Forget all the issues of gambling & sin, forget "What happens here stays here," the reason that the NBA shouldn't be in Vegas is because that city is the anti-thesis of professional basketball. The excitement of the N.B.A. comes from (1) player personalities & idiosyncrasies (see: Arenas, Gilbert) & (2) player spontaneity & creativity. Vegas offers neither. Everything is lit-up, pre-fabricated choreography. Turns out that the NBA is living that up : having a poorly-programmed, broke-down cyborg mouth a mash-up of Vegas classics during introductions & having scantily-clad, but static & bored women appear. No doubt the players felt it : their body language expressed indifference & suppressed personality. &, lest you think players just don't care about introductions...see the 2006 All-Star dance-off or the 2005 All-Star introductions.
&, as Mark Stein points out, the absense of some of the guys who create the in-game spontaneity - Kidd, Nash, & A.I. - might hurt the game itself.
Call me old-fashioned, but I hope this is the last we hear about the league in Vegas.
peace love gap
Johnny Hatchett
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