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00:00So let's get started and start off with arguably the biggest post-college football story of the
00:06season, which is a college football quarterback that could be headed back to the NCAA. A bit of
00:13a surprise. Trinidad Chambliss looks like he's going to play at Mississippi for yet another
00:19season. He was granted an extra year of eligibility by a state court judge who issued an injunction
00:25that paves the way for Chambliss to be eligible in 2026. Now the NCAA has not yet weighed in on
00:33this
00:33and they certainly could petition this to force Chambliss to attempt to go into the upcoming NFL
00:39draft. But as of now, it does at least look like from Chambliss's perspective, he'd like to return
00:44to Oxford and get paid some more NIL money and chase a national championship yet again. Meanwhile,
00:51National Football League saw Stefan Diggs at wide receiver in the Super Bowl. Now you see him in
00:55court. He pled not guilty today to felony strangulation and other criminal charges stemming
01:01from an alleged dispute with his personal chef. Also, the National Football League announced that
01:07they will have a Wednesday game to open up the 2026 season with 49ers Rams in Australia that could
01:14be played Wednesday or Thursday, just simply depending on the time zone. Whichever game that does not take
01:19place, the Seattle Seahawks home opener will be on. Get ready for an action-packed NFL season. But folks,
01:25we're still months away from that. The National Basketball Association appropriately has fined the
01:31Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers for what they're saying is integrity. We call it tanking around here.
01:38The NBA said that the Jazz got to pay up $500,000 and Indiana Pacers $100,000. Saying that both
01:47teams
01:47sat healthy players in recent games and saying that kind of integrity won't be tolerated. Meanwhile,
01:52the Jazz did it again the other night. So I don't know if they're going to be getting another fine
01:55too.
01:56So the competition committee, the board of governors, all involved in this. Never seen anything like this
02:01happen in the NBA before where players are being sat at the fourth quarter of games. But it certainly has
02:06happened and now you got to pay fines on that. We'll see what happens in the future.
02:10Big shocker in the NBA last night. Second time this week, a double-digit favorite ended up losing
02:15outright. And this time, it was the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Bucs win the game, won 10-93 without
02:21Giannis. A.J. Green from Milwaukee had 17 points on five of three from three-point range. Also, Jalen
02:28Williams didn't play in the game. In addition to Shea Gilgis-Alexander, Oklahoma City 42 wins at the
02:34All-Star break. Mark Dagno saying that basically just didn't have enough in the tank to win that
02:39one. Mark, what made getting into the paint and the deep paint a challenge tonight? And where did
02:46you feel like maybe you guys had some opportunities that you weren't able to capitalize on? Yeah,
02:50we weren't able to really get any offensive rhythm tonight for whatever reason. I thought there were a
02:55lot of possessions. We were not very organized, which set you back at the beginning of possession.
03:00Milwaukee did a great job. Obviously, they outplayed us the whole night.
03:04But obviously, it just wasn't our best night. But I thought our process let us down on a lot of
03:09plays. I mean, to take advantage of break, you know, you don't get a break like this. The last
03:13time we had this kind of sustained break was before the season. And the next time you get this
03:19type of sustained break is after the season. So you got to just fill your tank however you need to
03:25do
03:25that. The guys have been around, most of them, so they understand what they need to do individually
03:31to get themselves mentally, physically, emotionally recharged for the stretch run. You know, so we
03:37trust them to handle their business in a way that best positions us as we come out of the break.
