The NBA Is Gambling Away Its Soul

It was supposed to be a morning of reckoning for the NBA of a different sort. The sun would rise and reilluminate the aura still emanating from Victor Wembanyama after his 40-point master class of a season debut on Wednesday night. Basketball’s latest, potentially greatest anomaly had instilled a sense of wonder in an NBA landscape besieged by cynicism. Instead, Thursday morning brought a bombshell from the FBI and Department of Justice that will irrevocably alter the dynamics of trust at every level of the NBA from the top down—in what certainly looks like a watershed moment for the league, directly attributable to its pioneering efforts to embed itself in the legalized sports gambling industry.