Cleveland Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff revealed he obtained threats from gamblers final season and reported it to the NBA.
Whereas being requested Wednesday night time about sports activities playing following feedback made by Pacers All-Star Tyrese Haliburton, who mentioned he generally appears like a “prop,” Bickerstaff mentioned gamblers contacted him.
“They acquired my phone quantity and had been sending me loopy messages about the place I dwell and my children and all that stuff,” Bickerstaff mentioned earlier than the Cavs hosted the Miami Warmth. “So it’s a harmful sport and a fantastic line that we’re strolling for certain.”
Bickerstaff mentioned he advised safety and that the gambler was positioned.
“No fees,” Bickerstaff mentioned. “However they discovered him.”
With sports activities playing rising within the U.S., Bickerstaff, who’s in his fourth full season with the Cavaliers, mentioned his job has develop into more difficult.
“It brings added strain,” he mentioned. “It brings a distraction to the sport that may be troublesome for gamers, coaches, referees, all people that is concerned in it. And I believe that we actually must watch out with how shut we let it get to the sport and the safety of the people who find themselves concerned in it.
“As a result of once more, it does carry a weight. A whole lot of occasions the people who find themselves playing like this cash pays their mild invoice or pay their hire, after which the feelings that come from that. So I do assume we’re strolling a really fantastic line and now we have to be extraordinarily cautious in defending all people who’s concerned.”
As a result of followers can guess on their telephones within the enviornment — the Cavs have a sportsbook inside Rocket Mortage FieldHouse — Bickerstaff mentioned the road between playing and the sport has by no means been nearer.
“There isn’t any doubt about it that it is crossed the road,” Bickerstaff mentioned. “The quantity of occasions the place I am standing up there and we might have a 10-point lead and the unfold is 11 and individuals are yelling at me to depart the blokes in in order that we will cowl the unfold, it is ridiculous.
“However once more, I perceive the enterprise aspect of it and the character of the enterprise of it. However I imply, it’s one thing that I consider has gone too far.”
Following a latest sport in Cleveland, Minnesota heart Rudy Gobert mentioned he felt playing is “hurting our sport.”
Gobert made the feedback after making a “cash” gesture towards official Scott Foster, implying playing was influencing the way in which the sport was being referred to as. He was fined $100,000, the utmost that the NBA may give underneath phrases of the collective bargaining settlement that went into place final yr.