When Will the N.B.A. Confront the Gambling Problems of Its Own Athletes?
Multiple NBA sources say Allen Iverson is facing alcohol and gambling issues that have derailed his career and threaten his post-basketball well-being, Ten years ago, as a compulsive-gamblers counselor, I was asked to fly to N.Y.C to the National Basketball Association office in Manhattan and met with league officials, players and union officials, concerned about players’ gambling. I was told, “We have a problem, and we’re trying to find out how bad the problem is” Officials asked me to keep my calendar open for the spring of the following year and said to me that they wanted me to address every team and player in the league. They then flew my wife in and we had a second meeting they asked us develop questions that were going to be given to the players to answer “We need to know how big the gambling problem is in the N.B.A,” When I hadn’t heard from the N.B.A, I called and asked, “When do we start?” The talked were cancelled, and the response I got was this: “They said that the higher-
