Lee leads sophomores past rookies; Reggie Bush sprains ankle

Basketball Betting Lines

02/17/2007 - Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York's David Lee garnered MVP honors with 30 points, making all 14 of his shots from the floor, as the sophomores beat the rookies, 155-114, in the All-Star rookie challenge Friday night.

Lee, who tops the league with 61.2 percent in shots made this season, also had 11 rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots and Monta Ellis added 28 points on 13-of-16 shooting for the sophomores, who set a scoring record for the contest.

"It was a tremendous experience just to be included in the All-Star Weekend," Lee said. "I really thank the NBA for making me a part of it. I went out tonight and we said we were going to share the ball and have fun. We had some of the Phoenix Suns assistants as coaches, so we were running and gunning. Chris Paul and Deron Williams made it very easy on me tonight."

Paul came up with 16 points, 17 assists and nine steals for the sophomores. Williams tallied 19 points, while Danny Granger and Raymond Felton each had 17 and Luther Head 15.

The sophomores shot 74.7 percent (68-of-91) to win going away.

"It was a lot of fun, especially after participating last year as a rookie," Paul said. "We got beat. As sophomores, we didn't want to let that happen again. We felt like we were veterans coming into this game tonight."

Rudy Gay and Paul Millsap shared top scoring honors for the rookies with 22 points apiece. Adam Morrison ended with 16 and Randy Foye 14 in a losing cause, as the rookies struggled to a 4-for-21 performance from beyond the arc.

Lee's follow jam extended the sophomores to an early 28-15 lead in the opening half and the rout was on. The sophomores led 77-48 at the intermission and cruised the rest of the way.

Toronto's Andrea Bargnani, last year's top draft pick, had 12 points.

The matchup was a prelude to the NBA All-Star game, scheduled to take place this Sunday at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Also, Friday New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush sprained his right ankle in the Celebrity game, won by the West squad, 40-21, over the East. Bush hurt his ankle while trying to block a shot, but came down awkwardly on the ankle and was assisted off the court.

After the game, Bush said the ankle injury wasn't serious.

Tony Potts, co-anchor of Access Hollywood. registered 14 points and eight rebounds and was named the game's MVP.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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