03:43But
03:43that's all. The oldest player in the history of the NBA to record a triple double is now officially
03:50LeBron James, 41 years old, 44 days in the Lakers win over the Mavericks. LeBron had 28 points,
03:5812 assists and 10 rebounds. Final score, Lakers 124, Mavericks 104. LeBron after the game more
04:05concerned with his team winning naturally than hosting that trip. LeBron, a great team win. You set the tone
04:11early and you finish with your 123rd career triple double. When you hear that number, what do you
04:17feel? The win. That's the most important. And, you know, to be able to do it and get the win
04:23is
04:24that's what means more to me than anything. But been very blessed to play this game, play it at a
04:29high
04:29level and was able to do it again tonight. I think that was my only mindset was how can we
04:34go into the
04:34break on a high note. And obviously, you know, that team is, you know, you don't know what, no matter
04:39who's
04:39on the floor for them, they're well coached and they're going to play hard. And they did that for the
04:43majority of the game tonight. But just try to set the tone and, you know, in the first half of
04:48the season
04:48on a high note. Yeah, Najee was playing at a high level. Gaff was, you know, he was helping us
04:54on both
04:54ends. And so for those two to go out, you know, next man up, unfortunately, those two couldn't come
04:59back. Jason, you're on the short list of people who play in this league at 40. What's it like for
05:04you to see
05:05LeBron, you know, putting up a triple double at 41? Yeah, it's pretty impressive. I think
05:13that might be wrong, but he is leading the league in fast break points, I think. And so, you know,
05:19understanding he's playing the game at a high level at the age of 41 to put up a triple double
05:25is really amazing. And it just shows, you know, for someone who's taking care of his body and mind
05:33up to this point is playing the game the right way and at a high level.
05:37Meanwhile, the Utah Jazz paying up $500,000 and then losing last night to the Portland
05:43Trailblazers. Final score in that one, 135 to 119. Drew Holiday, the story in this one, 31 points,
05:50nine rebounds and seven assists. He spoke after the game about posting up and getting a win when
05:56they need it before the break. I think just being consistent, being persistent, keep on fighting.
06:01We know that it's a game of runs and we'd had a big run early and then they came back
06:06with a big
06:06run and got it within three. So we felt like the momentum would change and locked in his feet.
06:12He came in and then had a big fourth, which I think nobody really expected, but
06:17just came in locked in and then took care of it down at the end of the stretch.
06:20And you personally had a big night offensively. What were you seeing from their defense that you
06:23were able to take advantage of? Making shots. I think I was trying to make shots, make plays,
06:28get into the paint, trying not to turn the ball over, which is the biggest thing. I think
06:32if we take care of the ball better, we definitely put ourselves in the best position to win.
06:37A hard fought game. The game got away from us in the third quarter,
06:41mostly because of fouling. They shot 16 free throws in the quarter. When that happens,
06:47it's also hard to get into a rhythm offensively because you're playing against a set defense for
06:51most of the time. So I thought besides that, that piece of the game, I would have liked to see
06:57us
06:57be a little bit more physical with our switches. But I thought overall, the guys played as a group.
07:04We moved the ball. You know, it was just one of those nights where when it slipped away from us
07:10a
07:10little bit in the third quarter, we couldn't quite regain control. We made a nice run in the fourth
07:14and just couldn't quite get over the hump. All right, let's get to some college hoops from last
07:20night. Should be a very popular weekend in college basketball with no NBA, no Major League Baseball
07:26yet, and no NFL, of course, for the first time in September. North Texas defeats Memphis. It's been
07:31a disappointing season for the Tigers. Memphis was one and a half point favorites. North Texas wins the
07:35game 76 to 69. Sean Stevenson had 16 points. He made five of five three-pointers. And as I said,
07:44Memphis' season's supremely disappointing, 12 and 12 under Penny Hardaway again this season.
07:51All right, number 10, Michigan State, one and a half point favorites tonight. That's the big showdown
07:54in the Big Ten. They will take on Wisconsin this evening in the team that is left undefeated in
08:00college basketball, like we all expected, not really. Miami, Ohio, ranked 23rd in the country.
08:05They are nine point favorites tonight against Ohio. Also, one smaller trade in Major League
08:10Baseball, Jesus Sanchez, outfielder of the Houston Astros, was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for
08:16Joey LaPerfito. You may not have heard of either of those players, but that's what we're here to do
08:20is inform you. LaPerfito used to play previously for Houston. So now he is back there again.
08:27Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid. Great to end our week with Sam McQuillen from
08:31Legal Sports Report. I would highly encourage all of you interested in learning more about what
08:35prediction markets are and how they operate and what the future may hold by going to
08:40LegalSportsReport.com, where Sam, one of the primary writers there and columnists,
08:44and dives in each and every week with content here on our show, but also online as well.
08:48All right, Sam, I feel like I have to do that once every few weeks to catch people up with
08:52here. Appreciate it, Craig.
08:54I mean, you never know. I always say doing television, and I say this on radio, you never
08:59know when somebody is watching or listening or there's people out there right now that are wondering
09:04the same thing. So here we go. All right, so top story of the day with us, Fair Markets and
09:08Sports
09:09Integrity Act has been introduced. And so I know what they would like to do, but I'll let you tell
09:16us, and if you think that what they're asking to do is reasonable within what their parameters are.
