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00:00Let me not delay any further.
00:01Let's get the latest in the National Basketball Association
00:04because shockwaves have been sent, needless to say,
00:07on Saturday and Sunday with some major players
00:10being dealt to several teams.
00:12Of course, the biggest trade of the weekend
00:14happened between Dallas and Los Angeles
00:16where franchise icon, fair to say, Luka Doncic,
00:20has been dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers.
00:22He will hopefully suit up for them soon.
00:24He has been out and hurt.
00:26He's had a hamstring issue, but he is set to play.
00:28It would look like the remainder of his career
00:30in Los Angeles if they want to make that happen.
00:33Also, Maxi Kleber, Marquise Morris went to the Lakers.
00:36Anthony Davis is the prize going back to Dallas
00:39as well as Max Christie at a 2029 first round pick.
00:44It's probably one of the biggest trades in the history
00:47of the National Basketball Association.
00:49So much discussion as to why Dallas decided
00:52to trade a 25-year-old superstar away,
00:57especially to a team in the West like Los Angeles.
01:00Needless to say, the Mavericks general manager,
01:02Nico Harrison, their head coach, Jason Kidd,
01:05tried to answer many of those questions on Sunday.
01:09And, you know, we think defense wins championships
01:12and we're bringing in one of the best
01:14two-way players in the league.
01:15A lot of people don't talk about, you know,
01:17what he does defensively and offensively,
01:19but, you know, if you guys, you can name
01:21first team all NBA players that are also
01:23first team all defensive players.
01:25And that's a unique unicorn to try to find.
01:28And we're able to find that.
01:29And as well, you look at Max Christie,
01:32you know, he was their starting two guard,
01:34guarded all the top players in the league
01:36and he's young and athletic and bouncy
01:38and, you know, gets his hands on lots of balls.
01:39So we really feel that they're bringing in,
01:43they're adding into the culture
01:44that we're trying to create here.
01:46We feel that defense wins championships
01:48and we're excited to go.
01:50We feel like we're built to win now as well as in the future.
01:54Yeah, I think it's, you know,
01:57it's something that as Nico's brought up,
01:59we are aligned, right?
02:01And so just understanding Luca,
02:04when I first came here, you know,
02:06excited about the opportunity to coach
02:09an upcoming star who became a mega star.
02:14And I was just blessed to have that opportunity
02:17to coach him.
02:18But when you look at the vision of the team
02:21and what Nico wants to build,
02:23I truly support that.
02:25And truly believe that the players that we're getting
02:28are the ones that can help us achieve that
02:31and that's to win a championship.
02:34And Anthony Davis will suit up for the Mavericks
02:36in their next game.
02:36Meanwhile, that wasn't the only big trade this weekend.
02:40The Sacramento Kings tried to get De'Aaron Fox
02:42to sign a long-term extension.
02:43He didn't want to do it.
02:45And now he'll join Wembley in San Antonio.
02:48So they've got two mega stars there now,
02:50maybe a third, who knows in the future.
02:51Also, Jordan McLaughlin goes to the Spurs.
02:54The Kings get Zach Levine.
02:55Of course, the Bulls are punting the season.
02:58Sidey Sisko, three first-round picks,
03:00three second-round picks.
03:02And the Bulls get Zach Collins, Trey Jones,
03:04Kevin Herter, and their own 20-25 pick
03:06back via the San Antonio Spurs.
03:09There's no question that San Antonio
03:11is now building for now and the future
03:13by adding De'Aaron Fox.
03:14But needless to say, the Sacramento Kings
03:16just continue to have a hard time
03:18keeping their stars out West.
03:21Meanwhile, big news in the world
03:22of sports wagering or opportunities today.
03:25Prediction Markets, very popular around the country.
03:28Kalshi and Robinhood now have their first broker.
03:3225 million more people now have exposure
03:35to their Prediction Markets.
03:37The online trading platform ended months of speculation
03:40by saying it would launch by the Super Bowl.
03:42Robinhood, on November the 5th,
03:44said that a total of 400 million people
03:47were on the contracts trading on their platform.
03:49So a new way to bet on prediction outcomes.
03:52They don't call it betting,
03:53they call it prediction outcomes.
03:54Okay, fair enough.
03:55One signing in Major League Baseball yesterday,
03:57the hot stove coming to an end here
03:59as pitchers and catchers set to report
04:00in less than two weeks.
04:01Jack Flaherty and the Tigers are in a reunion here.
04:05Two years, $35 million.
04:07He also has an opt-out after the first season.
04:08Flaherty was hoping to get more than two years.
04:10Of course, he pitched for the Dodgers
04:12at the end of last season,
04:13and pitched pretty well as well.
04:14All right, Pebble Beach comes to a close.
