Left mostly unexamined in the wake of the Gilbert Arenas/Javaris Crittenton situation in DC is what role, if any, wagering on card games plays in ruining team chemistry, or worse, putting someone at risk of being shot.  The New Jersey Nets took the matter seriously enough to ban gambling on the club’s charter flights, wrote the Newark Star-Ledger’s Dave D’Allesandro, though any Nets player betting against his own club via a sports bookie could easily dwarf his NBA salary.

Card playing is still allowed, however, so the team may have to one day address how to deal with players using chips instead of $50 and $100 bills.

œNo money exchange, coach Kiki Vandeweghe stated plainly. œI think it™s a good thing. Listen, at times, obviously, it could get out of hand. But you™re better off: You can play, you can have fun, just no gambling.

Brook Lopez (above) was the first to spot the hypocrisy, mindful that NBA locker rooms are œsponsored by billion-dollar casinos and that David Stern is now embracing legalized gambling as a œhuge opportunity, according to a recent Sports Illustrated report.

œIt™s kind of a double message,
Lopez said. œYou see all this Harrah™s stuff around here and you go in the locker room and they have four different basketball points having to do with gambling and 21. I guess it™s still frowned upon.