Cavaliers’ J.B. Bickerstaff Says Betting Adds ‘Distraction,’ ‘Pressure’ for NBA Players

Amid the steady rise of betting in the NBA, Cleveland Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff issued a warning about the dark side of sports gambling on Wednesday.

Bickerstaff, who is in his fourth season with the Cavaliers, noted that sports betting brings “added pressure” to the game and makes his job—and that of everyone on the court—more difficult.

“It brings added pressure,” Bickerstaff said in a Wednesday press conference before the Cavaliers—Heat game. “It brings a distraction to the game… A lot of times the people who are gambling, like, this money pays their light bill or pays their rent, and then the emotions that come from that. So I do think we’re walking a very fine line and we have to be extremely careful in protecting everybody who’s involved.”

Cleveland opened a Caesars Sportsbook in Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in January 2023, making the Cavaliers one of three NBA teams to have a sportsbook within their home arena.

The Cavs coach revealed that his family was personally impacted by sports gambling last season, when he received threats from gamblers that were so malicious he reported them to the league. The aggressor was caught, but Bickerstaff declined to press charges.

Bickerstaff said, “They got my telephone number and were sending me crazy messages about where I live and my kids and all that stuff. So it is a dangerous game and a fine line that we’re walking for sure.”

Bickerstaff’s comments come on the heels of the league’s recently announced plan to infuse betting into live games on NBA League Pass, allowing users to track live betting odds and make wagers through the league’s betting partners.

From one NBA coach’s perspective, though, sports gambling has already “crossed the line.”

“The amount of times where I’m standing up there and we may have a 10-point lead and the spread is 11 and people are yelling at me to leave the guys in so that we can cover the spread, it’s ridiculous,” continued Bickerstaff. “I understand the business side of it and the nature of the business. But it is something that I believe has gone too far.”