04:16The first big golf tournament, fair to say, in 2025.
04:19And it goes to Rory McIlroy.
04:21He wins out West,
04:22captures his first PGA Tour win of the season
04:25as McIlroy, one of the top golfers in the world.
04:27Not a huge surprise there.
04:29Maybe a bigger surprise in the world,
04:30the National Football League,
04:31where Justin Tucker continues to have allegations
04:34piling up against him.
04:35More massage therapists have accused him of misconduct.
04:38In case you missed this story on Friday,
04:40the Baltimore Banner is reporting
04:42that nine massage therapists in the Baltimore area
04:45have accused him of inappropriate behavior
04:48back about 10, 12 years ago, this apparently started.
04:52Tucker, of course, said that none of this happened.
04:54So it's a story that the NFL is investigating,
04:56and so we'll stay on top of it as well.
04:57As we mentioned, the Super Bowl, of course, is on Sunday.
05:00If you follow any kind of football, you know that as well.
05:02And of course, our full coverage begins today,
05:04live from Radio Row.
05:05We got some great guests coming up for you,
05:07and all of our shows are there.
05:08So make sure you stay tuned.
05:10And three o'clock Eastern, Scott Farrell is live,
05:12coast to coast.
05:13Chip Kelly is leaving Ohio State.
05:14He's going back to the NFL.
05:15He's gonna be the Raiders' offensive coordinator.
05:18You may remember he coached in the NFL
05:20with the San Francisco 49ers.
05:22Not a lot of people remember that one.
05:24He did coach with the Eagles for a couple of years as well.
05:26Also, Eric Biennemi is back in the NFL
05:29after leaving the league to go coach at UCLA.
05:32He's gonna be the Bears' running backs coach.
05:34Mike Evans is thinking about joining Team USA
05:36for flag football in the Olympics.
05:38So that could be a banner day for him as well.
05:41There's no question that that's gonna be a popular sport,
05:43I would think, coming up in 2028.
05:46In addition, let's get to the latest
05:48in the National Basketball Association on the court.
05:50Is anybody watching on the court?
05:52I know we're watching off the court.
05:53O.G. Annanoby from the Knicks over the weekend
05:55left in their game against the Lakers with a foot sprain.
05:58He avoided a torn Achilles, so he's listed as day-to-day.
06:01Dejounte Murray, though, he ruptured his Achilles tendon
06:04in the Pelicans' loss.
06:05He's gonna miss the remainder of the season.
06:07And eight-time All-Star, former MVP Tina Charles
06:10is signing with the Sun.
06:12She was drafted number one overall by them back in 2010.
06:17As far as finals are concerned, from the NBA last night,
06:20Jaren Jackson Jr. had 37 points
06:23as the Grizzlies beat the Bucs.
06:25Memphis is playing well.
06:26They even beat them without John Morant.
06:28The Celtics, meanwhile, rallied from 26-point down.
06:32They beat the 76ers 118-110,
06:35a huge game for Jason Tatum.
06:37He had 35 points.
06:38The Raptors beat the Clippers 115-108
06:42for their eighth win in 10 games.
06:43And also Cade Cunningham, 22 points and 15 assists.
06:47The Pistons beat the Bulls 127-119.
06:50In college basketball over the weekend,
06:52the homecoming for John Calipari went very well for him
06:56as Arkansas goes to Kentucky and shocks them 89-79,
07:01the final score there in his return to Lexington.
07:04Cooper Flagg and Duke just rolled all over North Carolina.
07:08They picked up a 17-point win.
07:10Cooper Flagg has been one of the best players
07:12in all of college hoops
07:13and will be exciting to see in the tournament
07:15next month, 21 points for him, eight rebounds.
07:17And Kansas State beat Iowa State 80-61.
07:21UConn's Liam McNeely expected to be back
07:23against St. John's on Friday, according to Dan Hurley.
07:27Now there's another story going on
07:28in the National Football League,
07:29which broke right before we came on the air.
07:31It looks like one of the best players on defense,
07:34not just on the Cleveland Browns, but in the NFL,
07:36Myles Garrett, according to many published reports,
07:39Super Bowl week has requested a trade
07:42away from the Cleveland Browns.
07:43So certainly if that ends up happening,
07:46you're talking about arguably
07:47the very best defensive lineman,
07:49either him or T.J. Watt, depending on how you slice it.
07:54But Garrett, one of the very best still,
07:55has a lot of football left in him in the NFL,
07:57requesting a trade away from the Cleveland Browns.
08:00All right, welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
08:02Let's bring in Pat Evans from Legal Sports Report,
08:04the very latest on sports betting
08:05going on across the country.
08:06We'll get an update on Maryland.
08:08And Pat, we begin, oh my gosh, are you serious?
08:11Like we're beginning with Mississippi again?
