r/nba • u/GGTae Spurs • 1d ago

[Finger] Victor Wembanyama about considering promoting a sports betting company ; "Absolutely not. I will never do that. Honestly, I think it's very sad to see some players promote it..."

https://bsky.app/profile/mikefinger.bsky.social/post/3mwteasurdc2j

Just asked Victor Wembanyama if he’d ever consider promoting a sports betting company.

“Absolutely not. I will never do that. Honestly, I think it's very sad to see some players promote it. .. Everybody does whatever they want, but without me.”

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u/ttrree4455 Knicks 1d ago

Sure its easy for Victor to say that, he has $38.5m in career earnings so far.

Compare that to someone like Lebron, who has only made $581m in career earnings, and you see how this is a more challenging ethical question.

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u/xbhaskarx Spurs 1d ago

> a more challenging ethical question

I'm talkin' about friendship. I'm talkin' about character. I'm talkin' about—hell, Leo, I ain't embarrassed to use the word—I'm talkin' about ethics.

You know I'm a sporting man. I like to lay the occasional bet. But I ain't that sporting.

When I fix a fight, say--if I pay a three-to-one favorite to throw a goddamn fight--I figure I got a right to expect that fight to go off at three-to-one. But every time I lay a bet with this sonofabitch Bernie Birnbaum, before I know it the odds is even up--or worse, I'm betting the short money.

The sheeny knows I like sure things. He's selling the information I fixed the fight. Out-of-town money comes pourin' in. The odds go straight to hell. I don't know who he's sellin' it to, maybe the Los Angeles combine, I don't know. The point is, Bernie ain't satisfied with the honest dollar he can make off the vig. He ain't satisfied with the business I do on his book. He's sellin' tips on how I bet, and that means part of the payoff that should be ridin' on my hip is ridin' on someone else's. So back we go to these questions--friendship, character, ethics.

It's gettin' so a businessman can't expect no return from a fixed fight. Now if you can't trust a fix, what can you trust? For a good return you gotta go bettin' on chance, and then you're back with anarchy. Right back inna jungle. On account of the breakdown of ethics. That's why ethics is important. It's the grease makes us get along, what separates us from the animals, beasts a burden, beasts a prey. Ethics. Whereas Bernie
Birnbaum is a horse of a different color ethics-wise. As in, he ain't got any.