Bulls' Hinrich out up to three months

Basketball Betting Lines

11/08/2008 - Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chicago Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich could be out as many as three months due to surgery on his right thumb.

Hinrich was examined Saturday by Dr. John Fernandez and Bulls team physician, Dr. Brian Cole. The results concurred an earlier MRI, which showed a torn ulnar collateral ligament in the thumb. Hinrich will have surgery on Tuesday.

The 27-year-old Hinrich suffered the injury in the third quarter of Friday's 100-83 win over Phoenix. So far this season, Hinrich has appeared in six games and has averaged 8.3 points, 4.0 assists and 1.8 rebounds.

In his sixth NBA season, all with the Bulls, Hinrich has appeared in 395 regular season games, missing just 21. A first-round draft pick in 2003, he is averaging 14.3 points, 6.3 assists and 3.5 rebounds a game.

Wwweircom Basketball Betting News

<< Bettencourt and Molder share Nationwide Tour Championship lead
McKinney, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt Bettencourt fired an eight-under 63 on Saturday to vault into a tie for the lead with Bryce Molder, who had a 64 of his own, after three rounds of the Nationwide Tour Championship. The pair finishe

<< Real's Higuain, Barca's Eto'o each bag four goals
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gonzalo Higuain scored four goals to lead Real Madrid to a thrilling 4-3 win over Malaga, and Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o matched him with four goals in the first half of Barcelona's 6-0 win over Valladolid on Satu

<< Eskimos hold on to beat Winnipeg, move to East final
Winnipeg, MB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A.J. Harris scored a pair of touchdowns and Fred Perry added a 31-yard interception for a touchdown as Edmonton rallied past Winnipeg, 29-21, in the East Division semifinal at Canad Inns Stadium. Ricky

<< Hall, No. 17 BYU rout San Diego State
Provo, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Max Hall threw for 317 yards and three touchdowns, leading the 17th-ranked BYU Cougars to a 41-12 thrashing of the San Diego State Aztecs at Cougar Stadium. Hall completed 25-of-30 passes, and Aust

<< Lyon edges Monaco to maintain four-point lead
Monaco, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fred scored in the 55th minute to help Lyon edge Monaco 1-0 at Stade Louis II on Saturday in France's Ligue 1 and maintain a four-point lead on Marseille, which beat Grenoble 3-0. Lyon had struggled rece

Iowa's last-second FG knocks off Penn State >>
Iowa City, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Daniel Murray hit a 31-yard field goal with one second left, and the Iowa Hawkeyes toppled third-ranked Penn State, 24-23, to end the Nittany Lions' dream season and national title hopes. The victory mark

Edwards wins Phoenix, Bowyer overcomes wreck to finish fourth >>
Avondale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carl Edwards inched closer towards Clint Bowyer for the Nationwide Series championship with a victory in Saturday's Hefty Odor Block 200 at Phoenix International Raceway. The No.60 Roush Fenway Racing

Sloan headed back up to Washington >>
Arlington, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Capitals recalled defenseman Tyler Sloan from their American Hockey League affiliate, the Hershey Bears, it was announced on Saturday. This is Sloan's second recall this season after playi

Peckham sent down after another brief stint in NHL >>
Springfield, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Edmonton Oilers General Manager Steve Tambellini announced on Saturday the club has assigned defenseman Theo Peckham to the Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League. Peckham, who was just r

Rampage recall Gistedt from CHL >>
San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - San Antonio Rampage General Manager Brad Treliving announced Saturday that the American Hockey league club has recalled goaltender Joel Gistedt from the Arizona Sundogs of the Central Hockey League. The

SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts MasterCard needs.