It’s often that people prop legends up to such lofty heights that they cannot conceived of them “doing number 2″ or even worse having a bad day and not wanting to sign autographs. I’ve heard gruesome tales of stars who are complete jerks or worse, angels because they did or did not tip a limo driver. We’re often ravenous to read paparazzi driven rag magazine tales of celebrities gone bad, only to find out that the celebrity in question simply went out to their mailbox at 9a.m. in a house coat.
Case in point? We have basketball legend crying at his son’s state champion win. I personally don’t see the big deal. What’s to marvel at? He’s a father. But the reporters seemed so amazed because
Michael Jordan the Legend
1. do black people cry over their kids when they do awesome deeds like be lead scorer in the state championship?
2. is a basketball legend like Micahel Jordan human enough to shed tears of joy over a mere son of his?
You might think those questions are harsh for me to bring up. But, if you’ve been reading my blog you know that I ask the obvious questions that people are feeling but dare not whisper in public for fear of “seeming” not “P.C.”. I’m pretty sure P.C. led to Nazi Germany coming to power in some shape, form or fashion. Personally, I’d much prefer someone tell me how they honestly feel, than to be confronted with “P.C.” and then stabbed in the back later, wondering where it came from.
Am I personally amazed that Michael Jordan cried at his son’s game? No, it’s non-news. I’m amazed the reporter thought it was amazing, and that the news has spread like wildfire in the white dominated media. It speaks volumes of their state of mind. Here’s the story:
“Jordan’s son wins state championship
Associated Press
PEORIA, Ill. – Michael Jordan celebrated another Chicago basketball championship – his son’s.
Marcus Jordan, son of the Bulls’ six-time champion, scored a game-high 19 points to lead Chicago Whitney Young to a 69-66 victory over Waukegan in the Illinois Class 4A championship Saturday. As Marcus Jordan and his teammates celebrated on the court after the final buzzer, Michael Jordan stood quietly, clapping his hands with tears in his eyes. “Crying?” the NBA great said in response to a reporter’s question. “I’m not crying. Not for me, anyway.” “
Sports betting is the general activity of predicting sports results by making a wager on the outcome of a sporting event. The better pits his wits and skill against time, chance and unfortunately unforseen events. Some might say there is no skill involved in sports betting. But, unlike other forms of gambling, sports betting is in fact all skill. There is less chance involved in the endevor than other forms of gambling, i.e. poker, blackjack, roulette wheel, bacarat. The “ability” to predict future outcomes in sports involves these key subjects: your knowledge of the general history of the sport; your knowledge of the specific history of each teams; your knowledge of the historical probability of location impinging on the outcome; your attention to minutia of each individual athlete, including all of their statistics; your attention to minutia of each team organization and management. This is a daunting list, bar none. But, once mastered, these subjects are the key to your being a successful sports better.
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Perhaps more so than other forms of gambling, the legality and general acceptance of sports betting varies from nation to nation. In the United States, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1994 makes it illegal to operate a “betting, gambling or wagering scheme”, except for in the states of Delaware, Nevada, and Oregon. Nevada, however, is the only state currently allowing sports gambling, while in many European nations bookmaking (the profession of accepting sports wagers) is highly regulated but not criminalized. Proponents of legalized sports betting generally regard it as a hobby for sports fans that increases their interest in particular sporting events, thus benefiting the leagues, teams and players they bet on through higher attendances and television audiences.
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Opponents fear that, over and above the general ramifications of gambling, it threatens the integrity of amateur and professional sport, the history of which includes numerous attempts by sports gamblers to fix matches, although proponents counter that legitimate bookmakers will invariably fight corruption just as fiercely as governing bodies and law enforcement do. Most sports bettors are overall losers as the bookmakers odds are fairly efficient. However, there are professional sports bettors that make a good income betting sports, many of which utilize sports information services.
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However, I did list chance and unforseen events. These are the curve balls [no pun intended] that throws the monkey wrench into the whole careful planning. Let’s take a look at this in a minute.
Odds for different outcomes in a single bet are presented either in European format (decimal odds), UK format (fractional odds), or American format (moneyline odds). Moneyline odds are favoured in the United States. They are the amount won on a 100 stake when positive and the stake needed to win 100 when negative. Moneyline odds of 100 are an even bet.
Bookmakers generally offer two types of wagers on the winner of a sporting event: a straight-up or money line bet, or a point spread wager. Moneylines and straight-up prices are used to set odds on sports such as
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association football, baseball and hockey (the scoring nature of which renders point spreads impractical) as well as individual vs. individual matches, like boxing. For these sports, bookmakers in Europe and Asia generally use straight-up odds, which are quoted based on a payout for a single bet unit; for example, a 2-1 favorite would be listed at a price of 1.50, whereas an underdog returning twice the amount wagered would be listed at a price of 3.00. American bookmakers generally use moneylines, which are quoted in terms of the amount required to win $100 on a favorite, or the amount paid for a $100 bet on an underdog. The amount “won” in a bet is the net amount over and above the initial bet. If a person wins $200 on a bet of $100, the bookmaker actually pays the winner $300 (i.e. $200 plus the initial bet of $100).
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Betting, like any gambling, can involve high stakes. As such it is very tempting to take out “chance” and “unforseen events”.
# In 1919, gamblers bribed several members of the Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series. This became known as the Black Sox Scandal and was recounted in book and movie form as “Eight Men Out”.
# In 1951, District Attorney Frank Hogan indicted college basketball players for point shaving from four New York schools, including CCNY, Manhattan College, New York University and Long Island University.
# In 1978, mobsters connected with the New York Lucchese crime family, among them Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke, organized a point shaving scheme with key members of the Boston College basketball team.
# On August 24, 1989, former baseball player Pete Rose voluntarily accepted a permanent ban from Major League Baseball for allegedly betting on Reds games while managing the team. Rose would later confirm the truth of the allegations in his 2004 autobiography, My Prison Without Bars.
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Those scandals aside, what can the average joe do to help himself get ahead and be a more successful sports better? Taking out the “chance” and “unforseen events” are the only key things out of the better’s control. But one can reduce those two key things so that they don’t affect you as much. How? Learn from someone better. Like I said in the begining, sports betting is a skill. And, like life, there is always someone bigger, faster, stronger, wiser, smarter than you. You aren’t so conceited as to think on thsi planet of multiple billions of people that that’s not the case? I’m sure you’ve might have seen a movie or read an article where people form corporations just to sports bet. Sure, they have a den of M.I.T. kids that have figured out the ultimate formula in horse racing, boxing, baseball, football and soccer matches. If they can figure out how to count a shoe of 5 decks of cards, how hard would it be to piece together a formula for a horse race? I’m not saying this to scare you. I’m not saying this to make you feel unworthy. I’m saying this to encourage you to ever seek more and more and more information, a better player, a wiser guru. Oh and trust in human nature. Everyone loves praise. Everyong craves fans. If a guy has figured it all out in soccer betting or tennis betting, don’t you think he’d be in tears if you came to him telling what a great guy he is and how smart he is for figuring it out and asking him how he did it? He wouldn’t be able to contain himself.