09:24Yeah, it's this new federal bill from Congressman Dina Titus, who is a Democrat in Nevada. Nevada
09:31prediction markets, the issue has been especially important to them. They were the first state to
09:37launch one of these lawsuits against prediction markets, which pretty much, as every state has
09:42alleged, is that they are using a loophole to offer sports betting under the guise of financial
09:49derivatives regulated by the CFTC. So basically, they don't have to pay sports betting taxes, comply
09:54with state sports betting laws. They're in 50 states, as opposed to the 39 that have legalized sports.
09:59Could go on and on about what the argument with prediction markets is. This is a new federal bill.
10:05So a bill Congress would be weighing theoretically, that would clarify that these markets cannot offer
10:11any markets on an athletic event, or another interesting wrinkle casino style games, which
10:16so far, I haven't seen Kalshi or Polymarket or any of these others move into basically online gaming,
10:23but would be under the guise of kind of federal derivatives law. Now that we always talk about that
10:28with the end game for sports betting, right, that sports books want people to become sports bettors,
10:33and then eventually get states to pass online casino. So that could be the end game with prediction
10:37markets as well. I think we don't really know what the end game is entirely. But the big kind of
10:43aspect of this being an important newsworthy item is that it's a bill in Congress, which has so far not
10:49done anything with prediction markets, they have had hearings, where they interviewed the new chair for
10:54the CFTC Michael Selig, who recently said that he's going to issue rules that clarify that prediction
11:00markets can exist, they can offer sports and kind of signal they would fight against some of the states
11:05and almost the 10 court battles we have now. So be interesting to see if this picks up any steam
11:11in
11:11Congress. Obviously, Titus has been very opposed to them because she's from Nevada, she takes a lot of
11:15money from the sports books and casinos in Nevada, who have been very against prediction markets. I think
11:20it's worth noting that the bet MGMs of the world, the Caesars of the world, the kind of the sports
11:26betting apps that have legacy casinos, they've not gotten into prediction markets yet, while DraftKings
11:31and FanDuel and those have. So there's a bit of a split there where Vegas and the casinos want their
11:36interests represented as well. I know Senator Richard Blumenthal has said he's working on similar
11:41legislation, it would amend the Commodities Exchange Act, which is kind of the whole, the crux of
11:47the debate of did that act intend for these two exist? Did it not? So we'll see if it picks
11:52up any
11:53steam in Congress. Would be surprised if this ultimately becomes a law, but you never know what
11:58can happen. It's kind of the first iteration of it. And it signals that, you know, maybe the federal
12:03government is finally trying to weigh in on this issue, which has so far largely been left up to
12:07the states. There's about 10 state lawsuits playing out. And we've speculated that eventually
12:12the Supreme Court is going to have to decide. But if Congress does in fact pass a law that clarifies
12:16before that, that could change things up a bit. Let's check in on the state of Michigan. And
12:22Michigan is a state that has a lot of sports betting going on, of course, very popular with
12:27Detroit and some of the other major cities that have professional sports teams, college sports teams
12:32as well. Looks like another team in their area, or excuse me, another state in their area, Illinois,
12:38who imposed a bigger sports tax. Seems like they could be following suit, Sam. Do they have a chance
12:44of just basically mimicking exactly what Illinois did last year?
12:49Yeah, there's definitely a chance, especially when the proposal comes from the governor of the state,
12:54Governor Gritchin Whitmer, proposing to do pretty much exactly what Illinois did this past year,
13:00which was, hey, we have a sports betting tax rate, but let's generate more money from this industry
13:05by keeping that rate the same and then adding a 25 cent per bet fee onto every bet.
13:11So basically a 25 cent tax that every operator has to pay on their first 20 million bets.
