Mike Vorkunov
Appearances
Apple News Today
Their travel generates billions for the U.S. They’re rethinking their plans.
So what he did in his January 27, 2024 game is that he claimed he had an eye injury, which allowed him to leave the game early and not come back. And so that the people who are betting on him, if they bet, hey, he'd have fewer than this many points, fewer than this many rebounds, fewer than this many assists, they all won their winnings, right?
Apple News Today
Their travel generates billions for the U.S. They’re rethinking their plans.
And then when he played in the March 20, 2024 game, he told them he would leave the game with an illness.
Apple News Today
Their travel generates billions for the U.S. They’re rethinking their plans.
Getting an NBA player to admit that he was manipulating his own performance to help other people bet on his prop bets a decade ago would have been a tremendous scandal for the NBA, right? Like that eats at the very integrity of sports.
Apple News Today
Their travel generates billions for the U.S. They’re rethinking their plans.
One of the things that everyone is trying to really reckon with is whether this happened because sports gambling is so much more ubiquitous or if this was caught because sports gambling is now legalized. So I'm curious to see where this all ends up. I'm curious to see how high it might go. And I truly don't have a prognostication on that.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. All right, Andrew.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Give me Denver, Boston. Really? Wow.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
You know, I'm just going with my gut, I guess. I have no idea. I have nothing to back any of this up with.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Part of it is I just wanted to put you in a weird spot. It's really my only mission within all of this.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Yeah. I have nothing insightful to say except for I cannot wait to watch these basketball games.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
To live a normal life. And then you get to experience game seven. Hey, go read Mike Borgen off at the athletic. Thanks so much for coming on, man. Thank you guys. Thanks for having me.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
All right, Al, it's time to bring on somebody that every time I talk to her, I feel like I learned something and I'll simultaneously feel like I don't know that much about basketball and it excites me to bring Caitlin Cooper back on the pod. Basketball, she wrote, is her blog and she is just a gift to the NBA community. Caitlin, welcome back to the show.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
I mean, whatever. It's true. It's true. We love hearing your insights about the Pacers. So let's start by going back to mid-December when everything started clicking for this Pacers team. From December 13th, Indiana won 70% of its games and had a top eight offense and defense per clean the glass. What were some of the major factors that led to the second half success that we saw for the Pacers?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
The Pacers offense was incredibly efficient in the Cavs series, posting the best offensive rating for any team in the second round. While it's understandable how the Cavs injuries affected their offense, why weren't they more successful defensively against Indiana and what didn't work about their approach?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
We're recording on Friday morning prior to game six of Celtics-Knicks. If it ends up being the Knicks, it would be a rematch of last year's second round series, which went seven games. The Knicks have made significant roster changes since that series. I'm interested in your thoughts on the Knicks defense, which has been pretty improved since the start of the playoffs.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
How real do you think that improvement is and how might the Pacers try to break that down?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
I had a little bit of doubt about them, but like everybody else that we ran through, like makes sense.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
It's probably such a cool environment, too, because it... because you don't have your phones, like that's probably the first thing that people go to after like an event like that. And you not having that forces you to like actually interact with people. I'm sure it just creates like one of the more like unique environments that you can be in right now in sports.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
It feels like it would be one of the last two guys that we mentioned, Dale Davis or Rick Smith.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Raptors, he played for Dallas for a hot minute.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Danny Granger? Yeah. Danny Granger did it. Sure. Okay. Okay.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
I was going to guess Miles Turner, but man.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Wow. Everybody go. Everybody go subscribe to basketball. She wrote anything else that you'd like to share. Caitlin, before we go.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
more so vodcasts on youtube after these games yeah well thank you so much for listening to today's episode of the saturday slam jam be sure to leave us a five-star review on apple podcast we will read it on the show hope you guys enjoy your weekend and the basketball and we'll talk to you guys again next week
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Man. I need to go at some point because it's just like it's so fascinating to me. You know, I think it's just it is one of the cooler days. It's it's just hard whenever the conspiracies just make more sense in your brain than like the actual results, especially when it's tied to like it's not tied to, but it feels like it's tied to the Luca trade.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Just like it just gets more muddy and more messy, you know, for the league itself. But yeah. I don't know. It's been such a wild week. I just can't believe it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Looking forward to that. So Mike, this week you got to witness one of the most dramatic and bizarre draft lotteries in NBA history. You're one of the media members invited to the lottery drawing room where the actual draft order is determined in front of team officials and other media members. What were some of the highlights from that overall experience for you?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Yeah, I think even in the future, this may all get lost and you're like, wait, how did they get this team? It's like, well, they traded Luka and then they ended up getting this team. Yeah, it's crazy. So let's keep talking about the Mavericks a little bit. The Mavs won. The Mavs win also had a lot of NBA people talking about whether they need to be any changes made.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
about flattening the lottery odds to make this kind of scenario even less likely. In your conversations around the league, what is your impression of how teams feel about flattened lottery odds and whether there would be a push to revisit the draft lottery reform?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Welcome to the Saturday Slammin' Jam here on the Athletic NBA Daily. On today's show, we're talking to Mike Vorkanoff about the NBA lottery, and then Kaitlin Cooper stops by to talk about the Indiana Pacers, and then we'll do some Pacers trivia. I'm your host, Andrew Schleich. With me, I have Alex Spears and our buddy, Mike Vorkanoff from The Athletic. Mike, what's up?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's been fascinating. It's been totally unpredictable. I feel like as the playoffs go on, I feel like I just know less and less about what's going to happen or what these teams are going to do. It's kind of great to cover. It makes it kind of a lot more fun. Last question, Mike. You cover the business of basketball for us here at The Athletic.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Pacers Rising + Lottery Madness | Slam N Jam
Looking ahead to this summer, what are some stories that you expect to be following? Expansion? Maybe the Blazers sale? What are some other things?