08:13Like, I mean, one week they're not gonna be,
08:16you know, have sports betting online.
08:17The next week they are gonna have it online.
08:19It feels like any time that we sort of say
08:21that Mississippi is about to launch online sports betting,
08:24somebody runs in from one of the casinos,
08:26like Robert De Niro with a bat and says,
08:28no, we're not doing that.
08:29Is that gonna happen this time too?
08:31You know, it could, it very well could.
08:32And that would be a fun scene for me to watch.
08:35I think that somebody running into
08:37the state legislator with a baseball bat
08:38and just smashing things up, that'd be fun.
08:41But yeah, I mean, Mississippi, as we know,
08:44it launched in-person sports betting back in 2018.
08:47It was one of the first states
08:48to get up and running in that sense.
08:50And since then, there's been this kind of slow roll push
08:54to go online.
08:55Of course, on property, you can have the apps,
08:58but that doesn't really mean anything to anybody.
09:01And yeah, so now, you know, a lot of times
09:04in these legislative sessions,
09:06we'll see really kind of slow kind of pushes,
09:09things that don't happen for a couple of weeks,
09:12couple months, whatever.
09:12And then all of a sudden, there's a big rush.
09:14And for some reason, this session, I'm seeing things,
09:17and we'll talk about a couple more in a few minutes,
09:19kind of get really started and rolling fast.
09:21And that's exactly what's happening here in Mississippi.
09:25The online sports betting bill
09:27that was introduced by Casey Ewer
09:30moved past his gaming commission committee
09:34to go to the full house floor.
09:36And so that's, I mean, that's a pretty big step.
09:38It is a step that it took last year.
09:39And in fact, it passed overwhelmingly
09:42through the house last year.
09:43So, and then went to the Senate,
09:45where of course, then it kind of ran into a big buzzsaw
09:48and fell apart when they stripped the language.
09:51And then in the conference committee
09:52where they had to iron out the differences,
09:54well, one had zero language
09:55and the other had all the language.
09:57The Senate just said, nah, we're not gonna vote on it.
10:01So what happens this year?
10:02Kind of depends on what kind of developments
10:05we've had in the Senate.
10:06I haven't been able to talk to anybody
10:07in the Senate side yet.
10:09We'll see.
10:09Maybe there's more push.
10:12I mean, last year an industry source
10:13after it all fell apart told me
10:15there's a lot of work to be done in the Mississippi Senate
10:17to get it over the edge.
10:18And to your point,
10:20it is a lot of the locally owned casinos,
10:23not the big major regional or national casino brands
10:26like Penn and MGM and whatnot.
10:28It's the local one or two places,
10:31one or two casino type corporations
10:35that are saying, well, we don't wanna fall behind
10:41these giant operators.
10:42And so there are some things they're trying to do.
10:44I mean, they've upped it from one skin to two skins
10:49and it's all tethered to those casinos.
10:51There's kind of a redistribution fund
10:53that might help out the casinos
10:56that aren't doing as much or choosing not to do anything
10:59because they don't wanna fall behind.
11:02So there's a few things that might kind of help
11:04move the needle for those local casinos,
11:06but also might not.
11:07And they might still just dig their feet in and say,
11:09hey, we're fine with it in our casinos
11:11and everybody else can have it in their casinos.
11:13But once you go statewide,
11:14we're gonna lose everything
11:15that we've kind of tried to build and we don't want it.
11:18So, and those local companies hold a lot of power
11:21with these legislators.
11:22So, again, we'll have to see what happens
11:25and what kind of development we've had
11:26in the last year in Mississippi Senate,
11:28but I would expect it to pass the house again
11:30because it was so overwhelming last year.
11:32So we'll see where it goes
11:34and I'll keep you up to date, obviously.
11:35Okay, same that can be said for Maryland,
11:38a similar situation where last year we went through
11:42a period of time in the legislation
11:43where online was potentially set to happen.
11:47What's the latest update here for 2025 on Maryland?
11:50Are they very similar in the same boat as Mississippi?
11:52Kind of almost the exact same boat as Mississippi,
11:55just given this is online casino
11:57versus online sports betting.
12:00Last year, it passed the house,
12:02fell on deaf ears in the Senate,
12:04despite Senator Ron Watson
12:06really trying to push it through in the Senate.
12:08This year, it's starting back up in the Senate.
12:10I mean, there's bills in both side,
12:12but Watson is now rolling out the same bill
12:14as Vanessa Atterberry on the house side,
12:17which again, did pass.
12:18And so they're just saying,
12:19hey, let's just both do the same piece of legislation.
12:22Let's get it through.
12:24There should be a hearing on Atterberry's bill in the house
12:26and I would expect it kind of, again,
12:27to move similarly through the house as it did last year,
12:30just like in Mississippi.
