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Wizards choose Wall with No. 1 pick

Basketball Betting Lines

06/24/2010 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Wizards selected Kentucky point guard John Wall with the first overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft.

The 6-foot-4 Wall, the first Kentucky player selected No. 1 overall, completed his first collegiate campaign with 16.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists per contest for the Wildcats, who fell to West Virginia in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.

The athletic floor general joins a Washington team that was plagued by bad play on the court and off-court issues last season, headlined by the suspension of Gilbert Arenas for bringing guns into the Verizon Center locker room.

The Wizards last had the No.1 overall selection in 2001 when they selected Kwame Brown, who never panned out in the nation's capital.

The Philadelphia 76ers, now under the guidance of new head coach Doug Collins, took Ohio State guard Evan Turner at No. 2. The 2010 Naismith and Wooden Award winner led the Big Ten in scoring (20.4 points) and rebounds (9.2) this past season while also averaging 5.9 assists and 2.0 steals per game. He missed a month's worth of action after suffering a back injury on a hard fall to the floor in early December. Turner appeared in 101 games during his three years at Ohio State.

The 76ers were in need of a tall shooting guard and got their man in the 6- foot-7 Turner.

The New Jersey Nets, coming off a franchise-record 70-loss season, took Georgia Tech forward Derrick Favors with the third pick. The 6-foot-10 Atlanta native was named the ACC Rookie of the Year after ranking second on the team with averages of 12.4 points and 8.4 rebounds.

Minnesota, which entered the night with the most draft picks this year with five, took Syracuse forward Wesley Johnson at No. 4. Johnson, as a junior, was named Big East Player of the Year and a consensus All-American after averaging a team-high 16.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in 35 games for the Orange this past season. The 6-foot-7, 205-pound versatile forward spent the first two years of his collegiate career at Iowa State before transferring to Syracuse following the 2007-08 campaign.

Johnson joins ex-Syracuse teammate Jonny Flynn on the Timberwolves. Flynn was the sixth overall selection last year.

DeMarcus Cousins became the second Kentucky freshman to be taken in the draft when he was picked by Sacramento at No. 5. The 6-foot-11 center recorded 15.1 points and 9.9 rebounds per game with the Wildcats.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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