the people who are gambling like this money pays their light bill or pay their rent, and then the emotions that come from that. So I do think we're walking a very fine line and we have to be extremely careful in protecting everybody who's involved."
…
"There's no doubt about it that it's crossed the line," Bickerstaff said. "The amount of times where I'm standing up there and we may have a 10-point lead and the spread is 11 and people are yelling at me to leave the guys in so that we can cover the spread, it's ridiculous.
"But again, I understand the business side of it and the nature of the business of it. But I mean, it is something that I believe has gone too far."
What Bickerstaff describes is, to put it mildly, disturbing behavior. Fans have been yelling at players and coaches about fantasy sports for decades, but the money element tied to sports betting changes the dynamic drastically. Fans at games are also often imbibing alcohol, which only makes these matters worse.
The perpetrators who got Bickerstaff's number and threatened him are obviously on an entirely different threat level than the average (and widespread) complaint from bettors who lost due to X,Y or Z. That is the very definition of problem gambling tied to mental illness. Hopefully, the individuals in question received appropriate contact from law enforcement and received resources to help with problem gambling.
But these incidents reflect a growing concern about how close sports betting is to the NBA. Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton recently spoke out about how he feels he is just "a prop" for half of the people he interacts with. Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert said betting has become "a problem" for the league (stated after Minnesota lost a game due to what he felt was questionable officiating).
For as much enthusiasm as there is for betting, the consequences are becoming more and more of a talking point.
Officiating and "rigged" questions are an entirely separate concern, one that the league has invested a great deal of resources in trying to prevent despite public perception.
But bettor behavior clearly needs more resources. Sportsbooks and the league are required by law to list resources for problem gamblers in any advertising that's distributed. Still, the behavior of losing bettors toward fans and coaches is a connected but independent issue the league needs to address.
The league needs to pursue more public service announcements and social media distribution of appropriate behavior guidelines and the importance of recognizing a bettor's responsibility for the bets they make. It would honestly behoove the league to begin social media accounts on X — and/or Instagram and TikTok — to showcase bad bettor behavior and illustrate why those posts are neither appropriate nor welcome. Simply raising awareness of the problem is likely the first step in addressing this.
That said, much of this is unavoidable as long as fans can bet on games. The merits of that availability or a prohibition against betting on the NBA can be argued, but with it comes the understanding of the loss of revenue for the league, its teams and its players. Which side do you think those parties will come down on?
This is not to say that Bickerstaff has to suck it up and deal with problem bettors threatening his family because the Cavs didn't cover the spread. That illustrates how serious this problem can be and why the league must take it seriously.
Bickerstaff deserves credit for acknowledging the business side of things, but if we've reached a point where members of the NBA family feel in danger because of the behavior of bettors, more work has to be done to curtail and correct that.