12:32But last week, there was a six-hour hearing in the Senate
12:35and it was all the same.
12:37It was replay the hits, basically.
12:38The Cordish companies came out in opposition.
12:42They don't want online casinos.
12:44They're worried about cannibalization.
12:45You had local labor unions coming up saying,
12:48we don't wanna lose the jobs that might lose
12:50because you're cannibalizing revenue.
12:55You know, Watson came out and said,
12:58hey, we're gonna try to put things in here
13:00that can make sure that the casinos don't fire people.
13:04You know, we're seeing the revenue go up
13:06and if these companies are losing jobs or eliminating jobs,
13:11it's out of pure greed.
13:13Even if it's, you know,
13:14despite you might lose some brick and mortar revenue,
13:17the overall revenue from these casino companies are going up.
13:20So why would you have to cut those jobs, basically,
13:22is what some of the proponents are saying.
13:23So we'll see what kind of bridges can be made
13:27to the local labor unions.
13:28I think some of the casino companies
13:30are gonna similarly dig their feet in.
13:33Penn Entertainment was in opposition last week,
13:35but it wasn't because of necessarily going online.
13:37They just thought the language could be written
13:40a little bit better for them.
13:42So there's, you know, certainly a lot of things
13:44that kind of need to be tweaked here in Maryland.
13:47Again, they've got a giant budget shortfall coming
13:50and we know there's a bill in the overall state budget
13:54to increase the sports betting tax rate.
13:59And that could be a pretty big boon,
14:02not necessarily big enough to really make a dent
14:05in that state deficit.
14:06But when you see that kind of happening,
14:08you know, you might see the politicians also say,
14:11hey, this is a good revenue gain
14:13along with all the let's bring it
14:15into the regulated market and in the fresh light.
14:18So we'll see again what happens.
14:20I would again expect it kind of to take a similar path
14:23and get through the house like it did last year.
14:26And the six hour hearing, you know,
14:28there was again a six hour hearing or thereabouts last year,
14:31same sort of arguments.
14:32So we'll see what kind of, you know,
14:35compromises we can get from the lawmakers here
14:38and if any can get done.
14:39So again, Maryland's gonna be just like Mississippi.
14:42It's following a very similar path.
14:45What can these states do to make it a different end result
14:49than last year?
14:50All right, and finally,
14:51I feel like I'm burying the lead here by saying,
14:53okay, another story here
14:54with online casino gaming possibility in Indiana,
14:59because as part of the story,
15:00which you can read about over at legalsportsreport.com,
15:03Pat, it looks like not only would online casino
15:06come to the state of Indiana,
15:08but doubling the sports betting tax rate too.
15:11So I don't wanna lose that site
15:14over the story that you have up here.
15:15Yeah, there's, this is an interesting situation
15:19because, you know, less than six months ago,
15:21there was a conviction for gambling related conspiracy
15:25in the Indiana State Legislature.
15:27And that's kind of where we're at.
15:30At the beginning of the last session,
15:31we heard the Senate leadership saying,
15:32we're not gonna act on any gambling issues
15:34because of this.
15:36We've lost the public trust on this.
15:38We can't, we gotta take a little moratorium.
15:40This year, online casino did indeed pass a house committee.
15:45And that's, I think, a huge step after a whole year
15:47where they just decided not to talk about it.
15:49We've also got leadership on both sides
15:52of the legislator in Indiana saying,
15:53hey, gambling is such a big industry here.
15:56We need to kind of make sure like we handle it still
16:00and not just kind of let it go dead,
16:02but we have to do it right.
16:03And we have to keep in mind
16:05that there was this kind of criminal activity around here
16:08that we need to stay cognizant about.
16:11But yeah, we'll see what happens.
16:13You've got two sides of it seeming,
16:16both sides of the legislature seemingly open
16:20to hearing this.
16:20The Senate is a little bit more cautious
16:22of just going for it for revenue
16:24and they wanna get everything right.
16:26Not that the House doesn't, but of course,
16:28that's what they're saying from the public side of it.
16:31So yeah, and yeah,
16:31it does have the little sports betting tie-in
16:33of, I guess, not little to your point
16:35of hiking up the tax rate.
16:37So little things here and there.
16:41I mean, everybody's considering online casino now this year
16:44and getting further than I almost kind of expected
16:46because of the headwinds we've seen
16:48at the US Senate level and the like.
16:50So a lot is happening this spring more so
16:53and quicker than I expected.
16:55So I don't know.
16:56We've got a lot to talk about in the next coming weeks,
16:58Craig.
16:59We do.
17:00Pat, thanks again for coming on the show.
17:01Really appreciate it.
17:01We'll catch up later this week.
17:03Yeah, thanks as always, Craig.