Colin Cowherd Podcast Prime Cuts - NBA Teams HAVE To Tank, NBA Players Are TOO Good Now, Crazy Sports Gambling Stories

Let me plant a flag to start. In a crowded, always-on media world, events and dynasties cut through, so in long, weekday leagues I’m fine with tanking because blockbuster trades are hard and the fastest path from bad to good can be the Spurs model: bottom out, draft a star, then build.

Dynasties juice interest, no argument. But sitting healthy players late like Utah did is anti-competition, and if it were your team, you’d feel burned because the games still have to matter to the people in the building.

Small-market fans often get the long game and would take a top-two pick over a few token wins. With only two draft rounds, stripping picks punishes the worst teams even more.

The league’s talent is outrageous and the playoffs deliver, but the style has warped because players are too good at threes, which turns nights into jump-shot marathons and ramps up fatigue, injuries, and load management.

I’m with you, and in the postseason it snaps back to stops and twos, which is why someone like Kawhi shines. Basketball used to be the sport of flair and mid-range craft, but the three shoved bigs and artists out to the arc; kill the corner three and you’d pull action inside, add contact, and cut the constant chasing that wears guys down.

The in-season tournament proved players will crank it up when a trophy is on the line, and I wish we’d used it to test rules like removing the corner three or using a trapezoid lane. Baseball hired Theo Epstein to restore action, and the NBA could expand to Seattle and Vegas to grow revenue, then drop to seventy games so stars play more and stay healthier.

This league has never been afraid to tinker, even when it whiffs, and a few smart tweaks that reintroduce contact around the paint would help. And yes, tanking built San Antonio’s decade-plus runs before and probably will again.

Tanking is rational, but it’s bad for the product. A clean fix is banning back-to-back top-four picks and tightening all those pick protections so teams are less rewarded for pulling the plug.

That’s more workable now because the draft is getting deeper with older college players, transfer-portal cohesion, and more international talent staying longer. Picks five through fourteen can be franchise pieces again.

Totally, and the league should also shrink protection windows on traded firsts so teams aren’t forced to nosedive. The real heart of it is a world where almost everyone shoots thirty-five percent from deep, which flattens the game; it’s not about blaming stars, it’s about evolving the rules to fit the athletes.

Let KD and Klay bomb away, but when non-shooters are jacking five threes a night, that’s rough TV.

Back then you had one specialist spacing the floor; now it’s everyone, so the rules need to catch up to the modern body and skill set.

Switching gears, I’ve got Art Manteris here—Vegas legend and author of The Bookie—and I spent so many Saturdays at his Hilton book back in the day. Paint the picture for us: when you first walked into Caesars to organize the sportsbook, what did you see?

Early books were the Wild West—few rules, thin procedures, and lots of chaos. We built compliance and house standards that brought order and, frankly, became templates across casinos.

You dealt with the biggest whales—Billy Walters, Lem Banker—who didn’t exactly play nice; how did you handle that tension?

I respected their skill but they were opponents, not partners. My priorities were the license, then fair guest service, then revenue, and when someone threatens the bottom line, that relationship gets frosty fast.

Explain the cat-and-mouse with runners placing bets for whales and how you tried to spot them.

Nevada bans messenger betting and New Jersey now bans proxy wagering, but enforcement is tricky; you look for tells like industry-wide line moves that sync with a bettor’s activity, then err on caution because hard proof is rare.

Ref tendencies used to be a secret edge; give us the Earl Strom story.

A very sharp friend rode totals off Strom’s patterns and literally tracked his flights to learn his assignments before the internet made any of that public.

Boxing gave you access and sometimes uncomfortable intel; what did you do when you learned something you probably shouldn’t have?

Before Mayweather–Pacquiao I was told Pacquiao’s shoulder was shot and he couldn’t win, and that hammered home the need to keep promotions and gambling separate; so the rush by leagues to ink sportsbook partnerships worries me, and I think pushback is coming.

Props and the Donaghy case show why Vegas can help police integrity; how did those look from the book?

Donaghy was tough to spot because the money never hit Vegas, unlike the Arizona State scandal we flagged fast; I’m strongly against prop bets on college athletes and think the industry should pull them back.

Last one: Tyson–Buster Douglas—what does an earth-shaker like that do to a book?

I didn’t book it because the price was absurd, later learned Tyson fought on heavy medication for an STD, and Jimmy Vaccaro’s number climbed to forty-two to one as Tyson money kept pouring in.