In a shock to the sports world, NBA Hall of Famer and Portland Trail Blazers head coach was arrested due to his alleged involvement with the mafia in rigging underground poker games. He was one of three NBA figures arrested by the FBI as part of a federal gambling investigation.

This is an issue that is not only facing the NBA. It is something impacting all professional sports. The NBA, NFL, and MLB have all had their own issues over the past few seasons.

This is not going to be a diatribe about the legality of sports gambling in America. This is not going to be a sophomoric analysis of the correlation of professional sports accepting gambling money and seeing coaches and players involved in gambling scandals.

There was no legalized sports gambling in 1919 when the Black Sox scandal rocked Major League Baseball and America. Billups wasn’t involved with Fan Duel, and unless we are all mistaken, the mafia isn’t running Bet MGM.

That doesn’t mean all betting taking place was placed through non-legal means. Look at the problems MLB has recently had. Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were placing otherwise legally placed prop bets through legal US channels. Of course, placing those bets and putting your thumb on the scale is illegal, which led to the Ohio Casino Control Commission getting involved.

If allegations are proven true, Clase and Ortiz broke the law. They also broke baseball’s most sacred rule. Actually, it may no longer be their most sacred law.

For reasons that still cannot be comprehended, Commissioner Rob Manfred broke a century of precedent to lift the bans on Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Black Sox as well as Pete Rose.

That was less than a year after the crisis with Shohei Ohtani. The finally official story was Ohtani was the victim of fraud, but it took an awful long time for the story to be crafted that way.

Initially, it was Ohtani giving his interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, money to cover Mizuhara’s gambling losses. More than that, Ohtani initially claimed because he didn’t trust Mizuhara, he personally wired the money to the gamblers.

Then, it was Ohtani didn’t pay the money, and it was Mizuhara who defrauded banks into paying the money from Ohtani’s account. The story was ever changing, but in the end, Ohtani was cleared of any wrongdoing.

There is a lot that still does not smell right with the Ohtani case, but the results are the results. As we know, that could change in the future, but for now, Ohtani is cleared in a way Clase and Ortiz won’t be.

Keep in mind, this is not a new phenomena no matter how much people want to pretend it is. If you saw Goodfellas, they omitted the part where Henry Hill and Maury were tied to the NCAA point shaving scandal. Again, there was no legalized betting in the 1970s and 1980s.

Betting exists, and for teams it is a stream of revenue. Nearly all the laws, both legal and within their own sports, prevents players from participating in sports betting on any level. That is factually true.

However, just like Shoeless Joe and Pete Rose, that does not mean a player won’t get caught up in fixing games and/or results in any way. In fact, in many ways, there may be more players implicated because there is more attention to it. There are more investigative bodies, which then lead to more suspicious activity getting caught.

No, this is not a pro sports betting rant. It’s just stating the facts. This is the environment in which professional sports are now played. There may be more opportunities to gamble, but there are more ways for players to get caught. ‘

It is highly doubtful the legalized gambling in the USA leads to more player betting. That is going to come with more controversy and problems. To some extent, catching it and eliminating those who are betting is a great thing.

That all said, this also means it is a problem leading to everyone justifiably questioning the integrity of the sports. That is why Manfred made a major misstep with Shoeless Joe and Rose. MLB needed to be at it firmest at a time when more and more issues were going to arise.

Now, players know if they are banned that they can still get their accolades, even if it means they receive them after they have passed. That is why those players should have been forever banned, especially at a time where we see more and more gambling issues.

Manfred miscalculated, and baseball may very well suffer as a result. The NBA will likely overcome the Billups issue like they did with Tom Donaghy. Who knows if baseball can?

With baseball’s questionable leadership, one that is likely driving the sport towards a lengthy lockout after the CBA expires, we should not be hopeful.