13:16And then after that, let's up the fee to 50 cents per bet. So lawmakers or operators in Illinois
13:23have been really upset about that. They've been having to pay a lot more money to the state. And
13:27the way they've handled that was passing the cost down to the customers. There's now a per bet fee
13:32surcharge in Illinois, which we've seen implemented. And reports kind of signal that betting may be a
13:37little bit down in Illinois since that was implemented, not at a huge rate where, you know,
13:42the industry, everything is moving off offshore, like everyone was threatening. But there are some
13:46signs there that betting behavior has changed a little bit with that being passed down to the
13:50customer. The Michigan proposal, you know, one of the reasons that the Illinois tax was such a big
13:55deal wasn't because it was an isolated incident in Illinois. It's because you can have other states
14:01neighboring, like you mentioned, Craig, now look to Illinois and say, hey, they were able to do it.
14:05Why don't we do the same thing? Why are we letting sportsbooks not pay the same that they do here?
14:09Michigan has historically had a pretty easy tax rate for sportsbooks, about 8%. So this would make
14:14it not so easy. They would also change the online gaming tax from about 24% to 36%. And it
14:22comes as the
14:22state is facing a budget shortfall from a gap in federal funding. You had pandemic relief, you had
14:28Medicaid relief from the federal government, which is now kind of falling off. And I wouldn't be
14:33surprised as more governors look to their budgets when they, you know, start the negotiation process
14:38this year. They say, hey, we have a big gap in federal funding. What's an easy way we can raise
14:43taxes without, you know, nobody likes to raise taxes, but how can we do it without pissing off
14:47most of our constituents? Online gaming companies, sportsbooks are always an easy target, especially
14:53when you have other states like Illinois, they were able to do it successfully. So they can, you know,
14:58the governor's probably thinking, why don't we just do that here? See if we can raise the money.
15:01Now it'll definitely face pushback from the sportsbooks themselves, but, you know, you have
15:06to wonder how much sway they're having legislatures these days when, you know, these things are
15:10passing so easily. Of course, prediction markets won't be paying this rate, but, you know, that's
15:14another story entirely. So we'll follow along what happens in Michigan, but wouldn't be surprised
15:18if this was the last state considering a sports betting tax increase this year.
15:22Sam, we hit on Alaska. Now let's hit on Hawaii, two states that do not have legalized sports
15:27betting, but arguably the smallest in the country. And, you know, obviously in different
15:31places in the country as well, but very passionate fans of sports, maybe more so in Hawaii, honestly,
15:39than in Alaska because of all the West Coast sports that are going on out there, major college
15:42out there as well. Is there a chance that the island gets sports betting legalized this year?
15:50Yeah, I think Hawaii, I would add, is interesting in this conversation as well, because I think,
15:54like the Hawaii teams always play late on the college sports slate. So a lot of times, you know,
15:59people who are up betting on, you know, certain sports are betting on Hawaiian teams and, you know,
16:04the state isn't really seeing any of that money, but this year, will it be legalized? I would say
16:08probably not. There is a bill being considered. It was actually just passed out of committee,
16:13but with a very interesting amendment. The amendment clarified the effective date of sports betting
16:18in Hawaii would be the year 3000, which popular Jonas Brothers song, but also used as
16:24kind of a measure in this case to delay things out and push things out for an indefinite amount
16:30of time. It's probably the maximum they could do in the bill. And the reason lawmakers say they're
16:34doing that is because they want to continue the conversation of sports betting. They want it to
16:38be something that's talked about in the legislature. They want to get to a place where they're figuring
16:42out how to regulate it, but they're also very wary of sending dollars out of state. They have been
16:47for a long time introducing a Fandul DraftKings into the state. They're wary that, you know,
16:52getting more people to bet in the state could create problems here. And then the companies
16:55that benefit from that are out of state. Additionally, Hawaii has no gaming at all,
17:01really. They're right in line with Utah. So this would be a big change. They wouldn't be going from,
17:05you know, a state that regulates gaming to a state with sports betting. They'd have to create
17:09a whole commission to do this kind of thing. They don't have much experience with it. So
17:12this year, will it get legalized? Probably not. When you talk about the amendment that pushes it out
17:16to 3000, but it does mean the conversation will continue. The governor is on board if responsible
17:21gaming protections get added in there. So I wouldn't say completely no, but it's not looking
17:26great. Maybe someday for Hawaii. Great to catch up, Sam, as always. I'll be out Monday. I know that
17:33Adam Kaufman will be in for me. I hope you guys have a great conversation. I'll see you back here
17:37next Wednesday. Thanks for coming on. Sounds good. Enjoy the time off, Craig. Thanks.
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